To The San Francisco Labor Council

First of all, we wish to thank the SF Labor Council for their decision to call on the California Attorney General to Drop the Charges against the San Francisco 8 defendants.  Your courageous stand is consistent with your long history of standing up to repression, even when it is controversial.

In his attack on the Labor Council, Gary Delagnes, SF Police Officers Assn President, cites supposed “facts” in his article. These are not facts but merely the recitation of allegations in the complaint – charges made by the CA Attorney General. The whole purpose of the legal procedure is to determine whether the charges are valid. 

What are the real facts in this case?

FACT: TORTURE

This very same case against the SF 8 was dropped by the SF District Attorney in the 1970s when a judge threw out statements made under torture by former Black Panthers in New Orleans in 1973.  

Two SFPD officers, Ed Erdelatz and Frank McCoy, participated in that torture. No one was ever held accountable for the torture. Instead both officers were brought out of retirement to help reopen the case. 

Despite claims of “new evidence” by the prosecution, there is none.

• No murder weapon – The prosecution claims they used to have a murder weapon, but that it is  now “missing.”
• DNA doesn’t match – The prosecution admitted in 2008 that DNA taken from the defendants in June of 2006 did not match DNA from the crime scene.
• Fingerprints don’t match – The same fingerprints now alleged to match a defendant were “not matched” to any defendant  in the 1970s and as recently as 2003

The main evidence relied on by the prosecution, to this very day, is the discredited testimony of Ruben Scott, who was tortured in 1973 in New Orleans and has recanted his testimony on numerous occasions. 

FACT: COINTELPRO

The Black Panther Party and its members and associates were the main target of the COINTELPRO program in the late 1960s and early 1970s -- led by the FBI in concert with local police and other agencies, including the SF Police, police authorities tried to destroy the organization and targeted its members for assassination, false imprisonment, and other forms of police harassment. Most Party offices and members’ phones were subjected to electronic surveillance. Over 40,000 pages of summaries in this case relate to electronic surveillance in the Bay Area alone. In other litigation, the FBI disclosed thousands of pages of memoranda generated by the SF Field Office reflecting information from electronic surveillance of the BPP in the Bay Area. That information was used to “neutralize” the Black Panther Party by creating divisions within the Party and disrupting its serve-the-people programs, such as breakfast-for-children, health clinics, schools and child care centers. In 1972 the Supreme Court determined that the FBI was conducting unlawful surveillance -- on orders from then President Nixon and the US Attorney General without any court authorization. In that same period, COINTELPRO was exposed, investigated by the US Congress and determined to be illegal – a pattern of outrageous government misconduct.  

FACT: AN UNJUST AND COSTLY PROSECUTION 37 YEARS LATER

Numerous Federal and State Grand Jury investigations since 2003 failed to indict anyone in the 1971 murder of SFPD officer John Young. Now California State Attorney General Jerry Brown has green-lighted the filing of charges with no new evidence, the very same charges that were dropped in the 1970s. The cost to the city of SF and the state of California is enormous, having reached millions of dollars so far. Public money is paying for the legal prosecution and the legal defense, the cost of a judge and police overtime to deal with courtroom security – all in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis that is threatening basic public services. 

The defendants are well-respected and productive members of their communities, with long job histories and involvement with labor unions. For example:

· Harold Taylor worked for 15 years in Panama City, Florida as a member of IBEW Local 1055.

· Ray Boudreaux, now retired, was a member of IBEW Local 11 in the Los Angeles area for 21 years.

· Richard O’Neal has been working a union job as a sanitation engineer in San Francisco for more than 15 years, and in February 2008 received a Letter of Commendation for his work by the Southeast Community Facility.

· Francisco Torres was a member of CWA Local 1180 for 10 years, and his wife Carol Torres is currently Treasurer of Communication Workers of America Local 1181 in New York City.

· Hank Jones, a machinist, has been a member of the IAM in the SF Bay Area from 1978 to 1999.

· Richard Brown has been an active union supporter in San Francisco since 1969, as attested by several SFLC delegates at the February 9, 2009 delegates meeting, and was well-known as a community worker at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in the Fillmore district for 20 years.

Six of the 8 were released on bail despite the serious nature of the charges, recognition by the Court that they are not a threat to public safety and of their willingness to appear in court, challenge the allegations against them, and assert their innocence.

Again, thank you for your strong stand for justice!!!

Free the SF 8 Committee