From YGB: Join us at 4:00 on Friday to make sure the MPD keeps their hands off Brandi Grayson!!
From the Facebook event, show up at the Villager Mall at 4:30 on Friday to show your support!
Last night, Brandi Grayson, a member of the Young Gifted and Black Coalition was pulled over by a Madison police officer who issued her a warning for a broken headlight.
The stop occurred directly after officers came to her house when she wasn’t home and preceded to talk to her children. This traffic stop was the latest in a string of incidents involving the Madison Police Department citing Brandi without her knowledge, repeatedly calling her phone, and sitting outside of her home–which is on a cul-de-sac with only one other home, no traffic, and in the Town (not City) of Madison.
After the death of Sandra Bland in Texas following what should have been a minor traffic stop, every encounter between police and a Black activist must be taken very seriously. YGB and their allies will rally outside of the Villager Mall (2300 S. Park St) on Friday, September 4th at 4 pm to demand that MPD keep its hands off Brandi!
“The police have been all around me the last several weeks no matter what I’m doing,” commented Grayson. “Tonight the only difference was they pulled me over. I refuse to be intimidated by their harassment, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about Sandra Bland when I saw the lights in my rearview mirror.”
Tonight’s incident involved direct contact between Grayson and MPD, and the department has slowly escalated from symbolic to material intimidation in recent weeks. Several weeks ago, after many ominous phone calls from MPD officers, Brandi learned that she was receiving an $86 ticket, worth 4 points off of her driver’s license, for a traffic violation during the July 6th funeral procession for Tony Robinson.
A few days later, Brandi learned that she has 4 other citations that neither the MPD, city nor county had previously notified her about. They did schedule a court date for her. She was also not notified about this court date until she went into the City County Building on August 6th for other matters. These citations were apparently issued during the July 21st “Free the 350” action, including one pertaining to improper registration, one about failure to obey a traffic officer, and another for a moving violation. As YGB understands it, each ticket also comes with more points off of her license.
“This is an example of what scholars call ‘legalistic repression,’” explained YGB’s M. Adams. “When a movement gets too much community or political support, law enforcement officials will use whatever legal means at their disposal in order to squelch a movement. We recognize what MPD is doing to Brandi is a textbook case of this phenomenon.”
It is clear that MPD wants Brandi’s license in order to make her life, her family’s life and the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement more difficult. “The harassment of Brandi is part of a system of state violence,” insisted Alix Shabazz. “It’s the same system that won’t respond to a domestic violence call from Cierra Finkley, that led to the death of Sandra Bland, that arrests Black folks at a rate of 11:1 in Dane County, and that will cite homeless people for trespassing when they spend too long on public property!”
YGB says, enough is enough! End state violence! MPD: hands off Brandi!
