------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 7, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- FLORIDA: BRAZILL CASE DRAWS NATIONAL ATTENTION By Linda Breed West Palm Beach, Fla. The national media have returned to West Palm Beach, this time highlighting the racist criminal justice system and the media's obsession with school violence. Television studios re-broadcast reports of last year's shooting of a teacher over and over to demoralize and frighten the masses. Meanwhile, the local Palm Beach Post runs stories daily to demonize Nathaniel Brazill, an honor student with no previous criminal record found guilty of the shooting. He is up for sentencing July 29. What is not so widely reported is the daily picket lines and community support for Nathaniel Brazill against a racist and repressive Palm Beach County, an area the picketers feel has never known real justice. They believe the racist handling of the Brazill case creates an atmosphere similar to that in Cincinnati, where a rebellion against police brutality recently broke out. State Attorney Barry Kirscher has a track record for disproportionately arraigning Black youth for the harshest maximum charges possible. The May 17 Palm Beach Gazette, a Black community newspaper in Palm Beach County, reported: "Hard-hearted Barry Kirscher wants to send Nathaniel Brazill, 13, to the electric chair, but the record shows he's not so hard on renegade cops or young white folk. "The following cases illustrate Kirscher's record. On April 20, 2000, Ashley Smith, 15, threatened that he was going to bomb his school, Palm Beach Lakes High. Apparently this was his idea of 'commemorating' the Columbine massacre that took place in Colorado some time ago. Unbelievably, the young man was charged as a juvenile by the state attorney and his sentence, which was left open-ended, was to attend a daytime delinquency program for juveniles. " Another example of Kirscher's over zealous approach to charging youths of color is from a 1999 case involving Anthony Laster, a Black teenager with no criminal history and the mental capacity of a 5-year-old. Laster, 15 and hearing-impaired, snatched two dollars in lunch money from the pocket of a classmate. Kirscher charged him with strong-arm robbery, which carries a life sentence; and extortion, which is punishable by 30 years in prison. Kirscher has a record of soft treatment for law-breaking law- enforcement officials. Authorities recommended that Lake Worth cop Stuart Dimbert be fired for breaking a number of police department policies. But it wasn't until he was videotaped beating a handcuffed suspect with a baton 16 times that he was finally let go. Despite all the evidence, Kirscher saw fit to charge him only with misdemeanor assault. When asked about the Nathaniel Brazill case, Monica Moorehead, Workers World Party year 2000 presidential candidate, said: "It is totally outrageous that a juvenile like Nathaniel Brazill should be put on trial for his life. He is not a criminal. Rather, he is a victim of this unjust criminal-justice system that glamorizes and promotes violent behavior day in and day out. "If the leaders of the National Rifle Association are not put on trial, why should someone like Nathaniel? Nathaniel, and millions of youth like him, deserves the best medical and psychological attention, not repression and imprisonment," said Moorehead. All eyes will be on be on West Palm Beach on June 29, when Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Richard Wennet will sentence Brazill. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
