Subj: SFJ Press Release
Date: 11/15/2005 8:19:07 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: jeremy @ itribe.org

De Anza Students for Justice - Press Release - Tuesday November 15, 2005

RE: The message of the demonstrations, the targeting of activists.

The press coverage of the events was minimal, ignoring most of the student
and faculty organizing and educational efforts. Where there was coverage at
all, it either focused on Cindy Sheehan as the national anti-war celbrity, or
on allegations of violence by masked protestors. Students for Justice, and
the concerned De Anza community will be continuing to work to alleviate this
sad state of public communication. Regardless of what was reported about the
demonstration, the facts remain: Colin Powell lied knowlingly about
intelligence to make the case for war. The current adminstration, as well as
the Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations are responsible for millions of Iraqi
civilian deaths, through the course of two wars and a decade of sanctions
which failed to weaken Saddam Hussein's control of the country, but
nevertheless caused indescribable suffering to the people of Iraq. If any
media/journalists would like to speak to someone about the message of the
protestors during the three days of resistance activities (which included
educational programs in addition to the night time demonstrations), they
should contact:

Rich Wood (Sociology faculty at De Anza) - 408-864-8473
Jeremy Zimmer (South Bay Students for Justice) - 408-834-5483
South Bay Mobilization - 408-998-8504

Even more disturbing, the persons arrested and charged with crimes were predominantly Muslim youth of color. We are deeply distressed by the targeting of individuals for their skin color, attire, and/or religious/political beliefs (at least one of the arrestees was singled out because he had made statements at the open-mic to the protestors earlier that evening). Although there were incidents of grafitti and property destruction, none of the young men who were arrested were involved. We keep them in our thoughts and hope that justice will prevail.

If any media/journalists would like to speak with someone regarding the arrestees, or the racial profiling by authorities, they should contact:

Aman Mehrzai (La Voz, De Anza Muslim Student Association) -
aman.mehrzai @ gmail.com

(END PRESS RELEASE)

###