[Boston-editorial] new feature: Justice for Jeffrey Baez!

[Matthew Williams]

Justice for Jeffrey Baez!
by Alex Gould, alexandergould (nospam) yahoo.com

Jeffrey Baez was 22 years old on the early morning of December 4, 2002. 
He worked at McDonalds and as a freelance landscaping laborer, and 
dreamed of being a cartoonist. Jeffrey was born in New Jersey, and was 
living with his mother, Luz Minerva DiLones, a nurse's aide, south of 
Providence, RI.

But Jeffrey was unfortunate enough to be a young Latino man whose van 
looked, to Providence patrolman Merrick Cook, like one that had been 
reported stolen. Within minutes Baez had three police cruisers on his 
tail. After driving a few blocks, at what police admitted were low 
speeds, Jeffrey stopped the van at the corner of Potters and Dexter. 
The police radioed each other that he was about to "bail" out of the 
vehicle. Jeffrey stepped into the intersection and was knocked over the 
hood of Cook's cruiser. When he slid to the pavement, he was crushed 
under the wheels of officer Michael Otrando's police car.

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09 Mar 2005 | Filed under: News / Human Rights : Race