Vol. 74/No. 43      November 15, 2010

In the video Boston police officer Michael McManus is seen repeatedly raising his fist and pounding the youth, then slamming his knee into him again and again, while at least six other cops pin him down. After his arrest he was treated at the hospital for a head wound and released to the police.

Because of the wide publicity and reaction among many workers and students, city officials promised an investigation. McManus has been placed on desk duty, for now.

McManus was among police officers exonerated in the 2008 death of 22-year-old David Woodman, a student at Emmanuel College. The city paid $3 million to Woodman’s family to settle a civil rights lawsuit, after an independent panel ruled there were “missteps” by the Boston police during Woodman’s arrest.

Some three dozen mostly RCC students and faculty gathered on the campus October 29, then marched a half-mile to the Boston police headquarters, chanting, “Come one! Come all! United we stand! Divided we fall!” Once there, a spirited rally demanded justice and an end to police brutality.

That same day some 2,000 people attended a memorial service at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center for Danroy Henry, Jr., 20, a football player from Massachusetts who was attending Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. He was killed by New York cops on October 17.

The police say he tried to hit them with his car. Witnesses say a cop jumped on the hood and shot him as he was responding to a police order to move the car out of the fire lane, where he was waiting for friends.  
 
 
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