Vol. 75/No. 41      November 14, 2011

Supporters demanding justice for Lex Bumpess march every Friday from 22nd Street and Allegheny Avenue, where the incident occurred, to the 39th District police headquarters. “Everyone is welcome,” said Kimberly Bumpess, a nurse and student at the Community College of Philadelphia.

She gave the following account of what happened to Lex, who was 20 years old at the time. He and his cousin Tyrell Jones were at a gas station when they were approached by police who asked for ID and searched their car, finding nothing. Lex Bumpess didn’t have his wallet with him, but gave his name.

The cop asked several times for him to repeat his name, saying, “Lex Bumpess, there’s no such name. Give a real name or we’re going to take you for a ride.” The cops put him in the police car and drove down the street with Jones following in his car. Jones later said, “When I saw the police car rocking, I knew they were beating Lex.”

When they got back to the gas station, Lex Bumpess opened the door of the police car, which “they apparently thought he was not supposed to do,” said Kimberly Bumpess. One cop punched him in the face and another attempted to use a Taser on him, according to eyewitnesses, she said. But Lex fought back, knocking a policeman to the ground.

More police were called to the scene, Kimberly Bumpess told forum participants. They tasered Lex, and kicked him in the head before a police van ran into him, the tire splitting his head open.

Kimberly was never told where her son had been taken. She finally located him at Temple University Hospital, but it wasn’t until October 17 that she was allowed to see him. Maxine Hayman, Lex’s friend, also spoke at the forum.

The cops raided Bumpess’s house October 21 without a warrant, on the pretext of investigating a robbery of a tow truck driver. They then harassed her children and ransacked the house, tearing apart the ceiling in Lex’s bedroom.

Bumpess told forum participants that when cops asked the tow truck driver to name one of her children as the robber, the driver said three times, “I don’t know.” The cops told him, “Well, just pick one,” and then they took her son Elijah into temporary custody.

Lex Bumpess is now being held at Philadelphia’s House of Correction, charged with assaulting and disarming a police officer.

Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor, told the audience that his campaign would spread the word about the fight for justice for Lex Bumpess. “We call for the arrest and prosecution of the cops to the fullest extent of the law,” he said. “Under capitalism, the cops protect and serve not us, but the rulers’ property and wealth.”  
 
 
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