Wednesday, May 16, 2012

5/15/12 Jesse Fruhworth Press Release

Contact Jesse Fruhwirth
435-228-8087

May 15, 2012 | For Immediate Release

Supporters: Stewart is a POW, “Prisoner of War on Drugs”

 
OGDEN--The supporters of a victim of a violent home invasion by drug strike enforcers will hold a rally Friday demanding information about police violence in Weber County. Matthew David Stewart’s harrowing invasion by police--which he barely survived--was conducted under the authority of a search warrant and thus protesters will serve their own “search warrant” on the Weber County District Attorney Dee Smith.
 
The “search warrant” from protesters--which is actually a Government Records Access and Management Act, or GRAMA, request--will highlight the differences between the peaceful people and violent police tactics.
 
Friday at noon supporters will meet at the 25th Street Park before marching to the Weber Center at 2380 S. Washington Blvd. Protesters will be wearing all black to highlight Stewart’s status as a prisoner of war, the War on Drugs. Stewart is also a former Army Airborne soldier. 
 
“We refuse to respond to violence with violence,” says Erna Stewart, of Keep the Peace, the Matthew David Stewart support group.  “The Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force used deadly force against Matthew without provocation, but we will seek justice for Matthew only with peaceful actions. We want a non-violent, sensible drug policy that keeps officers and communities safe.” 
 
The GRAMA request will ask for records regarding all the police-involved shootings Smith has reviewed, including the highly controversial 2011 shooting of Todd Blair.  Blair was holding a golf club when the same Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force officers who nearly killed Matthew shot and killed Blair in his own home. 
 
Keep the Peace has stated its intent to disband the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force on the grounds that strike forces are inherently violent police units that endanger both officers and communities. 
 
One officer was killed and others injured during the Jan. 4 police invasion of Stewart’s home that instigated a shoot-out. Stewart believed he was being robbed but says he does not remembe the incident. 
 
Stewart faces the death penalty in 2nd District Court.

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