Contact Jesse Fruhwirth
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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.
