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Martin Lee Anderson's Death: Community Calls for Justice
PANAMA CITY
Feb. 26, 2006
(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News delivered by Newstex) --
A town hall meeting became a rally Saturday as
members of Bay County's black community cheered on state and
national civil rights activists who demanded "justice" for Martin
Lee Anderson.
"We are in a war," said Adora Obi Nweze, President of the Florida
Chapter of the NAACP.
"Let's be clear about what this is. It's a war for justice in the
face of injustice."
Nweze spoke behind a row of folding tables to more than 275 people
who packed the chapel at Macedonia Baptist Church. Others gathered
in an adjacent building to watch the three-hour meeting via
closed-circuit video.
Nweze's comments came during what was planned to be a meeting in
which Bay County residents were to share their concerns and
complaints about local law enforcement agencies' practices.
Residents had been invited to speak out about Anderson's death.
Instead, the meeting was consumed by emotionally-charged speeches
from the civil rights activists, the family's attorneys and
Anderson's parents.
Nweze was flanked by representatives from the Rainbow PUSH
Coalition, the local branch of the NAACP, the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, the ACLU and local ministers. She called
Anderson's death last month "unacceptable" and the medical
examiner's explanation for the cause of death "unbelievable."
Anderson died Jan. 6 at a Pensacola hospital, about 15 hours after
falling ill while being restrained at the Bay County Sheriff's
Office Boot Camp.
Video of Anderson's final conscious moments show him running laps
during his first day at the boot camp before collapsing. For about
15 minutes, drill instructors are seen -- with a nurse standing
nearby -- trying to get the teen to resume the physical training. At
times the drill instructors are seen kneeing, striking and dragging
Anderson's limp body before calling emergency medical crews to treat
the teen.
The Bay County medical examiner, Dr. Charles Siebert, reported that
Anderson died from complications related to sickle cell trait, which
likely was intensified by intense physical exhaustion. Siebert has
repeatedly stood behind his report.
Several medical experts familiar with sickle cell trait have
questioned Siebert's findings and Anderson's family is expected to
announce today whether they plan to exhume the teen's body for a
second, independent autopsy.
During Saturday's meeting, Panama City resident and SCLC's Florida
State Board Officer Sharron Fagans told the audience that she
carries sickle cell trait and suffers from sickle cell anemia.
Siebert's explanation of Anderson's death doesn't match her
experience with the genetic disease.
"I'm not buying the coroner's report," Fagans said. "I live with
sickle cell anemia everyday. It's an insult to me and it's an insult
to all of us in the sickle cell community to have to listen to.
"The beating that boy took killed him."
Nweze said the NAACP is willing to arrange a second autopsy to be
conducted by Dr. Michael Baden, a New Yorkbased forensic pathologist
who conducted an examination of slain civil rights leader Medgar
Evans.
The audience cheered Nweze's announcement moments after applauding
the arrival of Anderson's parents and their attorneys, Benjamin
Crump and Daryl Parks. The teen's mother, Gina Jones, thanked the
audience for attending the meeting.
"Please don't let my baby's death be in vain," said Jones, who
clutched a picture of her late son.
Jones repeated her outrage over the video images of drill
instructors manhandling Anderson and the nurse's failure to
intervene.
"I hate her. She watched my baby get abused," Jones said.
Robert Anderson spoke to the crowd about the decision to remove his
son from life-support after Martin Anderson's liver and kidneys shut
down.
"I wanted to cry but the tears were already gone," he said.
Nweze also questioned the motives behind Sheriff Frank McKeithen's
announcement last week to close the boot camp in three months.
McKeithen followed that announcement with the release of a slightly
modified 2005 plan to eventually reopen the facility not as a boot
camp but a "military academy-style" training program.
The updated proposal states that only at-risk Bay County youths --
not criminal offenders -- would be allowed to enroll in the program.
It also states that instructors would not be allowed to use force on
enrollees. The proposal does not explain other differences between
the 2005 plan and its latest edition.
"The sheriff knows he's playing some games," Nweze said. "To cut the
contract for the boot camp then come out the next day to open it up
again? A rose by any other name smells just the same."
A representative for several Bay County ministers read a letter sent
earlier this month to Gov. Jeb Bush calling for the immediate arrest
of the drill instructors. The audience responded with cheers and
shouts of "lock 'em up."
The letter also called for: the removal of all drill instructors
involved in the Anderson incident; the immediate closure of all
Florida boot camps; and the evaluation by a state medical review
board of the nurse.
Referencing a 30-year-old speech by former U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Thurgood Marshall, Crump told the audience that the poor
black teen deserved the same rights as any wealthy white child. The
video of the drill instructors striking Anderson while the nurse
stood nearby showed that Anderson was denied those rights, Crump
said.
"If that was Gov. Bush's child, how long would it have taken for
those men ... to be arrested? How long would it have taken them to
be terminated, to be suspended without pay?" Crump said.
According to Sheriff's Office reports, the drill instructors and
nurse are assigned to administrative duties pending the completion
of the investigations.
Susan Watson, Regional Director for the ACLU, said Anderson's death
is another example of the "systematic excessive force" issues
involving law enforcement officers in Florida. Watson also
questioned the credibility of the investigation into the
circumstances surrounding Anderson's death, calling for an "open,
honest and independent" probe.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, headed by former Bay
County sheriff and boot camp founder Guy Tunnell, conducted the
investigation that has since been turned over to a special
prosecutor, Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober.
"I'm tired of the fox guarding the hen house," Watson said.
Only a handful of audience members spoke to the panel, while most
submitted written questions asking what will happen next.
Nweze said the NAACP will remain in close contact with Anderson's
parents and their attorneys to determine future actions -- including
a possible march in support of the family. The NAACP also will
contact the Department of Justice -- which is currently conducting a
federal investigation into possible civil rights violations.
Nweze said federal officials need to review the state's boot camps'
"treatment and maltreatment," then close the facilities or ensure
that drill instructors are properly trained.
"We need to hold local and state officials accountable for what
happens to the young people in their care," Nweze said.
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