IWW protests police brutality against members in Providence, R.I.
Submitted on Tue, 08/14/2007 - 1:36pm
Disclaimer - The image pictured to the right did not appear in the original article, we have added it here to provide a visual perspective.
By Richard Salit - Providence Journal Staff Writer, August 14, 2007
NORTH PROVIDENCE — A labor union yesterday stepped up its charges of police brutality following a demonstration at a local restaurant Saturday during which a protestor's leg was badly broken in a scuffle with officers.
The Industrial Workers of the World yesterday planned to hold a vigil today at 4 p.m. at Rhode Island Hospital for Alexandra Svoboda, 22, who was undergoing surgery for the injury to her leg. The union released pictures of Svoboda, with her leg severely bent while being subdued and arrested by officers.
"She was attacked while she was complying with orders by the NPPD to move towards the sidewalk," the group said in a statement. "Alexandra was then tackled and brutalized by the officers, suffering a grotesquely broken and dislocated knee and a ruptured vascular artery."
Svoboda faces charges of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and obstruction of justice.
The labor union said it will contact the state attorney general to demand a full-scale investigation of the attack. Another demonstration may take place later in the week, not at Jacky's Galaxie restaurant on Mineral Spring Avenue, where the original protest took place, but at the headquarters of the North Providence police.
Meanwhile, the restaurant's owner repeated yesterday that his Asian restaurant had ceased doing business with a supplier targeted by the union picketers. And he vowed to protect his restaurant's reputation from any future demonstrations.
Demonstrators rallied outside the restaurant to protest its business relationship with Dragon Land Trading, a New York restaurant supplier. Industrial Workers of the World accused the restaurant of buying supplies from Dragon Land and that Dragon Land has violated labor laws.
"When I first learned about the allegations made against Dragon Land in late July, I immediately ceased all business with them and found a new supplier," Jacky's proprietor, Kin Wah "Jacky" Ko, said in a statement. "I have stopped purchasing from Dragon Land since then and will not conduct business with anyone who fails to honor federal and state labor laws."
The statement, issued by Kristen A. Klimaj, Ko's North Providence lawyer, asserted that "allegations that Jacky continues to do business with Dragon Land was completely unfounded and without merit. Jacky informed the Industrial Workers of the World at the demonstration on Saturday that he ceased all business with Dragon Land and provided proof, yet the protestors continued to picket and make false allegations.
Union spokesman Mark Bray repeated yesterday that his group wants proof that the multiple restaurants that Ko runs no longer do business with Dragon Land.