Cop Vendetta Against Chicago Bus Driver

Hands Off Ricardo Mendoza!

CHICAGO—On November 7, Chicago police arrested bus driver Ricardo Mendoza on bogus felony charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing justice, with a judge requiring him to post a $50,000 bond. Earlier, unmarked police SUVs repeatedly circled past Mendoza’s house, according to his union, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 241. What was Mendoza’s “crime”? He had been brutally beaten by an off-duty cop two months before.

On September 12, Sgt. Thomas O’Grady attacked Mendoza as he was driving the 62 Archer bus in Chicago’s Loop business district. The cop, who claimed that Mendoza’s bus cut him off while he was riding a bicycle, climbed onto the bus in a fury and punched Mendoza in the face, breaking his glasses. It was not until O’Grady stormed onto the bus a second time that two uniformed officers who happened to be on board finally physically restrained him. Mendoza was treated at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital emergency room and referred to a specialist for his eye injuries. He has not been able to work since the assault. As usual, the cop who committed the assault goes uncharged.

Soon after, Mendoza filed a $1 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Chicago and O’Grady, who was reportedly on desk duty at the time while under investigation for an earlier incident. ATU Local 241 officials held a press conference in defense of their union brother, at which union president Darrell Jefferson said: “We think the attack against Mr. Mendoza was brutal, violent, uncalled for and a violation of his civil rights.” Mendoza deserves every penny he can get.

It was only after Mendoza filed his civil suit that charges were brought against him, with prosecutors claiming that he had exaggerated the severity of the beating he suffered. The prosecution of Mendoza is an attack on transit and city workers as a whole, as was made clear by Police Superintendent Jody Weis, who applauded the charges for sending “a powerful message to anyone attempting to cheat the criminal justice system, especially public employees.” Labor must demand: Drop the charges now!

The unions representing Chicago transit workers—including ATU Locals 241 and 308 (which represents rail workers)—have a long and proud history of action in defense of their members against police repression. In 1985, bus driver David Johnson was shackled to his hospital bed when then-state’s attorney, now-mayor Richard Daley pressed for frame-up felony charges against him for a tragic and unavoidable accident when a carload of youths cut off the bus he was driving on Lake Shore Drive. Over 700 outraged transit workers marched in the streets outside police headquarters, forcing Daley to drop the charges.

In 1987, seven racist cops savagely beat and kicked black bus driver Cassandra Seay and her mother Callie Bryant in their home, sending Seay to the hospital for over a week. When the cops pressed trumped-up charges, including assaulting an officer, the ATU locals turned out in force and overflowed the courtrooms at Seay’s trial, and she was ultimately acquitted. In 2002 and 2003, there was a rash of cop attacks against bus drivers, including Arlene Russell, who faced bogus charges of battery after she tried to call the Office of Professional Standards to report a cop who called her a “stupid black bitch.” Both ATU locals went on record in Russell’s defense and, after drivers in uniform turned out in force for her court dates, the charges were dropped.

It is important that ATU Local 241 stood behind Mendoza—and it must continue to support him. A union motion passed on October 5—before he was arrested—is available on the Local’s Web site. It solicits statements of solidarity from labor, community and civil rights organizations. It also calls for “the police officer who attacked our brother to be promptly prosecuted, as would any other person under the law.” On the part of transit workers, this sentiment is understandable. But the reality is that prosecutions of cops, including those who commit such heinous crimes as the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo in NYC in a hail of 41 bullets, almost always fail, because by the standards of bourgeois legality the officers are just doing the job they are paid to do in racist capitalist America. The cops, the prosecutors who frame their victims and the courts that put the stamp of legal approval on police brutality are part of the capitalist state that exists to protect the rule and profits of the exploiting capitalist class.

To the detriment of the union and its members, the pro-capitalist ATU tops make a practice of fostering illusions in the courts and cops of the capitalist state. At a press conference in front of police headquarters after Mendoza’s arrest, Local 241 president Jefferson called on “Jody Weis and Mayor Richard Daley to intervene and to protect the rights of Mr. Mendoza.” The cops who beat and are now terrorizing Mendoza work for Mayor Daley, whose capitalist Democratic Party machine has overseen cop terror in “Segregation City” for the better part of the last century. The labor movement must rely on its own power, not the forces of bourgeois “law and order.”

The assault on Mendoza and his subsequent arrest come amid all-sided attacks on the ATU and other transit unions by the Daley machine. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is threatening to rip up the ATU’s contract in February and lay off close to 2,000 union members, almost 20 percent of the workforce, unless the workers agree to unpaid furloughs and pay cuts. The CTA also intends to slash service on two-thirds of its bus routes. A display of union muscle protesting the vendetta against Mendoza would give the cops pause before they again beat on a bus driver, and it could help prepare the way for the kind of struggle needed to turn back the layoffs and service cuts.

Out of the fight to defend Cassandra Seay in 1987-88, the Labor Black Struggle League was founded in Chicago. In 2002-03 the LBSL, which is based on a class-struggle program and is fraternally allied with the Spartacist League, was also active in mobilizing to defend Arlene Russell and other drivers facing bogus charges, writing in its newsletter:

“In this climate, the racist cops think they have a green light to run over the rights of, and brutalize, anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path…. There will be no end to police brutality except through socialist revolution. What we desperately need is a militant, multiracial workers party to fight for the rights of all the oppressed and to fight for a workers government.”

The Partisan Defense Committee, a class-struggle legal and social defense organization associated with the Spartacist League, wrote a November 16 letter protesting the cop vendetta. ATU Local 241 is calling for resolutions of support for brother Mendoza. Statements can be sent to: Anita Alvarez, Cook County State’s Attorney, 69 W. Washington St., Suite 3200, Chicago, IL 60602. Fax: (312) 603-4708. Copies should also be forwarded to Local 241.