JACKSON LINKS POLICE 'ZEALOTRY' TO RACIAL DIVISION

Civil Rights Activist Says He'll Attend N. Charleston Rally To Protest Violence

Last month's controversial drug sweep at Stratford High School showed that
police "zealotry" continues to cause racial division in South Carolina and
across the nation, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Tuesday.

The civil rights activist said he plans to visit the Charleston area
Thursday for a rally against police violence.

"We see it over and over again, whether it's in Los Angeles with
Rodney King, or in Cincinnati, with the man who was beaten to death,
or now in Goose Creek with kids lying on the floor," Jackson told The
Post and Courier in a telephone interview. "There's a zealotry by many
police that is humiliating."

Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said a
group of South Carolina ministers, labor leaders and NAACP officials
invited him to speak about the Goose Creek drug sweep and other issues.

He said the images of white police officers rushing into a school
hallway with guns drawn and searching a group of mostly black students
"certainly has racial overtones." The children "were humiliated and
frightened in the face of those guns, and they haven't had counseling
or an apology."

He said reaction to the sweep "is a test of the character of the new
South. Citizens white and black should come together. People of
religion, white and black, should agree that it should not have happened."

Jackson's comments come nearly a month after the drug sweep in
Berkeley County's largest high school. During the early-morning
search, surveillance cameras captured officers tackling students and
forcing them to stand on their knees for nearly half an hour while
officers and a dog searched for drugs. No drugs were found.

While some parents said they supported police and school officials,
others said the sweep was an outrage. The raid triggered an
investigation by the State Law Enforcement Division. Solicitor Ralph
Hoisington is awaiting the results of SLED's investigation before
deciding whether to file charges in connection with the raid.

A public rally will begin Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at St. Paul AME Church
at 6925 Rivers Ave., North Charleston. Organizers planned the rally in
response to the Goose Creek sweep and the recent North Charleston
police shooting that left a mentally disturbed man dead.

"There's always this excessive use of force, a misappropriation of
power that contributes to racial division and fear," Jackson said,
adding that such incidents are distracting people from addressing
important economic issues. "We have not learned to live together on
issues that can give us long-term shared security."