Dear Folks,

After 3 years and nearly 4 months, the NYC government finally decided to end this charade and pay reparations to the Brooklyn 7. We were poised to go to trial again, but the city lawyers and specifically the NYC Comptroller's office decided they did not want to do so.

So yesterday morning, they finally agreed to our terms to settle this case. It is not a whole lot of money for putting us through the wringer, but it finally settles this case and means that we will not have to make at least monthly trips to the court house to defend ourselves after we were attacked by the NYPD on Nov 16, 2003.

Thank you for the love, support, work and energy which all of you gave. We could have only done this together, loving, building, supporting and resisting a state that wants to exterminate us. Thank you for all your talents, brilliance, strength and beauty.

Many of us are all the better for this fight, not because of the attack, mind u, and we are all stronger and better prepared for the next one.

We also remember those folks who were killed by the NYPD who are no longer physically with us - Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Alberta Spruill, Timothy Standsbury, Anthony Rosario, Hilton Vega, Anthony Baez, Sherly Colon, among many others.

Rage on,
Rafael A. Mutis

Rafael A. Mutis
7 Neighborhood Action Partnership / 7 Vecindarios Asociados Para La Acción
JusticeWorks Community/Comunidad Obras de Justicia
http://www.justiceworks.org/