Merawi Gerima is a Washington, D.C., filmmaker and community organizer affiliated with the D.C. Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. He wrote and directed the 2020 feature film Residue, about a filmmaker returning to a Washington neighborhood changed by gentrification.
Role at the time: Organizer with the D.C. Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
Condemned
Statement summary
Gerima accused Homeland Security of using Brown’s vehicle as a pretext for an attempted killing and demanded charges.
“It shows in fact that Homeland Security was doing exactly what they did in Minneapolis with Renee Good, using the vehicle as a pretext to try and murder somebody in cold blood.
We want charges. We want federal agents charged, we want MPD and investigators charged. You can't nearly murder someone in D.C. and get to go back to work, continue patrolling the streets of D.C.”
HSI agent Benedict Bebber fired into Phillip Brown's vehicle during a D.C. traffic stop. DHS says Brown drove at officers; Brown's lawyers dispute that account. Released video captures the gunfire but not the trigger pull.
