KENT, Ohio ÷ "No police state! No kill the cops! Police brutality's got to stop!"

A group of about 40 people marched in 38-degree weather from the Risman Plaza at 8:30 p.m. to the cement platform downtown, beating on makeshift drums and chanting.

The rally was held to protest police

brutality.

At the head of the group three men held a sign that read, Community Control of Police.

The rally, which was sponsored by Student Anti-Racist Action, was also attended by members of the Kent Anti-War Committee, CHANGE, Black United Students, the Burning River Revolutionary Anarchist Collective of Cleveland and the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade of Cleveland.

Ben Cohen, Kent resident and one of the rally's organizers, said the rally has taken place every year since 1996 in correlation with the Oct. 22 Coalition of Cleveland.

The national day of protest against police brutality is Oct. 22, Cohen said.

Speakers from Kent and Cleveland spoke to the group about incidents of police brutality and ways to fight it.

Dianna Albertson, a Kent resident, told the group about the death of Joseph Findley.

Findley was shot 12 times by an off-duty police officer while trying to visit his mother, Albertson said.

Findley, who was a Native American, was identified as a Hispanic John Doe, Albertson said, and was not identified by name for six days.

Albertson said Findley's death was a result of brutality and racial profiling.

After Albertson's speech, Chris Fox, a senior psychology major, played Taps on a trumpet as onlookers raised their fists in the air.

Cohen, speaking for Anti-Racist Action, said "the common cop has a unique power."

The power is the ability to kill, Cohen said.

It is, Cohen said, "the everyday patrolman who is gonna carry out the dirty work."

Cohen also said the police must be held accountable for the brutality that has taken place, mentioning the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police and the shooting by Cincinnati police of Timothy Thomas as examples of brutality.