Documentary chronicles controversial death

Nearly 10 years after the controversial death of Jonny Gammage – a local black man who died at… Nearly 10 years after the controversial death of Jonny Gammage – a local black man who died at the hands of police officers – Pittsburgh civil rights activists are trying to rekindle public awareness.

Billy Jackson – the producer and creator of “Enough is Enough: The Death of Jonny Gammage,” a recently completed documentary – chronicled the heated issues surrounding Gammage’s death.

“We started documenting on the incident since days after it happened,” Jackson said.

While the focus of the film is squarely upon the Gammage case, the documentary also expands to address police brutality as a wider, national issue.

“We need to look at the bigger picture. This needs to be looked at from its continuum,” Jackson said. “This is not an isolated incident. It’s happened over and over.”

Sporadic delays in funding caused the film’s completion to take almost a decade.

But on Sept. 10, a preview of the documentary was finally presented at a community forum and panel discussion held in the Nuin Center in Highland Park.

The discussion panel included Beth Pittinger, the director of the Citizen Police Review Board, and Tim Stevens, a former president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP.

The documentary is scheduled to show in full at several Pittsburgh locations on Oct. 12, the 10th anniversary of Gammage’s death.

Gammage died at the age of 31 in a struggle with five police officers after a traffic stop.

His death sparked public uproar in and around Pittsburgh in the years immediately following his death. He became an icon of grass roots initiatives against police brutality.

Gammage’s reputation only fueled the public outrage at his death.

A college graduate, he was also a successful businessman and community activist, according to the Proposal to the National Black Programming Consortium.

The proposal went on to say that Gammage organized youth sports leagues and bought athletic shoes for poor children.

Only three of the five white officers involved were prosecuted, and none of them were punished.

Brentwood Chief of Police Robert Butelli declined to comment on the documentary.

Gammage’s death was not the only police brutality case brought to light by the panelists.

The panel discussed other cases in which the public called into question the police department’s handling of situations, including Jerry Jackson, a 44-year-old man who was shot to death by an officer.

Billy Jackson said that he hopes to revive public consciousness of the Gammage story and the ongoing issue of police misconduct through to the October premiere.

“We want to try to make Oct. 12 a significant event,” Jackson said.

There are four locations committed to premiering the documentary thus far: the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland, the Carnegie Libraries in Squirrel Hill and Homewood and the Community College of Allegheny County South Campus.

The Thomas Merton Center – a local non-violent organization that combats war, poverty and racism – listed The Hill House in the Hill District as a tentative location.

“Hopefully with this local [showing] we can bring about a change, and a specific change,” former President Stevens said. “We want to disallow these incidents of police brutality.”

The issue of alleged police brutality has heightened in the wake of an Aug. 20 anti-war protest on Forbes Avenue in Oakland and the police force’s use of Tasers – a case that remains under investigation.

While the panelists’ sentiments on police misconduct were heated, they made clear that the discontent was not meant for all police.

“I don’t mean to say all cops are bad,” panelist Khalid Raheem said. “We need law enforcement, but we need it in a more humane context.”