By Wil Cruz and Ron Howell

NY Newsday, March 27, 2004

Richie Perez, a long-time community activist for issues ranging from police brutality to racial violence, died yesterday morning. He was 59. Perez, who had been hospitalized for a few months, died of cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan at 10:35 a.m. He lived in Brooklyn.

Perez was a fixture in the city’s Puerto Rican community for decades. A former member of the Young Lords Party, a 1960s community-based organization that struggled around Puerto Rican issues, Perez was most recently co-founder of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights. He was also co-chair of that organization’s Justice Committee, which, among other things, works with families of victims of police brutality and racial discrimination.

“One of its most consistent and committed revolutionary leaders has been lost to the community,” said Vicente “Panama” Alba, a longtime friend and fellow activist. “Because of the many ways he impacted people ... he will be sorely missed. He just leaves a big hole, a vacuum in our community.”

Earlier this month, hundreds attended a prayer vigil for Perez in Manhattan -- an event that blended the sorrow of a wake with the fervor of a rally. Speaker after speaker spoke of how they had been mentored or inspired by Perez.

The vigil, which was part of similar vigils being simultaneously held in Mexico, Alberquerque and Oakland, Calif., was attended by, among other officials, City Councilman Charles Barron, State Assemblyman Jose Rivera and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez.

Perez graduated from public schools in the Bronx before attended the City University of New York. He taught about the Puerto Rican experience in New York, mass media and social policy, among other things, at Hunter College.

A published author, Perez wrote “Committee Against Fort Apache: The Bronx Mobilizes Against Multi-National Media” and “From Assimilation to Annihilation: Puerto Rican Images in U.S. Films.”

In the 1990s, he formed grassroots movements against police brutality -- among them the high-profile killings of Anthony Baez and Amadou Diallo, who were killed by police in 1994 and 1999, respectively. Perez also was inspirational in the creation of the group “Mothers Against Police Brutality,” a group of mothers whose children were brutalized or killed by police.

Perez also had been a member of the New York Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Nationalist Prisoners, a group of 16 militants imprisoned in the early 1980s for fighting for the independence of the nation-island. After nearly 20 years behind bars, 11 of them were pardoned in 1999 by President Bill Clinton.

Perez was most recently employed by the Community Service Society, a non-profit organization, as its director of organizational development and voter participation.

He is survived by his wife, Martha Laureano; his son, Danny Laureano;, and his mother Annie Perez.

A wake is scheduled for tomorrow from 4-5 p.m and 7-9 p.m. and Tuesday from 2-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home, 1076 Madison Ave. (at 81st Street) in Manhattan. Perez will be buried Wednesday at St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx.