|
The 8th
Annual National Day of Protest
To Stop Police Brutality, Repression
& the Criminalization of a
Generation
By Carl Dix Why You Must Join Us on October 22, 2003
Police brutality has long been nationwide
epidemic. This past year has been marked by an upsurge in
police brutality and murder by law enforcement agents across the
country.
In NY, police knocked down Alberta Spruil's
door before dawn with a battering ram, threw a concussion
grenade into her Harlem apartment and handcuffed the 57 year old
grandmother, all because they claim one of their snitches said
her home was a drug spot. She died that morning of a heart
attack!
In Benton Harbor, Michigan, cops chase
Terrance Shurn, a Black motorcycle rider and ram his bike from
behind, sending him crashing thru a wall and killing him.
Later that night, police attack people holding a memorial for
him! And I could go on and on citing cases of brutality
and murder by those who are sworn to protect and serve.
Using 9/11 as a justification, the
authorities have breathed new life into the discredited practice
of racial profiling and expanded it to target Arab Muslin and
South Asian immigrants, in addition to Blacks, Latinos and other
oppressed peoples.
Arab, Muslim and South Asian immigrants
have also been hit with interrogations, round ups and
deportations.
The authorities have attacked anti war
actions. Protesters on the Oakland docks were shot with
rubber bullets. An anti war demonstration in Chicago was
surrounded by police who indiscriminately beat and arrested
people. In NY, 100,000's of protesters were denied the
right to assemble by police barricades and walls of cops.
Repressive laws like the USA PATRIOT Act
are raising the specter of an emerging police state in this
country.
This escalating official brutality must be
met with heightened resistance. People are already
stepping up and fighting back. The police killing of
Terrance Shurn in Benton Harbor was responded to with several
days of rebellion. People responded with anger to killer
cops in Chicago's Cabrini Green housing projects and Brooklyn's
Fort Greene neighborhood. MUCH MORE RESISTANCE IS
NECESSARY.
As Frederick Douglas put it more than a
century ago, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It
never did and never will. ... The limits of tyrants are
prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
October 22nd has become a day when
everybody who hates police brutality, no matter what their race
or background, comes together to fight for justice. It is
a day when the families of those who have been killed by the
cops have a platform to tell of how this official murder has
devastated their lives. It is a day when those who suffer
this brutality day in and day out are joined by those who don't
directly experience it, but can be won to step out and oppose it
when they learn of it.
If you also hate this kind of injustice and
want to see it stopped, join us on that day. Join in
whatever activity is planned in your area, and if nothing has
been planned there yet, then you should take the lead and plan
something.
Stop
Police Brutality, Repression
& the Criminalization of
a Generation
On October
22 -- Wear Black, Fight Back!
For further info or to find out what's
being planned in your area, go to the Oct 22nd coalition web
site (www.October22.org)
or call 888-no brutality. You can also download materials
(poster, call for Oct 22, 2003, stories of murder and brutality
committed by law enforcement, etc.) from the web site.
The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police
Brutality has produced a book called Stolen Lives:
Killed By Law Enforcement. This book documents more
than 2000 killings by cops in the US in the 1990's. The
Coalition is preparing a new volume of this book. To get a
copy of Stolen Lives, or to help with the preparation of the new
volume, or to get more info, contact Oct 22nd at 888- NO
BRUTALITY Or go to their web site at www.October22.org. |
