NYC Stop Mass Incarceration Network Emergency Meeting Held on December 7: Organize to Take Things Higher!

December 8, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN) put out a call for Nationwide Mass Meetings on Sunday, December 7 to organize a Week of Mass Outrage to begin on Monday, December 8 under the slogan: Intensify and Spread the Struggle Against Police Murder and the New Jim Crow—Get Organized and Go Higher!

In New York City, over 150 artists, students, teachers, religious leaders, lawyers and revolutionaries came together to plan for the WEEK OF OUTRAGE TO POLICE MURDER.

New York City, December 4, 2014. Special to revcom.us

Travis Morales greeted people saying, “We are here because of Michael Brown’s brutal death. All of you saw the video—of Eric Garner saying ‘I can’t breathe’ with all these police around and they didn’t do a damn thing to stop Panteleo. Did they do CPR? NO! You saw it—Pantaleo smirked and waved to the camera. Why did he smirk? Because he knew then what would happen—he wouldn’t be indicted! We are here because Darren Wilson was not indicted! This has to STOP! (Applause)

“We have to be part of a new day. And we can’t stop until the murder of Black and brown people has been stopped! We are here to plan a Week of Outrage. Yes, we’ve done some wonderful things—we shut down the West Side Highway, bridges, Times Square… Millions of people who before that decision hated what happens and were outraged about this, and now many more who’ve had their eyes opened to this reality are part of this, too. This Week of Outrage must take things higher and continue to bring many more people into it!”

The Mission Statement of SMIN was read—it says in part: “We are initiating an effort to accelerate the movement to stop the injustice of mass incarceration and police brutality; and the racially biased policies and practices of the police, the courts and the U.S. legal system; and to support prisoners’ human rights, and of the formerly incarcerated. We call on all to join us.”

Carl Dix also addressed the audience. Dix founded SMIN, along with Cornel West; he is a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and initiated together with Cornel West non-violent civil disobedience against NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk and the recent October Month of Resistance to Stop Mass Incarceration, Police Terror and the Criminalization of a Generation. Carl said:

“I salute that all of you are here today. This is a crucial time because things are different now about police murder. It’s not different—because police continue murdering people and for what seems like forever—since the slave patrollers and through Jim Crow to today—but because people are standing up and saying NO MORE to all these horrors. (Applause) Yes, in 50 states! Think about that! Alaska—even in Peoria: signs that read, Black Lives Matter! A new situation has been created. We have to make sure it’s not a couple of weeks and then back to normal. That normal will include murder of Black and Latino people. That will include a green light given to murdering police, a normal that would continue but that we have to get rid of! (Applause)

“What we have to talk about here and now is how to build on our resistance—spread it further with more determination—to sections of society that haven’t moved yet, and make it a mission to stop this horror. They are killing people quickly with bullets of the police and slowly with prisons, because the system has no future for them. It’s great when thousands and tens of thousands act as they did, but we need millions! We need a week and it needs to be on a national scale! More walkouts at colleges and high schools; days of civil disobedience. NBA players like Derrick Rose, who came out to warm-up in a t-shirt that said ‘I can’t breathe’…writers on the sports pages taking this up…five members of St. Louis Rams! (Applause). Each a good example, but we need a whole lot more of that. Why aren’t there whole teams doing this, more entertainers canceling appearances or turning appearances into speak-outs? We need to work on that. So that next Sunday in churches across the country people are talking about it and encouraging congregations to be involved.

“We have to make it so everybody is challenged and asking each other, 'What are you doing about this?' We have to do this; people are dying. It is hard to deny because every day you are hearing about another case—12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland—there’s potential to bring a new situation into being. What kind of society backs up the murder of children by police and the media asks, 'What did the children do wrong?' (Applause) They couldn’t find anything on 12-year-old Tamir Rice so the media reported 'there was domestic violence in the family.' What can you say about a system like this? It’s got to be gotten rid of! (Applause) Children have a right to grow up. We have to stop this! We need a week of acceleration.”

People broke into different groups to make immediate plans, including a plan for a press conference on Monday, December 8, at Manhattan City Hall with the demands:

• Justice for Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Akai Gurley and all victims of police murder.
• Indict, convict, send the killer cops to jail.
• Police murder must stop now.
• "Broken Windows" and Bratton must go.

Groups included an artists group, religious group, students group, non-violent civil disobedience group, and neighborhoods group.

Other SMIN emergency meetings were held on December 7 in San Francisco/Bay Area, Chicago, St. Louis/Ferguson, Los Angeles, and New Haven, CT.

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