Arturo O'Farrill Interviewed by Michael Slate

October 28, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

At the Saturday, October 24 Rise Up October rally and march, and at the Thursday, October 22 Say Their Names public reading and remembrance in Times Square, Michael Slate was able to catch up with a number of people to get their reasons for coming out, and their views on the epidemic of police terror and murder. Following is the transcript of the interview with Arturo O’Farrill:

 

MS: OK, joining us now is Arturo O’Farrill. Arturo, tell people who you are.

Arturo O’Farrill: I am a composer, pianist, bandleader, activist, non-profit founder....

MS: And kick-ass musician!

Arturo O’Farrill: Not bad! Not bad! I got to the point in my life where I can say: not bad.

MS: You’re very, very modest!

Arturo O’Farrill: You’re kind, man, you are.

MS: Let’s talk about this. What compelled you to be here and to be part of this?

Arturo O’Farrill: I am... very few things make me as... shake me to the core as police brutality. The other one, of course, is the rampant, unrepentant, unbridled capitalism that is destroying the world. But particularly its horrible corollary after-effect, police brutality, I think is—there’s nothing to me more reprehensible. Crime is reprehensible, mediocrity is reprehensible, all kinds of things are reprehensible. But for a police officer to discharge a weapon on an unarmed civilian is completely unacceptable. It is the absolute pinnacle of stupidity, asshole-idity, and insanity and there’s absolutely no reason why a civilization that has so much achieved should ever tolerate this kind of injustice. It goes against every grain of truth that I can think of. There’s so many ways to stop people. There’s so many reasons to not hurt them. Why shoot first, ask questions later? Once you shoot somebody you can’t take that shit back. And to me that’s just the absolute most clear symptom of a society that doesn’t value human lives, especially Black and Brown ones, and that sees people as property, as chattel, as cogs in a wheel to keep the very, very powerful and wealthy, ah... very powerful and wealthy. And I think it’s obvious, it’s completely blatant and people should wake up, especially people in the middle classes who think that this is a free and classless society. Wake the fuck up, man! This is not the case at all. You’re pawns in a really terrible game. And I try to change that with my art. I try to speak clearly in all the work that I do on these topics. And I think that we need to do more, do what I do—take to the streets, speak out, and take every opportunity to educate everyone around you. That’s why I do what I do.

MS: You know, one of the things... I’ve been involved in this in various different ways for more than 25 years. And when I look back, I was just looking at the numbers the other day, I was just talking to somebody. And this year alone we have more than 900 people we know of who have been killed by the police. And you think about that, if you take that back 20 years, and just the people that we know about—that would add up to somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000.

Arturo O’Farrill: Well, you know what, I believe... I know a lot of people differ... but I believe that at some point people looked upon police officers as a trusted part of our lives. And that changed when the truth came out—that changed. And not only has the truth come out but it’s been revealed how often poor judgment, bad training, and sometimes racism cloud a police officer’s mind in that split moment of reality. And so I think that... I think it’s really an incredible, incredible statistic; 900 lives! I’m sure that’s just...

MS: Well, one thing that actually... you know when you were talking earlier about how this is all linked, and when we look at like what is it that brings the police to do this—personally I think it’s actually tied in a lot with the character of the society we live in as you were saying. Now the question is, though, what do we do about it?

Arturo O’Farrill: Well, I think there’s also very pragmatic realities. This is a brutal, violent nation. We’ve been involved in countless battles and wars across time and space. We have bullied our way along the planet for so long that we’re immune to the horrifying effects of our brutality and violence. And I think a lot times these young officers come right off the battlefield—they’re veterans of Baghdad or Afghanistan. And they put them in these police stations and they’re barely... they’re fucking kids, man—they’re idiots. My kids are in their 20s. They’re not that bright. They’re brilliantly talented musicians, but even they’ll be the first to assume they don’t understand a friggin’ thing about life. And then you put a gun in somebody’s hand like that? And you have them make split-second decisions about what matters and what doesn’t? And then on top of that, the whole… if you’ve read “Mass Incarceration” and the proclivity for the federal government to give SWAT-style equipment to local jurisdictions... it’s a disaster, it’s a recipe for disaster. It’s gonna get worse. These are not good things. And I think that police officers aren’t necessarily good or bad, they’re caught in this maelstrom of hysteria. And now... but here’s the other thing: the other thing thrown into the mix is that now because of all the recording on cell phones and videos, people are openly palpably hateful of cops. And you better believe they walk around aware of the mistrust and anger the people feel towards them. And I think that that doesn’t help.

MS: You know one thing that’s interesting about that too... because I know that there’s a way that as people have become... especially over the last year when we had Ferguson and we had Baltimore and we’ve had all these uprisings, like what went on around Eric Garner... all of these things that have happened. And there’s been an upsurge among the people fighting against this, and at the same time there’s been a counterattack. If you look at even just recently the way they keep trying to make us think that, oh, well, the cops are scared, the cops are vulnerable, it’s a hard job, all this other stuff. But yet when you look at the reality, the number of police killed on duty actually keeps getting smaller and smaller.

Arturo O’Farrill: If there’s two people that are scared and one has a badge and a gun, there’s no contest. Both people are scared. Like what happened to Corey Jones in Florida a couple of days ago—he was probably terrified, stuck by the side of the road, coming home from a gig and his car breaks down and he sees some dude come up on him. I’d be scared shitless, man, I’d probably pick up something too. But who was wrong? The knucklehead with the gun who couldn’t think of any other solution than to shoot this poor Christian drummer who by all accounts was a humble, god-fearing, family-loving man who couldn’t have been sweeter. I mean I don’t get that. Yeah, we can talk about, yeah, police are frightened, yeah, they’re scarred, blah, blah, blah—but they have guns. Case closed.

MS: That’s extremely important—because that’s exactly what’s the truth counter-posed against all the bullshit that’s coming out right now. And in a way it’s coming out because it’s meant to douse, to tamp down the anger...

Arturo O’Farrill: But it’s our... look, I travel internationally. I travel to play music. The rest of the world looks upon us and is horrified that this kind of gun mania exists in governance and in the private sector, lots of human beings. We are the most violent nation in the Western world. And there’s no way that you’re going to tell me that there’s a proliferation of guns and violence and violent rhetoric and people aren’t going to get killed.

MS: Let me ask you one more question—because one of the things about this whole event and this whole weekend of Rise Up October is the idea of that for too long people have been able to turn away or they’ve been able to say: oh, there’s nothing I can do. And what this is aimed at doing is really posing a very sharp question before people of which side are you on. What do you think of that, and if you do think it’s important, why?

Arturo O’Farrill: I think that... I’ve been reminded of a Mos Def song: fear not of man because man cannot hurt. I mean, yeah, we can. I mean, I think the day will come... they’ll always have all the weapons, they’ll always have all the money, they’ll always have all the tools with which to squash us. That’s just a fact. That even makes it more of a call to action because we don’t need weapons, we don’t need money—we need bodies, resistance, we need people who are gonna say: I’m on this side. You know, eventually I think there will be violence in the streets. I believe that there’ll be violence in the streets, cars overturned, windows smashed. I think it’s going to happen sooner than later in cities across the nation. It’s already happening, but I think it’s going to be happening on such a huge level that you won’t have any understanding of what’s coming down the road. But I think that that is what happens when you deny people their rights, when you deny them and kill them, when you deny them, oppress them, and murder them. It’s gotta give, man.

MS: Alright, Arturo, thank you very much, man.

 

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