Statement from Carl Dix:
“I challenge Pat Lynch to a debate”
October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Carl Dix
It is outrageous and unconscionable that media and the head of NY PBA have lied and distorted reality to condemn the Rise Up October (RiseUpOctober.org) protests in NY on Oct 22-24, of thousands of people, including scores of families whose lives have been stolen by police from across the country, using the fact that a NY police officer was killed last week. Distorting reality and attacking the people fighting for justice they assert "there is a war on police," that "people must support the police all the time and on every corner," and say that people should stop protesting the rampant, ongoing, systematic murder carried out BY the police. This is wrong and upside down.
Let’s talk about the reality: Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Natasha McKenna, Andy Lopez, Walter Scott and many more people have had their lives stolen by those who are sworn to protect and serve. In almost every case, the system has exonerated the killer cops and the media has criminalized their victims, aiding and abetting the justification of these murders. This must STOP! Not be incrementally reduced, but STOPPED! And it will take determined mass resistance and protest to stop it.
Eve Ensler, Carl Dix, Cornel West, Quentin Tarantino, on the October 24 march with family members. Photo: twitter.com/tuneintorevcom
Pat Lynch, loudmouth bigot and head of the Patrolman's Brutality Association, has called for a boycott of the films of Quentin Tarantino for his support of people fighting for justice. Tarantino was right to join us and everyone needs to pick a side: are you for or against police terror and murder? Lynch said a year ago that Eric Garner “died from a number of bad life choices.” What life choices led to Garner's being choked to death at the hands of the NYPD? Being born Black in a country where police patrol Black neighborhoods like an occupying army?
I challenge Pat Lynch and anyone else to a debate over what's the real problem: our protest of murder by police or police getting away with murder.
Carl Dix is a co-initiator of Rise Up October and is a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (revcom.us)
Rise Up October (RiseUpOctober.org) – three days of protest and resistance to Stop Police Terror. October 22: almost 40 families of victims of police murder from NY and across the country joined with prominent voices of conscience in Times Square to say the names and tell the stories of loved ones lost to police violence and demand justice. October 23: 17 people were arrested, including Carl Dix, for non-violent direct action with the demand: Shut Down Rikers! They shut down all traffic coming into and out of Rikers Island, the torture chamber they were calling Guantánamo-on-the-Hudson, for over an hour. October 24: 4,000 to 5,000 marched through the streets including almost 100 families of victims of police murder alongside clergy, students, immigrants and more. Prominent voices in attendance included co-initiators Cornel West and Carl Dix, Quentin Tarantino, Eve Ensler, Michael Rappaport and more.
Rise Up October revealed a tremendous story of a movement being born against police terror that recognizes there will be no progress without struggle, without resistance and protest. These three days were filled with deep substance: the stories from the families of those killed by police murder of their loved ones and how they were murdered and then criminalized by the media after, from voices of conscience standing up themselves, from clergy, students and revolutionaries all joining in together to say Police Terror Must Stop and drawing a line for all of society: Which Side Are You On?
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