Revolution #020, October 30, 2005, posted at revcom.us
October 22, 2005 marks the 10 th anniversary of the National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. In cities across the country people marched and rallied to say "No more" to police murder and brutality.
Six hundred people gathered in Downtown Los Angeles and marched through the garment district. The South Central farmers marched in solidarity with family members and friends whose lives have been stolen by the police. High school students marched with their arms locked. As people held up pictures of their loved ones including Suzie Peña--an 18-month-old baby who was killed by an LAPD bullet--they lifted up their fists and said "No mas!" "No more!"
Even when police and the fire department stopped the march because there was a "suspicious package" at the rally site--people remained determined to hold the rally and allow the families of those murdered and brutalized to speak in front of Parker Center.
Joe Veale, the L.A. spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party electrified the crowd when he said, "When the police beat up Rodney King, if the people had not done anything it would have made things worse. The police would have been given a green light to do even more shit to people and the people would have felt powerless and degraded. But there was resistance and because of that not only did those cops have to do time, but there was a whole new attitude amongst people. There was a new spirit of resistance and that spread all over this country, even around the world. That’s the spirit we need to fight police brutality! That’s the spirit we need on Nov. the 2nd. That’s the spirit we need to drive out the Bush regime. Stop police brutality, repression and the criminalization of a generation! The world can’t wait, drive out the Bush regime--revolution is the hope of the hopeless!"