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Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/a-message-from-cornel-west-and-carl-dix-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

October 24, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

A message from
Cornel West and Carl Dix

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/409/a-shout-out-to-the-resisters-coming-to-october-24-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

October 22, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

This is a shout-out to the resisters coming to October 24

To the loved ones of those who’ve been murdered by police...

To the youths and students...

To the clergy and laypeople, the artists and the writers...

To the Black and Brown and Native people who refuse to bow down to centuries-old and modern-day discrimination and oppression...

To the immigrants, hounded wherever they go...

To the women and men, LGBT and straight...

To those who catch the brunt of this terror and those in the middle whose conscience cries out...

To the people who’ve been waging this struggle for years and the people just coming into it, and those battlers for justice on all the other fronts of society who will be in the streets on the 24th...

This is a shout-out to those who see the need to draw the line, to resist the powers that be, and to shake up the people who go along, to put out the challenge for the whole world to see and hear: WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

This is a salute to the relatives of the murdered who will tell their stories on October 22, to those who lend their voices in support, and to those who will march when that is done. And this is a salute as well to the courageous ones who will put it on the line on October 23 to shut down Rikers Island, the concentration camp in the middle of New York City...

To all those and to all those working now to be there on the 24th, we say: RISE UP!

Rise Up October makes it plain: POLICE MURDER AND TERROR MUST STOP. Rise Up October means challenge and struggle. Rise Up October means determination not just to reform all this but to STOP it... to dare to call out and reverse a slow-motion genocide... to live a morality of justice and emancipation as we do... and to get ORGANIZED to make all that real...

Our Party and its leader, Bob Avakian, are determined to stand with Rise Up October... to fight with all our might to reverse this genocidal insanity... and to do all this as part of bringing into being a whole new world where such madness really IS no more and where all the other ways in which the seven billion human beings on this planet are exploited, oppressed, degraded, and diminished are overcome forever. We do this as part of preparing minds and organizing forces to hasten the advent of REVOLUTION, which is the only way that humanity can achieve its emancipation and truly bury its chains.

We will stand with you in struggle on these days. We salute your courage, your perseverance, and keeping your eyes on the prize.

And we invite you—we challenge you—to get seriously into the revolution... to get into and dig into the work of Bob Avakian, to watch his videos and read his writings... to follow our website, revcom.us... to run with the “revcoms” themselves, in the Revolution Clubs, fighting the power, and transforming the people, FOR revolution... and to come into our bookstores and meet the revolution.

The future can be ours. Let us dare to seize it.

Rise Up!

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/October-22-Rise-Up-October-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

No More Stolen Lives: Say Their Names

October 22, A Public Reading and Remembrance: A Demand for Justice

 

See coverage below (updated October 23).

 

Photos are being added as revcom.us receives them. If you were there and have photos please send them to revolution.reports@yahoo.com.

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  Lulu Fogarty, actress, playwright and co-producer, and Jamal Joseph, professor and filmmaker.

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  Tony Montenieri, and Eve Ensler, author and playwright

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  Nicholas Heyward Sr., father of Nicholas Heyward Jr., 13, murdered by NYPD, 9/22/94

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  Sister Shirley on behalf of the family of Eric Garner, 44, choked to death by NYPD, July 17, 2014.

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  Clergy from different religions stood with the families to Stop Police Terror.

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  Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7 years old, murdered by Detroit police, May 16, 2010.

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  Rev. Stephen Phelps

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  Simon Moya-Smith, for Mah-hi-vist Goodblanket, 18, killed by Custer County OK sheriffs, December 21, 2013.

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  Joshua Lopez, nephew of John Collado, murdered by an undercover NYPD cop, September 6, 2011.

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  Hertensia Petersen, aunt of Akai Gurley, 28, murdered by NYPD on November 20, 2014.

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  Kevin Kellum and Yvette Johnson, father and step-mother of Terrence Kellum, 20, murdered by immigration police in Detroit, April 27, 2015.

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  Gbenga Akinnagbe, actor (left), and Arturo O'Farrill, musician

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  Hawa Bah, mother of Mohamed Bah, 28, murdered by NYPD, September 25, 2012.

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  Ishtyme Robinson, mother of Ahjah Dixon, 23, died in Corsicana TX police custody, March 4, 2010.

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  Mayesha, cousin of Meagan Hockaday, 26, killed by Oxnard CA police, March 28, 2015.

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  Kimberley Griffin, mother of Kimoni Davis, Murdered by Hanging Rock OH police, 6/29/15

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  L'Sana DJahspora, father of Cinque "Q" DJahspora, 20, killed by Jackson TN police, November 6, 2014.

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  Playwrights Naomi Wallace (left) and Kia Corthron. Photo: Phillip Buehler

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  Chris Silva, brother of David Sal Silva, 33, beaten to death by Bakersfield CA police, May 8, 2013.

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  Paris Bey, cousin of Janisha Fonville, 20, murdered by Charlotte NC police, February 18, 2015.

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  Georgia Ferrell, mother of Jonathan Ferrell, 24, killed by Charlotte Mecklenburg County NC police, September 14, 2013.

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  Meko, Lavic, Lameka, Tameka, Family of LaReko Williams, 21, tasered to death by Charlotte NC police, July 20, 2011.

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  Raquel Almazon, actor, and Reverend Jerome McCorry

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  Dionne Downs, mother of James Rivera, 16 years old, murdered by Stockton CA police, July 22, 2010.

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  Cadine Williams, sister of O'Shaine Evans, killed by San Francisco PD in October 7, 2014

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  Chemika Hollis, partner of Nate Wilks, killed by Oakland police August 12, 2015

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  Cyndi Mitchell, sister of Mario Romero, 23, murdered by Vallejo, CA police, September 2, 2012.

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  Jessica Gatewood, mother of Richard Linyard Jr., 23, murdered by Oakland police after a "routine traffic stop," July 19, 2015.

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  Lanna, Elijah, and Marilyn Covarrubias, for Daniel Covarrubius, 37, killed by Lakewood WA police, April 21, 2015.

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  Civil rights attorney Martin Garbus (left) and ethicist and professor Kwame Anthony Appiah

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  LaToya Howell, mother of Justus Howell, 17 years old, killed by Zion IL police, April 4, 2015.

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  Gloria Pinex, mother of Darius Pinex, 27, murdered by Chicago police, January 7, 2011. Also in picture are Darius' three brothers.

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  Airickca Gordon-Taylor, cousin of Emmett Till (1941-1955), lynched by white racists in Money MS, at the age of 14.

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  Marion Hopkins, mother of Gary Hopkins Jr., 19, murdered by Prince George's County, MD police, November 27, 1999.

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  Quentin Tarantino (left) and Gina Belafonte. Photo: Phillip Beuhler

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  Art Blakey, Brother of Kiana Nicole Blakey, 17, killed by Cleveland police, 1989.

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  Maria and Nate Hamilton, mother and brother of Dontre Hamilton, 31, murdered by Milwaukee WI police, April 30, 2014.

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  Family, for Tyrone West, 44, murdered by Baltimore police, July 18, 2013

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  Tawanda Jones (speaking), sister of Tyrone West, 44, murdered by Baltimore police, July 18, 2013. At left, Gloria Pinex, mother of Darius Pinex, 27, murdered by Chicago police, January 7, 2011.

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  Darlene Cain, mother of Dale Graham, 29, killed by Baltimore police, October 28, 2008.

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  Carl Dix, co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

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  Hertencia Petersen, aunt of Akai Gurley, 28, murdered by NYPD on November 20, 2014; Mertilla Jones (at mic), grandmother of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, murdered by Detroit police on May 16, 2010; Nicholas Heyward Sr., father of Nicholas Heyward Jr., murdered by NYPD on September 22, 1994. Photo: Phillip Buehler

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  Banner brought from San Francisco to Say Their Names

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  Crowd at Times Square, October 22. Photo: Phillip Beuhler

"Don't hide behind the lies, don't hide behind the blinds..."

Times Square, NYC: Saying Their Names & Demanding a STOP to Police Terror

The truth: An epidemic of police murder and terror. The DEMAND: It must STOP! The message broke into the light of day from a stage in the middle of Times Square in New York City, and before the world, on October 22.

No More Stolen Lives: #SayTheirNames was an unprecedented event. It was a coming together of more than 30 family members, loved ones, and representatives of victims of police brutality from around the country, together with prominent voices of conscience. It launched three days of Rise Up October, leading up to the National March to STOP Police Terror on October 24 in New York City.

People came to share the stories and outrages, pain and anger of losing a loved one. They came to support each other, and have the backs of those fighting for justice. They exposed the crimes of the police, and shined a bright light on the epidemic of STATE TERROR especially against Black people, Latinos, and Native Americans. Most of all, they courageously came to STAND UP and FIGHT and to call on others to do that until police terror is brought to a stop.

~~~~~~~~~~

Early in the day, Nicholas Heyward, Sr. stepped to the front of the stage. His 13-year-old son, Nicholas Jr., was murdered by police in 1994 for playing with a toy gun. Nicholas Sr. shared the pain of that loss with courage. And he didn’t stop there. He issued a challenge that would echo across the world from the center of NYC: “We are talking about innocent lives that are taken constantly and the police never, never are held accountable. Enough of these officers killing our children. We need to put a stop to it. It don’t matter which one they bring into office, we still have to suffer these injustices to our children and that is something we need to put a stop to.”

“They Are Still Killing Indians”

Simon Moya-Smith spoke for Mah-hi-vist Goodblanket—an 18-year-old murdered by Custer County (named for the Indian killer) cops in Oklahoma in 2013 with seven shots, one to the back of the head: “He stood six foot eight. He was a big Indian. He was known for his warm hug. You felt safety in his warm hug, and the cops took him away.... 125 years ago was the Wounded Knee massacre. Twenty of the U.S. troops who were involved in that carnage received the Medal of Honor. Those medals have not been rescinded. The two cops who killed Mah-hi-vist Goodblanket received medals of valor. More than 125 years after the massacre of 300 of my people, 200 unarmed women and children, by the United States, they are still giving medals for killing Indians.”

Darius Pinex’s 2011 murder by Chicago police was covered up by a massive conspiracy of lies by the Chicago police and other city officials. His brother said: “People don’t know what we go through at the crib, thinking about the loved ones I lost, the ones you lost. For people to just keep saying, ‘Oh, he pointed a gun at me,’ or ‘I saw a shimmer, oooh’ they just steady lyin’ goin’ with the same excuse, steady over and over. And nobody pays attention, and nobody cares. Just ‘That’s what he did.’ That’s bogus man. Thank y’all for coming out. Justice for all y’all. Justice for Darius Pinex! Justice for Dakota Bright! Justice for Tamir Rice! Justice for everybody! Rise up October!”

The loved ones of victims of police terror came from all over New York City and beyond—from Cleveland and Detroit, from Oklahoma and Oakland, and everywhere in between. There was a contingent of clergy, representing in their vestments. They were joined by prominent voices of conscience. Artists contributed powerful works. Hundreds gathered to listen in Times Square, increasingly drawn into saying the names of victims as they were challenged to do so from the stage.

LaToya Howell is the mother of Justus Howell, 17 years old, killed by Zion, Illinois,  police, April 4, 2015. She said: “The first thing they tell you when they kill one of our youth is ‘I fear for my life.’ What are you trying to force us to do? Because we fear for our lives every day. Every day we send our child outside those doors we fear for our lives. We’re shown on TV, we’re shown on computers, we hear from word of mouth, we hear it all—that your child can be killed by the way that they look, walk, or talk.”

And she issued a challenge: “I am Justus Howell and I stand for all of our youth and loved ones. I want y’all to go home and think it over. Because today is the first day of the rest of your lives. And I need y’all to be a part of the solution. If you have a mouth, speak about change. If you have eyes, use them to see this bullshit. Don’t hide behind the lies, don’t hide behind the blinds and act such as you are blind. I see this every day and I have to live it every single day, and the pain never goes away. These are not just pictures and posters, these were people breathing, living their lives dreams and their compassion for people. My son and your son, I will fight for the rest of my life. No justice no peace!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Prominent voices of conscience read names of victims of police terror, told their stories, and lent their moral and physical presence to the day: actress and playwright Lulu Fogarty; graduate theology student Nkosi Anderson; professor, artist, and activist Jamal Joseph; Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues, and Tony Montenieri; Rev. Stephen Phelps; actress Raquel Almazan; Rev. Jerome McCorry; playwrights Kia Corthron and Naomi Wallace; philosopher and novelist Kwame Anthony Appiah; civil rights attorney Martin Garbus; director Quentin Tarantino; activist Gina Belafonte; and Carl Dix, co-initiator of Rise Up October and representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

#SayTheirNames in a Political War Over Police Terror

#SayTheirNames took place in the midst of a political war over whether one can call out the epidemic of police murder that is almost never punished (and in the few cases it is, only when there is massive outrage or exposure that cannot be swept under the rug). Or, whether such truth telling will be marginalized, censored, repressed, and shut down even as it gets worse, including by invoking every instance of a police officer dying under any circumstances (something that happens very, very rarely compared to the wave of killings by police) to confuse and intimidate resistance and protest.

While the event in Times Square got major international press coverage, it was largely buried or whited out in New York media, except for Fox News, whose headline was: “Two days after NYPD cop gunned down, anti-cop rally held in Times Square.”

Martin Garbus told the story of the murder of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in 1969—a political assassination of a freedom fighter and revolutionary by the Chicago police and the FBI. Eve Ensler ended saying “Can we just take a moment to think about each of these lives, each of these very real people, and hold them in our hearts for a second.” And after a moment of silence, she threw her fist in the air and challenged everyone: “Rise up to end police brutality and murder!”

For four hours in Times Square, the picture came more and more sharply into focus: A toy gun... A man walking down housing project stairs when the elevator wasn’t working... A seven-year-old child sleeping on a couch... Someone in desperate need of mental health care and compassion... MURDERED. The sadistic randomness... The insulting and absurd excuses... The systemic pattern of targeting Black, Latino, and Native American people for nothing...The pervasiveness of police terror... The fact that over and over and over, these murdering police are exonerated if not promoted.

~~~~~~~~~~

Searing testimony and stories from the loved ones of those killed by police and voices of conscience, including voices that rooted the current epidemic of police terror and murder in the genocide, slavery, and Jim Crow oppression, and in the persecution of immigrants that are the history of this country.

Airickca Gordon-Taylor spoke. She is a cousin of Emmett Till, who was tortured and brutally murdered by white racists in Mississippi 60 years ago for whistling at a white woman. She described the vicious, horrific way Emmett Till was tortured to death. And then declared: “This is still Emmett Till! What we have going on today, instead of hiding behind white hoods, cops are hiding behind their badges. This is a system with the new Jim Crow, it’s no different. And if we don’t rise up, it’s never gonna change. It’s up to us to make a change! Rise up! Rise up! Rise up!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Over the morning, the stories were told of about 250—out of literally thousands of people murdered by the police. And what was revealed was far, far more than enough to indict a whole damn system whose police are not there to protect and serve, but to enforce a world of slavery and oppression.

No More Stolen Lives: #Say Their Names—A Public Reading and Remembrance: A Demand for Justice was the kick off for three days of Rise Up October. It took place on the 20th anniversary of the National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, along with a protest later in the day in Brooklyn, and marches in other cities across the country.

In the face of lies and denial, whitewashing and threats, the stand of the families, the voices of conscience, the activists, organizers, and volunteers was absolutely necessary, courageous, and inspiring. It set a standard for everyone to rise to, stand on, and advance off of in the three days of Rise Up October, and the battle to bring an end, once and for all, to a situation where—among all the other horrors—every Black, Latino, and Native American child is born with a death sentence hanging over their head.

 

Chicago, October 22. Photo: Frank James Johnson

 

 

See reports of October 22 National Day of Protest in Brooklyn, NYC, and across the country.

Read more

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/reports-from-october-22-national-day-of-protest-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Reports from October 22—20th Annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation

October 23, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

These are reports we've received from cities about October 22 protests around the country. We will add other reports as we receive them.

Rally and March in Brooklyn: Fierceness, Anger, and Determination to STOP Murder by Police

On October 22, in New York City, about 200 people rallied in Brooklyn for the 20th anniversary of the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation.

There was a fierceness and anger in the spirit of the crowd and in the rally—a determination to be heard, to shout out loud that this rampant police murder MUST STOP. This was brought home very powerfully when the parents of those whose loved ones have been killed by the police took the microphone and spoke from the heart, with passion and tremendous anger. There were at least a dozen family members at the rally, coming from New York City and other cities, who had taken part in the public reading of names of lives stolen by the police in Times Square earlier in the day.

One of the first groups to show up was a contingent of 25-30 students from St. Anne’s High School. The group, mainly white, all marched in together. At least one teacher from the school also came with them. One student said, “This is something I hadn’t thought about much but I should, it’s a big problem.” Another said what’s happening to Black people is genocide. There were other high school and college students at the rally as well and many others, including a group who came together from Housing Works, a social service agency that works with people with AIDS and the homeless. About half a dozen transgender people came together from the Audre Lorde Project. There was a banner expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle.

There were a number of other speakers and cultural performances, including a nine-year-old reading a poem about police brutality and an older Black man playing the violin and singing a song about those who have been killed by the police. Rev. Jerome McCorry, who heads up the national faith task force for Rise Up October, spoke, calling on ALL the churches, Black and white, saying that there was no excuse for them not to join this struggle. Carl Dix, representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party and co-initiator of Rise Up October, called on people to look at the pictures of loved ones killed by the police, and to think about the fact that this is just a drop in the bucket of the people killed by police. He said this is an illegitimate system and called on everyone to come out on Saturday to march in the streets to demand a stop to this police terror.

After the rally, people marched through the streets to Barclays Center for a short rally.

All Photos: Special to revcom.us

Chicago

More than 70 people gathered at the James A. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago for a spirited “Say Their Names” protest. The crowd formed a circle to represent how the thousands in New York City on October 24 will figuratively “form a circle” around the families of police murder victims. Each person in the circle read three names of stolen lives, chanting “Say Their Names” after each name, and a pot and pan were banged after each reading in the spirit of the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina. There was a contingent of 25 mainly Black youths from a high school. One of the young women had a handmade sign against the police murder of her boyfriend by the Chicago PD this summer. Also participating were 25 people from Save Our Sons and Daughters—a community organization from the West Side—and some college students, including seven or eight students from the University of Dubuque, Iowa, who were in a class studying social protest and drove three hours to be part of October 22. Speakers of conscience included Unity Lutheran Church Reverend Emily Heitzman, pastor with Youth and Households Edgewater Congregations Together, who called for more “holy anger” at the systemic racism in America. The crowd joined together to sing “I Can’t Breathe” and “Hell You Talmbout.”

Then the youths marched through downtown bursting with energy and defiance, chanting “Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail, the Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell!” The high school youths were boldly in your face to the police; one youth shouted, “You talk about Black-on-Black crime, how about Blue-on-Black crime?” A number of people on the street joined in the march and came to the final rally where people spoke out against the crimes of police and why we have to Rise Up October. Several people signed up for the bus to New York City on the spot.

Cleveland

Fifty people assembled in front of the Justice Center in Cleveland to read hundreds of names of a small portion of the people killed by the police in the past 10-plus years from all over the country. Many people came up and read, from a family member, to a Black professional singer, to people organizing in the Black community, to white middle class activists, to Black people from the bottom, and a supporter of the Revolutionary Communist Party. And some of the people reading are coming to Rise Up October in New York City. We had many posters of people killed by the police from Cleveland and many Stolen Lives posters. There was a serious and determined feeling among the people there that the police killing is indeed an epidemic and part of genocide against Black and Brown people and only we the people can stop it.

The readings were interspersed with two vocalists; the readings went on for almost two hours. A Black man who is part of Rise Up October summed it up this way: “People need to hear the names. It could be any of us, our family, our children. If you don’t do something it will probably be one of our names, family members or someone we know. They kill people and no one is accountable. If we commit crimes we are held accountable. I fear for my life. For us Black and Brown people it’s modern-day slavery, a way of controlling.” Brenda Bickerstaff, a Black woman whose brother was killed by police and whose niece died in police custody a few months ago, said, “[We are] reading names so people cannot forget and have a constant reminder. We are tired of putting these pictures on posters.” A young white activist said, “Reading the names reminded us of why we are going to NYC.” At different points people called on others to get on the bus and be in NYC on October 24 to declare that the police terror must stop, and “which side are you on?” has to be a rallying cry throughout society.

Seattle

Photos: special to Revolution

The October 22 protest in Seattle was riveting and inspiring. Black and white youths, Native Americans, middle class white people, basic people of different nationalities, students from community colleges and art schools and others lined up to read the names and stories of cherished people who have been ripped from their families and us by police murder. April Nation, the aunt of James Whiteshield, told the horrifying story of her nephew’s beating and murder in jail in Seattle. Jamilla Gardner told of how the police stole away the life of her dear friend Victor Duffy Jr. As the stories were read of the people lost, their lives and the horror done to them, youths openly wept and people shook their heads in disbelief. The “Say Their Names” went on for an hour. People were welded into a determination to take this out to the streets and to people, to challenge them about which side they are on in the face of this genocide. People took off in a defiant, spirited, and youthful march through downtown, marching down main streets and disrupting traffic, singing “Hell You Talmbout” and other songs and everywhere saying the names of those lost to police terror.

Los Angeles

Atlanta

Houston

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/a-shout-out-to-the-courageous-fighters-who-put-their-bodies-on-the-line-to-shut-down-rikers-island-prison-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

A Shout-out to the Courageous Fighters Who Put Their Bodies on the Line to Shut Down Rikers Island Prison

Updated October 24, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The torture chamber and debtors prison known as Rikers Island was, for about an hour, shut down on the morning of Friday, October 23! Seventeen courageous freedom fighters, in a demonstration of civil disobedience, sat and laid in front of the only entry to the dungeon and were arrested. And about 100 others gathered around them chanting, "We Are Kalief Browder," "Rikers, Rikers, Shut It Down! This audacious and historic action made a powerful statement: we're not going to stop until the epidemic of systematic mass incarceration and police terror end.

An incredibly powerful rally on the street leading to Rikers fueled everyone's determination to shut it down. The reality of this prison: where 85 percent of the prisoners have not been convicted on their charges, but waste away for months, even years in Rikers awaiting trial, as happened to Kalief Browder; the people who died because of the actions and inactions of prison authorities; the torture, cruelty, and indifference routinely meted out to prisoners and their families. All this and more was exposed and condemned.

But even more, speaker after speaker—students who agonized over committing civil disobedience for the first time, and decided they must; "Raging Grannies" who sang a song of protest against mass incarceration; families who lost loved ones to police murder and traveled from across the country to contribute to Rise Up October—expressed a fierce determination to STOP this shit, and challenged others in society to take a stand.

The people committed to civil disobedience laid down in front of the gate to Rikers. In front of them, beautiful enlarged portraits of people killed by police, including 11 who had died at Rikers; around them, about 100 witnesses, determined to carry forward the fight for Rise Up October and to shut down Rikers. Rikers Island is an abomination, an atrocity. It is a concentration of the horrific abuse this system routinely, daily inflicts on Black and Latino youth. The heroes who sat in and laid down at the gates of Rikers have put a challenge in front of anyone with a conscience and a sense of justice

Reverend Jerome McCorry, a leader of Rise Up October and a witness to the Rikers Island civil disobedience, said, "I think this is fantastic. It's going exactly the way it should have gone. The people are sick and tired of being sick and tired. And today all this changes. This dynamic weekend, this Rise Up October, will always be remembered as the October that change is made. And it's going to happen exactly like this."

All of those arrested were released late Friday night. Call the NYC Mayor's office at 212-788-1400 and Queens County DA Office at 718-286-6000 to demand the dropping of all charges on the protesters.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/demand-the-release-of-people-arrested-on-october-24-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Demand the Release of People Arrested on October 24—Rise Up October March

October 25, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On a day when thousands took to the streets in NYC as part of Rise Up October—STOP Police Terror!, the police made two rounds of arrests—once during the march from Washington Square to Bryant Park, and later when people marched into Times Square. Eleven people were arrested in total.

Four people were held overnight at Central Booking and may be arraigned this morning. Killer cops go free while those who demand justice are incarcerated! Demand immediate release!

Put the call out: Demand from the DA's office and the Mayor's office that the protesters arrested at the Rise Up October—STOP Police Terror demonstration yesterday be released immediately.

Call the Manhattan DA's office: (212) 335-9000
Call the Mayor's office: (212) 788-2502
or 311

Do it now—and spread the word.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/awtwns-israel-on-a-rampage-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

From A World To Win News Service

Israel on a Rampage

October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

October 19, 2015. A World to Win News Service. What’s going on in Israel today is not a case of a peaceful society defending its citizens from attack. It is an Israeli rampage against Palestinians, with collective punishment being imposed on entire neighborhoods and Palestinians as a people. Israel says it is protecting “its people,” but unarmed Palestinians are being attacked and killed on a far broader scale as official policy by the Israeli state and armed Jewish civilians. If killing children and unarmed adults is wrong, then how can Israeli actions be justified or tolerated?

Palestinian individuals who just happened to be unlucky have been beaten and killed on the street. In addition, Palestinian websites and some Western media have reported case after case where soldiers may have placed a knife near the body of someone they have already killed. About half the Palestinian dead so far were not even accused of attacks; most were demonstrating. In some cases, they were hurt or killed simply for “looking” Palestinian. One Jewish man was stabbed by another who mistook him for an “Arab.” A 29-year old Eritrean, similarly “misidentified,” was shot by a soldier and then bludgeoned to death by a mob screaming “Death to Arabs.”

The excuse is the fact that some Palestinians have taken up screwdrivers and kitchen knives against soldiers, police and pseudo-“civilian” settlers armed with automatic weapons, and in some instances attacked Jewish adults and children at random. But Israel’s current murder drive has nothing to do with protecting human lives. Israel kills Palestinian adults and children wantonly, whether they are armed or not.

Whose lives were being protected when an Israeli missile destroyed a home in Gaza October 11, killing the pregnant Nour Rasmi Hassan and her baby daughter? Israeli authorities claimed they had targeted a nearby Hamas “rocket factory,” but no rockets have been fired from Gaza lately, and Hamas is reported to be enforcing a truce on armed actions against Israel.

Whose lives were being protected when Israeli troops shot across the barrier surrounding Gaza, killing two unarmed boys, 13-year-old Marwan Barbakh and 15-year-old Khalil Othman, and wounded seven other people holding a protest October 10?

Whose life was being protected when an Israeli settler carrying an assault rifle shot and killed 18-year-old Fadel al Qawasmeh? He had just passed through a checkpoint to reach his home in Hebron, a West Bank city whose Palestinian inhabitants are virtually imprisoned in the name of protecting a few illegal Jewish settlers whose avowed aim is to take all Palestinian homes and land. Instead of arresting or even disarming the shooter, the soldiers let settlers distribute candies in celebration.

If Israel is trying to protect lives, why, when an alleged or real assailant is captured and disarmed, are they so often executed on the spot? Why are journalists being targeted, and why are people shooting videos of incidents violently repressed, like the French TV cameraman brutally beaten after identifying himself?

Why are Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and other cities locked down, like a new version of the Warsaw Ghetto for Jews established by the Nazis, with the pretext of protecting lives, while Jewish settler neighborhoods are allowed to disgorge bands of armed men chanting “Death to Arabs” and looking for victims?

For background on the nature and role of Israel see the special Revolution/revcom.us issue: The Case of Israel: Bastion of Enlightenment or Enforcer for Imperialism?

Why can Israeli soldiers, settlers and other Jewish citizens kill Palestinians with impunity, backed up by the combined military force of almost all the Western powers? Why are some people taking up screwdrivers and knives in the face of that?

The current upheaval that began in East Jerusalem and other Palestinian areas in northern Israel, spread to the West Bank and then Gaza did not come out of nowhere. Western authorities and their media like to say that the issue is the Palestinian suspicion that Israel plans to ban Muslims from the Al Aqsa mosque built on the ruins of the equally sacred ancient Jewish Temple Mount. Settler groups backed by government figures have threatened to do just that. Although authoritative rabbis argue that Jews are forbidden to pray there for religious reasons, this wouldn’t be the first time that Zionism adjusted religious tradition for political purposes. But this is not basically a conflict of religions.

Palestinian communities began to come to a boil in the summer of 2014 when Jewish settlers grabbed 16-year-old Mohammad Abu Khdeir, tortured him and burned him alive. They said it was in revenge for the kidnapping and killing of three teenagers from a Jewish settlement on the West Bank shortly before. The two Palestinians accused of killing Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar were later shot dead by Israeli security forces. The homes of their families were destroyed as punishment, even though no one was ever put on trial. Another Palestinian was given a long prison term for complicity. About 35,000 Israeli soldiers and civilians, some posing with their guns, “liked” a Facebook page named “The People of Israel Demand Revenge.”

Of the six men arrested for killing Khdeir, three were released, even though the police said they were suspected of involvement. The other three, who confessed, are in jail awaiting trial. They are expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity related to their religious convictions. The government has not destroyed their homes, punished their families, etc.

Khdeir’s neighborhood is one of several in East Jerusalem that have seen mounting protests and fighting against police and settlers. East Jerusalem, once majority Palestinian and also home to Jews who had lived there for a long time, is seeing Palestinian families driven out by new settlers. One neighborhood, for instance, is almost entirely populated by recent arrivals from the U.S. Palestinian neighborhoods, both the poorest and better off, are surrounded by walls and fences, literally under siege by soldiers and settlers.

Since Israel annexed all of Jerusalem outright in 1967, Palestinians born there are theoretically Israeli citizens. They have the legal right to travel in Israel, unlike Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, although they are denied, even formally, important rights enjoyed by Jewish Israelis. For many their alleged rights only make the reality of discrimination and violence all the more bitter.

If their houses are on fire, Israeli fire trucks won’t come to the rescue. Their rubbish is their own problem. New schools are out of the question. Every year more Palestinian homes and other structures are torn down for having been built without a permit that’s almost impossible to get. It’s not uncommon for a foreign Jewish man to show up at someone’s door—accompanied by police—with papers declaring him the rightful owner because someone, somehow, is said to have sold the apartment or building to his ancestors.

Now, more than ever, Palestinians of all social classes in Israel and the other occupied territories have to recognize that they can be killed at any time, with impunity, and they can count on their dignity being violated, in addition to the Israeli seizure of most of Palestine itself.

Many of those protesting, fighting police and soldiers and otherwise ready to die rather than accept the situation were not born at the time of the Oslo Accords two decades ago, when Israel agreed to negotiate with the Palestinian leadership. Since then, the status quo has gotten more and more unbearable for Palestinians throughout the land seized by the Zionists in 1947 and 1967. The last decade of relative peace on the West Bank has brought more settlers taking more and more land that they vow they will never give up, more police and army killings to “protect” brazen armed settlers and suppress Palestinian political rights, and more hopelessness. Gaza has been turned into an open-air prison whose inhabitants are perpetually punished with no other justification than Israel’s claim that its security depends on their suffering. Palestinians in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel, supposedly the most privileged, are now among the fiercest fighters.

If Palestinians who are citizens and residents of Israel are treated this way, how could the so-called “two-state solution,” a tiny, fragmented, and toothless Palestinian “state” in Israel’s shadow, be any better?

One reason people grasp at this “solution” is because it’s hard to imagine how Zionism’s oppressive power can be defeated as long as Israel plays an essential role for the U.S. in the Middle East. It is the U.S.’s only thoroughly reliable ally and bully-boy in the region precisely because the Israeli state and privileged Zionist society could not survive without the support of the U.S. and other imperialist powers. This puts Palestinians in a very difficult situation, where fresh strategic thinking is required amid a regional situation that has never been so unstable and unfavorable for the U.S. that has dominated it for decades.

People who want a very different Middle East, and a very different world, and everyone who dares believe that Israeli interests and the Zionist project do not trump Palestinian rights, needs to help expose what is really going on and stand on the side of justice.

A World to Win News Service is put out by A World to Win magazine, a political and theoretical review inspired by the formation of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the embryonic center of the world's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/awtwns-can-two-state-solution-liberate-the-palestinian-people-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

From A World To Win News Service

Can the "Two-State Solution" Liberate the Palestinian People?

October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

October 19, 2015. A World to Win News Service. Following are excerpts from an interview with Ilan Pappe by Khalil Bendib for the Status Audio Journal (www.statushour.com) on September 9, 2015. Pappé is a historian and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine: A History of Modern Palestine and the Israel-Palestine Question. Driven out of Israel, he is now chair of the Department of History at the University of Exeter in the UK. The full transcript of the lengthy interview is posted on Jadaliyya.com.

The so-called “two-state solution” (a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza existing alongside Israel) is the policy advocated by the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority. Israel has sometimes implied it might accept that, and sometimes, like right now under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declared Israel will never accept it. Many Palestinians and their supporters believe that it is the only possible step forward, while much of the debate has focused on whether or not such a step could actually happen, and if so, how. Pappe discusses why that is a wrong focus, and why, if this concept were implemented, it would represent the legitimization and attempted stabilization of the oppression of the Palestinians as a people.

Ilan Pappé

Ilan Pappé: What lies behind the idea of a two-state solution is: if the Jewish national movement and the Palestinian national movement arrive more or less at the same time to the same place, and were unable to settle the question of to whom the land belongs, and were unable to reconcile, and what was needed was kind of a grown-up in the form of the United States and Britain that would help these two sides to reconcile on the basis of a kind-of American, business-like approach, where you divide the land, you divide the responsibility, and so on. And that is a very wrong way of reading the whole history of Palestine since the arrival of the Zionist movement there in the late nineteenth century until today.

This is not a conflict between two national movements fighting over the same piece of land. This is a struggle between a settler-colonialist movement which arrived in the late nineteenth century in Palestine and still tries today to colonize Palestine by having most of the land with as few of the native people on it as possible. And the struggle of the native people is an anti-colonialist struggle. You have to come back to any historical case studies you remember of an anti-colonialist movement fighting a colonialist power and ask yourself, at any given moment was the idea of partitioning the land between the colonizer and the colonized portrayed as a reasonable solution? Especially by people who were on the left or saw themselves as conscientious members of the society?

And the answer is a resounding no. Of course you would not support the division of Algeria between the French settlers and the native Algerians. And even in places where you had settler colonialism, namely where you had white people who had nowhere to go in a way, like in South Africa, if you would suggest today as a progressive person that you should divide South Africa between the white population and the African population, you would be regarded at best as insane, and at worst as someone who is insincere and a fascist. I think this logic—which is so clear to many people on any other place in the world—somehow fails to work in the case of Palestine.

For background on the nature and role of Israel see the special Revolution/revcom.us issue: The Case of Israel: Bastion of Enlightenment or Enforcer for Imperialism?

The two are connected in the sense that when we analyse the situation in Palestine, when we ask ourselves why were Palestinians expelled massively in 1948? Why were the Palestinians in Israel put under military rule between 1948 and 1967? Why was this military rule transferred from inside Israel to the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967? Why are the Bedouins in the south of Israel and the Palestinian villages in the north of Israel today subject, like those who live in Jerusalem, to a policy of expropriation of land and strict regulation in their own places of habitation? Then of course we get to this question of why does Israel refuse to allow the refugees to return and imposes such an inhumane siege on Gaza? When we ask all of these questions and we look for the reason why they are done, we know now better than we ever knew before that the reason for this is ideological. It is a Zionist ideology.

This is a Zionist vision shared by all the Zionist parties. Now, this is the main, almost the exclusive, obstacle to peace and reconciliation in Israel and Palestine. Not addressing it, but only addressing the Israeli policy here or there, would be similar to addressing certain policies of South Africa during the heyday of Apartheid without touching Apartheid at all.

Khalil Bendib: In your book, On Palestine, co-authored with Noam Chomsky, you speak of this term, “peace orthodoxy,” which you accuse of being more of a racist than pragmatic tendency. You go as far as saying that among the pushers of a two-state solution, “the dictionary of the peace orthodoxy sprang out of an almost religious belief in the two-state solution. And that comes straight out of a contemporary version of Orwell’s 1984.”

IP: Yeah. It is a newspeak. I mean, I am using Orwell here in his reference to newspeak, the kind of language that does not only disable us from calling a spade a spade, it called it exactly the opposite. Usually, a cruel reality is described as a benevolent one in the newspeak of Orwell. And I think the same is true about these words, which to me are sacred. I mean, “peace,” “justice,” “reconciliation” are three of the most sacred words in our vocabulary as human beings. They really represent the highest form of human ambition to live peacefully with one another, to live in a society which is much better than any other society. Now, to use these languages in order to cover up for a process on the ground which achieves exactly the opposite—instead of reconciliation, it sows more dissent and animosity and hatred; instead of peace, it creates war; and instead of justice, it maintains an Apartheid system—when these words are used as a protective shield to describe a reality that is exactly the opposite of what they mean, this for me is even worse than racism in a way. This is a kind of the Orwellian nightmare that I have when people begin to use words in such a way.

The idea for a two-state solution began as a Zionist, Israeli ploy after 1967 to reconcile a really simple problem: they have kicked out millions of Palestinians in 1948, but because of their territorial appetite, they wanted to take those parts of Palestine they did not occupy in 1948—the West Bank and the Gaza Strip—but with the territory came another one million and a half Palestinians, today almost three million Palestinians. In order to reconcile the fact that you now have the whole of the land, but you are still left with a demographic nightmare as far as the Zionist movement was concerned, one of the means they have used was the peace process. The peace process was used as a kind of message to the world which says, “As you can see, we are now robbing the Palestinians in the occupied territories of any basic human rights and civil rights. As you can see, we are expropriating their land, we are building Jewish settlements on them, we are expelling them quite massively, and we imprison them even if they dare just to raise the Palestinian flag.” Now, what the peace process means for the Israelis is a message to the world: “This is all temporary, of course when peace comes, all these measures will be removed.”

Now, of course, you can understand why people on the Western left would have succumbed to this explanation after five years of occupation, or 10 years of occupation. I can still see why one could still be hopeful that the Israelis mean it, or that the world has the power to force Israel to mean it. But after almost 50 years, to still stick to this idea which is an Israeli ploy to deepen the colonization of the areas they have occupied in 1967, and to wipe out any possibility of negotiating the areas they occupied in 1948, or the return of the refugees, to do that is really to be very stagnant and dogmatic in one’s perception of the reality. You would have expected critical voices on the American and European left to be a bit more alert to the kind of trap they have found themselves in, which Israel very cleverly has put there, in a way.

From a scholarly point of view, there are many aspects of the reality in South Africa which are different from those in Palestine. I could mention the lack of any equivalent to the Jewish lobby in the case of South Africa. I can mention also the Holocaust as a game changer in the history of Palestine, and there is nothing equivalent to this in the case of South Africa. And of course there are differences in the way the Apartheid regime manifested itself in South Africa and in the way the ethnic cleansing paradigm, or structure, in Israel was working. But these are minute issues that do not really undermine the basic comparison, which is the most important one.

KB: Again, in opposition to the more “pragmatic” Chomsky, you place not only the right of return for Palestinians at the heart of an eventual solution to the Palestinian question, but also reparations for what happened to the Palestinians over the past 60-plus years. Explain to us how this is not necessarily just a utopian dream, and how these two essential conditions are central to a true solution for the future of Palestine-Israel.

IP: Yes, indeed. I think my departure point on the right of return is very different from those who would assess it pragmatically. Namely, is it feasible, or even on the question—which, anyway, is debatable—does Israel have the capacity to absorb such a large number of people should all the refugees want to come back. I think this is not now the issue and that is not the reason we are now bringing it up. We all have been bringing up the issue of right of return. The [denial of] the right of return is a symptom of the racist nature of the Zionist regime in Israel. That is the main problem.

The objection of Israel to the right of return stems from the same ideological reasoning that lies behind the Judaization policy in Galilee, the destruction of Bedouin villages in the Naqab in the south of Israel, the Bantustanization of the West Bank, and the ghettoization of Gaza. It stems from the same reason, and as a Zionist you always wanted it from the late nineteenth century to today, you want to have as much of the land as possible with as few people as possible. And therefore, when you support the right of return, you are not only recognizing an individual right that the international community sanctions in Resolution 194 from the 11th of December, 1948. You not only adhere to all the international conventions about the refugees’ right of return. No less important, you refuse to accept as legal, as moral, and as politically acceptable, the idea that the native people have no right to be in their own homeland. And I think that is the main issue.

A World to Win News Service is put out by A World to Win magazine, a political and theoretical review inspired by the formation of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the embryonic center of the world's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/quentin-tarantino-interviewed-by-michael-slate-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Quentin Tarantino Interviewed by Michael Slate

October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Quentin Tarantino was interviewed by Michael Slate while marching in October 24 Rise Up October: STOP POLICE TERROR.

When Black and Latino lives are being stolen by the police in epidemic numbers—we need more and more people saying this:

Michael Slate: I’m from KPFK in LA.

Quentin Tarantino: Hey!

Michael Slate: Can I talk to you? Ask you just a few questions as we are walking? All right. You came out on Thursday. And it was very moving... I was there just listening to those stories. Then you come out today and it’s pretty important that you are out here, that your voice is out here. What made you feel compelled to be here?

Quentin Tarantino: Well, what made me feel compelled basically is I’m a human being and I have a conscience. I’ve been sitting here and I’ve been watching. It’s been going on for a long time, but for the last year and a half it seems like you just see one Black and Brown man or woman killed... murdered by the police. Unarmed. And I believe that there is a problem in the police culture itself that is corrupt and the culture needs to be changed. And the thing about it is if I actually do feel that it is murder and it’s not extenuating circumstances, then I have an obligation to stand with the murdered against the murderers and that’s what I’m doin’ here.

Michael Slate: A lot of people have made the reference to genocide, a slow genocide yes... but a genocide that’s in formation and actually taking place as we go along. What do you think of that?

Quentin Tarantino: I think that makes a lot of sense. I mean, you know, to me the whole mass incarceration situation that’s been going on for the last 20 years, I think 30, 40 years from now people will call it “slavery, part 2.” American slavery, part 2. And that issue and this issue are married to each other, they are linked in arms. My job isn’t to be the most eloquent person speaking on this subject that there is. There’s a whole lot more people here more eloquent than me. But I can put my body here.

Michael Slate: And also it does make a difference that your voice is heard. There’s people in society that have disproportionate influence based on the work that they do, a lot of times, in your case in particular. So it makes it... no matter what it is it’s actually important when someone like you comes out and stands up and says, “Look, I see what’s going on. I can’t sit there and pretend I don’t.”

Quentin Tarantino: That’s the thing. One of the things about the movement that actually just means so much is that they have a powerful slogan: “Which side are you on?” If you’re not on our side, you’re on their side. There’s no straddling the fence. There’s no silent majority. There is none of that. You have to take a stand. If you believe it’s murder, then you gotta call it murder. And you gotta call the murderers, murderers.

Michael Slate: Absolutely. One more and then we’ll be through. Well, two more. One is this Niemoller quotes have been coming up in my mind a lot in relation to this. First they came for these people, but I didn’t say anything¹. And it goes down the line. Then there’s a second one² he talked about that a lot of people don’t talk about where he speaks to this last point that you made—What if... When he got out of the concentration camp, he said I have to think, what if we had stood up, what if we had spoken out, what if we had done something, think of how many lives might not have been taken

Quentin Tarantino: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It’s funny, a lot of people here involved in this movement, some of them are of very different minds about what should be done, and some of them are for all out revolution. I like the idea of that, but I don’t think that’s the only answer. I actually do think that massive resistance, which is what this is, can stop this, can put a pause in it, can put a second thought in it with these cops. And I do believe that there is a corrupt culture inside of the police force, that needs to be straightened out. They are just too authoritative. Nobody should be stopped and actually have no rights during that encounter until later. That’s just untenable.

Michael Slate: What would you say to people who hear your voice now, what would you say to them about what they need to be doing?

Quentin Tarantino: If you don’t believe the way we believe, well then you don’t and that’s where you stand. But if you believe where we’re comin’ from, and you believe that it is murder, and you believe people are being killed, then you have to say something. You have to join. You have to stand up. You have to join with us, and there’s a lot of different ways you can do that, but you need to. Because that’s the only way it’s going to stop.

Michael Slate: How actually do you see it being made to stop?

Quentin Tarantino: I actually do think that if this happens enough, and it actually becomes like a ’60s movement thing in a real way, which actually would be very interesting because the Civil Rights Movement was led by young people in the ’60s. This is being led by moms, this is being led by fathers, this is being led by family members and young people are catching up and that’s a really terrific thing. And so I think that it literally can be a situation, if it comes out there, then we can change the police force, we change the way the police academy teaches the police, and we can get rid of some of these cops. You should have a higher calling to be a cop. We expect our doctors to aspire to a higher calling, not just have a job. We expect the people who work... the paramedics and the ambulances, we expect them to aspire to a higher calling, not just have a job. And we need to expect that from the police. They’re not just having a job and things happen.

Michael Slate: Quentin Tarantino, thank you very much.

1. Poem by Martin Niemoller, a German pastor who opposed the Nazis:
First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up. [back]

2. “We preferred to keep silent. We are certainly not without guilt or fault and I ask myself again and again, what would have happened, if in the year 1933 or 1934, 14,000 Protestant pastors and all Protestant communities in Germany had defended the truth until their deaths? If we had said back then, ‘It is not right when Hermann Göring simply puts 100,000 communists in concentration camps in order to let them die.’ I can imagine that perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 Protestant Christians would have had their heads cut off, but I can also imagine we would have rescued 30 to 40 million people, because that is what it [cost us].” [back]

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/michael-slate-interviews-at-rise-up-october-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Michael Slate Interviews at Rise Up October

Updated 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. Listen to some of those interviews here:

Quentin Tarantino:   Listen here | Read transcript

Jamal Joseph:   Listen here | Read transcript

Eve Ensler:   Listen here | Read transcript

Kwame Anthony Appiah:   Listen here | Read transcript

Arturo O'Farrill:   Listen here | Read transcript

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/carl-dix-at-october-24-rally-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Carl Dix at the October 24 Rally: "Let's do all that we can to stop the horror of police murdering our people. And then let's do even more because we gotta stop this.

October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Listen here

The following is a rush transcript.

Okay, Okay. You have seen the faces of the lives that have been stolen by the police. Beautiful lives that were cut down too short. This is unacceptable and our demand is very simple: police terror, police murder must stop. Not be reduced a little bit. Must stop!

Now sometimes people say well, your demand needs to be more concrete than that, Carl. So let me give you a concrete demand:

Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!

[chanting with crowd:]

Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!

One more time.

Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!

Now look, that’s a simple and just demand. But we need to be very clear that when we raise that demand we gotta fight for it. Because there is a whole system that’s behind those killer cops. It ain’t just a few killer cops on the beat with some rogue DAs, or corrupt DAs, district attorneys. It’s a whole system all the way up to the top, that arrested people en masse when we protested these killings over this last year, that demonizes our people, especially the young people to try to justify these murders.

Now when I say that, some people might be thinking, well wait a minute Carl, didn’t Obama say he was going to do something about this a couple of days ago? Didn’t he say that he supports Black Lives Matter? Well, let’s be clear. The Obama who said something about Black Lives Matter six months ago said that the youth of Baltimore were thugs and criminals when they rose up in response to the police murder of Freddie Gray. So let’s not get twisted by that. He’s trying to rope us back in. He also said along with saying I’m gonna do something, it has to be incremental. Now what does that mean? It’s gotta be small, slow steps to change things. That ain’t going to cut it. This has got to stop. We don’t want no small reduction of the people they warehouse in prison or the people that they kill. We want it stopped.

And look, we are going to fight to make that happen. Ain’t nobody going to do it for us. And we are doing that today. We’ve been doing that this week. Thursday, No More Stolen Lives/Say Their Name. Thursday afternoon, march and rally for the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality. Yesterday, some of us put our bodies on the line to pose the demand, Shut Down Rikers Island—that debtors’ prison and torture chamber. And that’s what we’re doing to do today and we’re going to keep doing that.

And we are delivering a very serious message: Stop police terror, which side are you on? Because don’t tell me no BS about “I’m in the middle” or “I’m neutral.” This is murder, this is genocide we’re dealing with. And in the face of a genocide there ain’t no neutrality. You’re either on the side of acting to stop that genocide or you’re on the side that says it’s ok for it to happen. That’s the two sides. Which side are you on? That’s the challenge we’re bringing to people.

And look, I can give you the numbers of how many people the police kill, more than 930 since January first. But this ain’t about numbers for me. This is personal. Look I sat with Mertilla Jones a few days after her granddaughter, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, had been murdered by the Detroit police. I met Sharon Irwin a couple of days after her grandson, Tony Robinson, had been murdered by the police. I’ve worked with many more families, many more than I can talk about now. I have to say, my wife’s brother more than 40 years ago was gunned down by the police on his mother’s doorstep, one day after they had told her she would never see her son alive again. So this is personal for me. And it is up to us to stop this. We have to take that on.

And when I say stop this, it’s not just the horror of what the police is doing to Black and Latino people although we gotta stop that. It’s also the attacks on women in this society; it’s the attacks on our immigrant sisters and brothers; it’s what happens to lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people; it’s the wars for empire; it’s the way they are destroying the environment of the planet. And I will tell you it’s going to take revolution, nothing less to end all those horrors once and for al. That’s what it’s going to take.

Now, some people tell me I shouldn’t talk about this. But I gotta talk about it because it’s what you need to hear. Fred Hampton, a brother that I really respected 40 years ago, said something that I’m going to repeat right now. He said: “I am a revolutionary.”

And I feel like some of y’all feel like that way too. So say it with me: I am a revolutionary. [with the crowd:] I am a revolutionary.

And look, I’m not just a revolutionary. I’m a revolutionary communist. I follow a man, Bob Avakian, who’s got a strategy for making revolution and a blueprint for bringing a new society into being. You need to check him out if you want to be free.

But look, all of us gotta be in this together. Cornel West, who you will hear shortly, is a Christian, a revolutionary Christian. I’m here with the clergy. I’m here with the students, I’m here with the people from the community. I’m here with the victims of police murder. We all have to be in this together. Our diversity, our different voices make us stronger.

Now let me say this. Fred Douglass said this a while ago, more than 100 years ago. I’m not quite old enough to go back to then, but I know what he said. He said power concedes nothing without a demand. That was true then and it’s true now. It’s gonna take struggle to bring about a change for the better. And that is what we’re doing sisters and brothers. But we gotta keep doing it. And we should not pat ourselves on the back for having been out here today and say we did a good job and feel good about ourselves. That ain’t it. We gotta be in this for the long haul. It says stop police terror, and that’s how long we gotta be in it.

There’s some next steps. Travis talked about it. November 22—Tamir Rice, one year ago murdered and no justice. We have to act on that. December 3, Eric Garner—one year ago they let those murdering cops go free. We gotta act on that. We gotta keep acting and not stop acting until this is stopped.

Now I’m gonna close with this. But I’ve been doing this for a long time. I am tired of putting together lists of victims killed by the police. I am tired of putting pictures on posters of people murdered by the police. I am tired of making hashtags for the victims. This has got to stop. I got an 8-year-old granddaughter. I do not want her generation to come up to be talking about what are we gonna do about the police killing our people. I want her generation to talk about this as history that really is history ’cause it don’t happen no more. Not the way that we have to talk about Emmett Till as history that echoes and reverberates today.

So let’s do all that we can to stop the horror of police murdering our people. And then let’s do even more because we gotta stop this. We gotta do it for ourselves. We gotta do it for our children. We gotta do it for future generations. Stop Police Terror! Which side are you on?

We know what side we’re on. We’re challenging the world and the whole country: Which side are you on?

Thank you sisters and brothers.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/obama-addresses-police-forum-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Obama Addresses Police Forum:
Cosmetic Changes, Increased Repression

October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On October 22 Barack Obama participated in a Criminal Justice Reform Panel sponsored by The Marshall Project. The panel was chaired by Bill Keller, the former executive editor of the New York Times, and included “law enforcement leaders,” Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, and U.S. Attorney for Colorado, John Walsh.

Obama’s remarks were widely reported as defending the slogan “Black Lives Matter” and calling for significant reforms in policing and the legal system. Obama did acknowledge that what he called the “problem of racial justice or injustice in the society” has been “a running theme in this country’s history for a very long time.”

What is the reality here? What is the “specific problem”?

Obama poses the problem as society’s need to “reduce crime and violence and making our communities safe.” He speaks of the “disproportionality” of the criminal justice system that has resulted in the mass incarceration of generation after generation of Black youth.

But that is not the actual problem. Why are so many Black youths arrested? Why are hundreds of thousands of Black youths locked up in prisons? Why are so many Black people constantly harassed by police, picked up for minor violations, and forced to live in impoverished social conditions where there are crumbling schools, no jobs, little or poor health care, overcrowded, decrepit housing?

Black people are arrested, convicted, brutalized, murdered, held for months and years in city and county lock ups, and sent to prison for decades at far higher rates than white people. The root problem is that the 400-year nightmare of Black peoples’ brutal oppression has been foundational to America, since before it was a country to this day. And in fact, today that situation has escalated to the level of slow genocide that could become fast genocide.

Nothing Obama said, the few cosmetic changes he offered in sentencing and in developing “community policing,” in any way challenged that. In fact, his remarks and the program he advocates would do just the opposite: strengthen the police’s ability to carry out repression and brutalization of people for whom this society has no decent life to offer, now or in the future.

Obama and other members of the ruling class he represents are deeply concerned about the exposure of and, even more, the resistance to, this country’s police and criminal INjustice system that have spread throughout society. They are very concerned that the image of the U.S. as the self-proclaimed homeland of “democracy and justice” is being undermined worldwide. In a period of increasing global challenge to U.S. dominance, it is being shown to be a bottomless source of blatant discrimination, unpunished police violence, and systematic legally enforced persecution of Black people.

One section of the rulers is determined to make some cosmetic changes that enable it to better carry forward a program of more intensified repression, defense of murdering and brutalizing cops in any and all circumstances, and an unhindered program of mass incarceration of Black and Latino people. Obama and others, mainly Democrats, think that some changes in police training, and a less blatantly discriminatory set of legal policies, are necessary. And then there’s the Republicans.

Obama’s program would include the involvement of “community leaders” in working out “solutions” with the very police and political officials carrying out the attacks upon the people. Obama concluded his remarks by saying, “It’s incumbent then on the activist to also take seriously the tough job that police have. And that’s one of the things that the post-Ferguson task force did. We had activists who were marching in with Ferguson police chiefs and law enforcement, sitting down and figuring this stuff out.”

This is putting  reality and truth on its head. What if people in Ferguson hadn’t courageously risen up and rebelled and gotten the attention of the world? Michael Brown would be one more Black youth murdered by the police, and forgotten by all but his family and friends. What if people in Ferguson had sat down to “reason things out” with the murdering cops instead of persisting in their demand for justice in the face of tanks, tear gas, the National Guard, and vicious police attacks? Would there have been the outpourings of protest against police brutality that pulsed and grew across the country for months last year? Would the whole world have come to see how systematic and deeply engrained the brutality and murder of Black people is in this country?

When the youth of Baltimore rose up demanding justice for Freddie Gray—so the police murder of this young Black man would not be ruled “justified” as so many others are—Obama called them “thugs.” Fact is, those youth did more to do something positive about police terror and mass incarceration than a billion appeals to the powers-that-be, let alone marching with police chiefs.

Obama attended this forum on the 20th anniversary of the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of Generations and in the midst of Rise Up October to STOP police terror. What he is doing is the opposite of all that. He spoke before an audience of police officials and prosecutors who have been not only the enforcers but the architects of a system of “criminal justice” that has resulted in millions of people being imprisoned, thousands murdered, and countless thousands brutalized and terrorized by the police. As Radley Balko, author of the book Rise of the Warrior Cop, said, this was like “convening a panel of dogs to discuss the threats to squirrels.”

Obama was trying to convince the audience of police and legal officials to make some adjustments in how they enforce the oppression that is increasingly being exposed before the entire world for the systematic brutality and outright murder of Black people it is. He is also trying to convince the many middle-class people who have been roused to question and protest the white supremacy and the injustices that characterize this society, that he is acting to make the system more fair and equitable, while ensuring that their “safety” is paramount. He is doing this for the purpose of sustaining this oppression, and this system.

No. This system has white supremacy deeply embedded in its structure, its functioning. It has no solution to the relentless oppression it has enforced for hundreds of years. It has no future to offer the youth of today and future generations. Its leaders, whether Obama and the Democrats or the Republicans who oppose them, do not have any interest, desire, or ability to change that in any meaningful way.

What is needed from the people is not helping the enforcers of repression to better carry out a slow genocide that could become a fast genocide.

Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party emphatically expressed what is urgently needed: “When you’re up against a genocide, and that IS what we’re dealing with, you don’t ask the people presiding over it to make some changes to smooth out the rough edges of that genocide or to slow down its intensity. You act to STOP it.”

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/october-24-voices-of-loved-ones-of-people-murdered-by-police-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

October 24: Voices of Loved Ones of People Murdered by Police

October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Before and after the Rise Up October march through NYC on October 24, dozens of family members and other loved ones of people murdered by police shared the terrible loss they suffered, the outrage of lives stolen by police, and their solidarity with all victims of police murder. And over and over they declared their determination to continue to fight for justice—for their own loss, and to STOP all police terror. Following are just a few of those voices.

Lsana D’Jahspora is the father of Cinque “Q” D’Jahspora, killed by Jackson, Tennessee police, on November 6, 2014: Remember the name: Cinque, we called him Q. Q is here today I guarantee you. This young man’s spirit was connected to mine even before he was born, and trust me, he is here. Cinque was gunned down—I say executed—in Jackson, Tennessee, just three months after Mike Brown. Lying on the ground, face down, and shot in the back. And not only that, Cinque caused so little threat these cops actually went to the car and then came back and shot him—in the back. You can see the execution on video. But even until this day they are in denial. They have even lied about the cop who fired the shot, this is how layered the conspiracy is, the cover-up. So I say to you families, I’m glad to be part of this justice train. I will go anywhere to stand with any family, but bring this justice train to the plantation in Jackson, Tennessee. Those of you who can, November 6 is the one-year anniversary. We got to take this train all around the country, but come to the plantation, because we need you there brothers. It’s as bad as it was in the fifties and sixties.

Yolanda McNair, mother of Adaisha Miller, killed by an off-duty Detroit cop at a party at his house, July 2012: No investigation into my daughter’s death. And they waited 25 minutes to call 911. They never checked him for alcohol or drugs. They stopped short of saying she shot herself. She had no gun shot residue on her hands, clothes or wound track. She was shot in her lungs and it went through her heart. I don’t think her going out that night to celebrate her life, her upcoming birthday, was her plan to end up dead. The last thing I told her was that I loved her. And I thank God that I got to hear her say ‘I love you’ back because I gotta keep that, I gotta remember that, for the rest of my life. But I’m here to fight for my daughter. I’m here to fight for everybody’s child, parent, and grandchild. I’ll be their voice. I’m gonna be here. And the police officer in Detroit who killed my daughter, I will be there when you go down too.

Venus Anderson, mother of Christopher Anderson, shot to death by Highland Park, Illinois, police in the hospital, November 3, 2014: My son was shot down in an emergency room by the Highland Park police station. Now my story might be a little bit different from y’alls considering my son did have a weapon on him, but it took them about two-and-a-half hours to realize he was armed. My son never pulled a gun out on the police. He was in the hospital for two-and-a-half hours before they discovered he had a gun on him. My son went walking through the hallway with his hands in the air saying ‘Don’t shoot, I surrender.’ They put him back in a room and gave him forty-four seconds to put the gun down before opening fire on him, in 1.7 seconds, nine bullets at my son in a small closed in room in a curtain. My son was shot in cold blood. He fell over off the bed, and while his body was dead, they put handcuffs on him. And when they rolled him over, ladies and gentlemen, the gun was still beneath him indicating he never pulled a weapon on the police. This is injustice. So whether they have a gun or not, you have to look at the circumstances. My son didn’t deserve to die that way, like none of your family, none of your kids deserved to die like this. We pay the police to serve and protect us, they are no longer hiding behind white sheets, ladies and gentlemen, they are hiding behind their shields. These are the new age police. Let’s shut em down!

Joshua Lopez, nephew of John Collado, murdered by NYPD, September 6, 2011: My uncle got murdered for breaking up what he thought was a fight between two individuals, and one of the individuals involved in the fight was a police officer who never identified himself. And that same police officer who killed my uncle had murdered somebody two years prior to that. And he’s still working on the force. And I’m here fighting for a better world, a decent world, where we can live in peace without having to fear for our lives!

Marlee Kanosh, on behalf of Corey Kanosh, killed in by a Millard County, Utah, deputy October 2012; Paul Castaway by Denver police, July 12, 2015; Sarah Circle Bear died in custody July 5, 2015 in Aberdeen, South Dakota. (all Native Americans): Addiction and mental illness is not a crime. Most of our people are dying because of that. Life sentences. My brother Corey Kanosh was a passenger in a car that was eluding police. The driver was a white male. When the car was stopped, the driver ran, and my brother stayed in the vehicle. Approximately forty steps away, which would be ten seconds, the driver heard two shots. My brother cried out in pain. The next day when we heard the cops’ story, they said Corey ran two hundred yards away, and they discredited the driver’s story because he had a little bit of alcohol in his system.... The only person who went to get medical attention was the cop because he said he was attacked by a canine. ...Paul Castaway recently passed away. He was a mentally ill Native American who had a knife to his own throat when police shot him. Also,our Native American women. Sara Circle Bear, just like Sandra Bland, was found unresponsive in a jail cell. The inmates who were in jail with her said she was pleading with the jail staff to help her because she had a medical condition and the jail staff told her to quit faking. She was found dead in her jail cell.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/government-raids-target-texas-clinics-in-war-on-women-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Government Raids Target Texas Clinics in the War on Women

October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On October 23, Texas State Health Department officials raided Planned Parenthood clinics in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Brownsville to demand that the clinics turn over thousands of pages of documents, including patient records and employee phone numbers and addresses. These fascistic raids were related to the move by the governor of Texas just a few days earlier to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.

Think about what it means that the government forced their way into health clinics and seized private health records. Imagine you’re a woman whose private and sensitive information—past medical history including any abortions or STDs, medications you are taking, other personal information you’ve shared in expectation that they would remain private between you and your doctor—now subject to the prying eyes of government agents acting as morality police. This is a nightmarish horror—and needs to be called out widely.

These outrageous steps against Planned Parenthood—and the people who use their services and work at the clinics—are part of an ongoing campaign across the country and on a national level by fascist forces against the right to abortion. There is an intensifying and concerted effort to stigmatize abortion as well as birth control, to demonize doctors and others providing these vital health services to women, and eventually to make it totally impossible for women to get birth control and abortions legally and safely—in other words, to force women to bear children against their will.

As part of justifying their attack on Planned Parenthood, Texas officials cited the undercover video done by a Christian fascist anti-abortion organization, which claims the video shows Planned Parenthood illegally agreeing to sell fetal tissue and organs—when Planned Parenthood officials are actually discussing how women can donate fetal tissue to medical research, which can potentially advance medical treatment in various areas and is perfectly legal.

The anti-abortion forces are using the deceitfully edited video to accuse Planned Parenthood of “killing babies” as part of their overall anti-women offensive aimed at completely denying the right of women to choose. But the scientific fact is that fetuses are NOT babies. And women ARE human beings who should have the unquestionable right to choose whether or not to bear a child—and to have safe and unimpeded access to any form of birth control and abortion, without apology.

This war against women is taking place across the U.S. Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana have also moved to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. On October 23, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Republican bill aimed at rolling back elements of Obamacare and including the blocking of federal payments to Planned Parenthood. Another bill would ban all abortions past 20 weeks. Six states have only one abortion clinic left. Over 330 state laws restricting abortion have been introduced this year alone—and some 50 have been passed.

Behind the moves to effectively ban ALL forms of birth control and abortion is the patriarchal view that a woman’s role is to be subservient to men—to be controlled by their husbands and to be breeders of children, breeders of property, for their husbands. Forced motherhood and the control of women is the agenda of these Christian fascists and powerful forces within the ruling class. This reactionary crusade to enslave women must be opposed—and it must be STOPPED.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/voices-from-the-crowd-october-24-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Voices from the Crowd on October 24

October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Revolution reporters and volunteers talked to many people at the rally and march on October 24. The following are excerpts from some of the interviews.

Cephus Johnson, “Uncle Bobby”

I am the uncle of the young man named Oscar Grant who was killed on the Fruitvale BART platform on January 1, 2009, lying face down in a prone position with his hands behind his back, when Officer Mehserle stands up and shoots him in the back. As you know there was a major rebellion that took place in response to Oscar’s murder. And what was tremendous about that was the community embraced the family, they stayed with the family, they cried with the family, but they went back and forth with the family. Most importantly, they utilized their First Amendment right to speak to the very injustice. What we see here in New York City, with the community and families joining together marching... letting the world know that police terrorism is not going to be tolerated no more, and we’re here to speak loud about it, so that all can hear. That this must stop! And we’re asking you the question, “Which side are you on?” Join us in this movement to bring justice, freedom, and equality to all people.

30-year-old Black man from Ferguson

I came out to the protest because the police murders continue. I had started protesting in Ferguson but then the protests were dying down. So I knew we all had to come out to Rise Up October and support one another. I had been working on Rise Up October with other people in Ferguson. They were raising money so this protest could happen. And I was part of all that.

What did you hope to accomplish?

To support one another. New York came through. Baltimore came through. California came through. All these places came through. I didn’t know all those police killings had gone on in New York City and all the other places! For all of us to come together in New York City and support the families of people murdered by police. It was a masterpiece, a masterpiece of a protest.

Was there anything the speakers said that struck you the most?

Yes, the woman whose son was killed by the police who said that the only way she could face the pain of losing her son was to keep using crack! She said she would continue do her best, but the pain that she is feeling since her son was murdered is bad!

What is your impression of who was at Rise Up October?

Myself, many others—it was actually a mass of people! And all different nationalities.

What do you think it would really take to stop police terror?

We have to address the Black-on-Black crime—so people will have a different focus than they do now. And we have to go to aldermen and other politicians to get reforms. But what we really have to do is get the revolution organized. We have to do much more to organize the revolution. We need billboards, all over, to get the revolution out there more, so it can be known to many more people. We need to make a really good pitch so that more people would actually see the advertising for this. Before Rise Up October, in Ferguson, we went to people’s houses and watched the videos of Bob Avakian’s speeches—but it has to be much more of this.

A person from the Green Party, New York

The Green Party has endorsed the Black Lives Matter movement for a long time... We have a Brooklyn representative here and we have a Manhattan representative and Long Island. Basically we’ve stood against the police state and against mass incarceration, and we think it’s really important to support as part of a movement. And we think it’s important to say it kind of ties into all these problems, whether you talk about the climate crisis or low-wage workers being exploited or Black people being killed by the police. It’s all about people being disempowered and we think big organizing is important to this.

Male student from Truman State University, liberal arts university in Kirksville, Missouri, studying sociology

I thought that [Rise Up October] would be a good opportunity for me to learn more, and to experience something like this. That it would help me to better educate the community, if I could experience a demonstration with other people. I was hoping to hear from the families, the stories that would resonate with me that I could share with other people, so I could spread the word.

What struck me was that whenever people spoke, they told how there was no accountability whenever their loved ones were killed by the police. In every case, not getting justice for their deaths!...

I feel like the entire capitalist system of America was built on slavery and genocide and that we have to recognize as a people that it continues today. And we have to get rid of the system that encourages that! 

Asian man, about 30 years old

I came out here because this issue is a serious issue that our country needs to pay attention to. I think there is more and more attention on it, but I still haven’t seen any real commitment from the government, from the people in power, to do anything about it.

Of the speakers and families, what has most struck you?

Just seeing the resilience of the family members; that they’re able to come out here in this weather and explain their stories... It takes a lot of courage to do that, it takes a lot of patience. Just seeing their strength, to do a lot more work for them. If I were in their shoes I don’t think I would be able to do what they do, and they are forever inspiring another generation of people.

What do you think it will take to completely stop police brutality and murder?

You know, I wish I had the answer to that. But all I know is that it’s going to take a lot more people to come out, and it’s going to take all of us to contribute to this effort. I think, like everyone has been saying, we can’t just go home and say it’s been a good day. We have to go home and do our homework and do something about it.

A male student at Columbia College, Chicago, studying game design

I came because [an organizer with #RiseUp] came into class and made an announcement: We are going to NYC, this is why, this is what it is about, this is when we are going, this is how much it costs—and at the end, he asked all of us, “Which side are you on?” And I said, “Shit, this is the side I’m on!”

Previously, in that same class, I had seen the 11-minute video of Cornel West talking, with some of the families of people killed by police. I had known that people were murdered by the police but I had not known the extent of it. The video helped me to understand.

What did you hope to accomplish?

Getting a lot of people out there and getting it visible, so that all the people like me, who didn’t know about it, would get a wake-up call. We did get a lot of visibility! In New York, due to the numbers we had, traffic was snarled on a lot of streets and just came to a halt. So I think that a lot of people did find out about Rise Up October. A side point: the police had put up tall metal fences along the route of the march to cordon it off from the people passing by. People on the street just jumped over the fences to join the march.

Was there anything the speakers said that struck you the most?

What struck me the most was that I thought it was going to be a lot of sad stories, sort of like a memorial service, but instead, the speakers were stone-cold angry!

What is your impression of who was at Rise Up October?

I expected that all those types of people would attend. But what surprised me was the quantities! As far as what was new to me, all of it! It was my first protest!

What do you think it would really take to stop police terror?

Well, a complete overhaul of the whole system of policing—to utterly stop this in its tracks. It can’t be just a few reforms, but a complete change in the whole structure of policing.

Deonte Davis, cousin of Tony Robinson, murdered by Madison, Wisconsin police

I’m just here supporting, getting the justice I need for my family. [Tony’s] mom’s here, this is something big that we’ve been waiting for this moment for a while. We just want to get our justice.

What do you think about what’s happening here today?

Oh it’s amazing. We got a lot of people coming together, coming together as one, one voice, getting shit done. I mean it’s amazing.

What are you hoping to accomplish?

Hopefully to stop killing us, and actually hear our voices, so that we’re heard.

How did it feel to be connected to all these families?

I mean, to know I’m not the only one who goes through this, and it’s more people than I expected. It’s amazing.

Students from Prairie View A&M University in Texas

We came up here, we knew we had to do something to try to move the student body in Texas.

How many of you?

We had 15... and we’re trying to get our numbers up.

How did you organize it?

X came to the school and helped us out. And they told the students what to do, and then the kids just worked together and took it on.

Do you feel we’re accomplishing something important here?

Oh, yeah. This is going to be historic and I hope that it keeps on going. I can’t wait.

Are you going to take it back to Prairie View?

Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah! We got to get more people out here.

Donna Kay Williams, member of Orange, New Jersey City Council and People’s Organization for Progress

People’s Organization for Progress is in support of the march and we came out to support the effort, the Rise Up October.

What struck you about the speeches and the rally?

I will tell you, just watching the murders that are going on and the lack of responsibility on the person shooting, in this case the various police officers, and them being held accountable is what brings me out to say we have to do something about this. While I am a city legislator I’m a person too who has family members, and this is something that you can’t stop thinking about. And I’m telling you I’ve been thinking about it more because after seeing all the pictures of all those people killed there’s a portion of people as far as the West Coast, Chicago, everybody here, so when you accumulate a combination of all those pictures together you say, “wow.”

Cadine Williams from Oakland, California, whose brother O’Shaine Evans was killed by San Francisco police, October 7, 2014

It's time to rise up. This is well overdue. This is well overdue people. Get off that couch. Shut that big screen off. Stop being comfortable with them killing us. Stop being comfortable with being oppressed. Get out, fight for your rights. Stand up, fight back against this system. Tell the system we'll no longer have this. No more stolen lives. No more stolen lives.

What did it mean for you to get up on that stage and speak today?

It means a lot for hundreds of people to hear my story about my brother. Because if you don't make it to the media too much, your story will never be told. No one will have known who O’Shaine Evans is, was. You know that's my brother and I am my brother's keeper, and I'm going to keep on. Keep on fighting for my brother.

What do you hope will be accomplished today?

I hope more people will come out. I hope everyone will rise up against this system, and say no more. Enough is enough. I hope they will... people will stop being comfortable with them just killing us like that. People will unite, and get together, and overthrow this system!

What do you think it's going to take to finally put an end to this police murder?

For more people to come out. More people to come out and take these streets over and say enough is enough. Take the whole damn street over! Fuck half of the street! Let's take the whole street over!

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/66-activists-arrested-in-protest-at-police-chiefs-convention-chicago-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

66 Activists Arrested in Protest at Police Chief's Convention in Chicago

October 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

October 24—Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), Assata’s Daughters, We Charge Genocide and Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) took action to shut-down the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference in Chicago.

Their statement said: “From Chicago to Oakland, New Orleans to New York City, Black people live under police occupation everyday. Black folks who are poor, women, formerly incarcerated, working class, LGBTQ and gender non-conforming, differently abled, and/or undocumented are particularly vulnerable to police violence and hyper-surveillance. As a people living in Black bodies, state-sanctioned violence is always a clear and present danger. This must end.”

While Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy welcomed police chiefs to Chicago, 66 people chained themselves together and sat down in the street, and were arrested.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/statement-from-carl-dix-i-challenge-pat-lynch-to-a-debate-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

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.

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?

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/high-school-student-on-video-of-sc-cop-assaulting-student-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

From a High School Student:
On the Video of S.C. Cop Assaulting Student

Updated November 5, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Watch the video [of Deputy Ben Fields in SC]. It is right there. It is irrefutable. Yet another agent of the state brutalizing our youth. This is police terror. You should be outraged. Where is your fire? Your sense of what is right. I call upon all of you. It is 2015, we have had enough. Take to the streets. Rise up. The system has failed us, let us not fail each other.

Be out there on November 22, the anniversary of Tamir Rice's murder. He was a 12 year old boy that was murdered by police within seconds of them showing up on the scene. Justice has not been served. It is time for the masses to rise. 

Indict, Convict, Send Those Killer Cops to Jail
The Whole Damn System is Guilty As Hell 

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/410/a-bootlicker-of-the-year-al-sharpton-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

A Bootlicker of the Year: Al Sharpton

October 27, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On October 24 thousands of people converged in NYC to demand STOP POLICE MURDER AND TERROR! Among them were courageous loved ones and representatives of over 100 victims of police murder; people who live day in, day out under the gun of police violence; students and others from all walks of life; and voices of conscience from the arts, literature and entertainment. They drew a line—demanding an end to police murder and terror. They challenged everyone: WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

On that same day—and standing on the other side of that line--Al Sharpton held a prayer vigil for a cop who died of a gunshot wound earlier in the week and demanded laws to make it easier for judges to lock up innocent suspects who have not been convicted of any crime.

Al Sharpton was quick to declare the cop was "murdered" by a "menace to society"—invoking racist code words for the marginalized, desperate millions with no future under this system—even though the circumstances of the death are unknown and the man police have in custody denies he is guilty. And Sharpton told people to look for safety and protection to "the good ones" on a force that plays a social role of being a menace to humanity—terrorizing the inner cities and communities of the oppressed with an epidemic of state-sanctioned murder by police.

For all that, Al Sharpton gets a massive "Bootlicker of the Year" award.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/411/cops-cant-do-their-job-on-video-what-is-their-job-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Cops Can't Do Their Job on Video—Then What IS Their "Job"?!

October 28, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On October 23, FBI Director James Comey gave a major speech at the University of Chicago Law School. A few days later he repeated the basic thrust of it to the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

This speech is filled with distortions, half-truths and outright lies; it is a poisonous and deceitful attack on the righteous struggle to stop police terror directed at Black and Brown people.

We cannot take apart this whole pile of bullshit right now. But let’s just look at one segment which has been widely replayed and talked about on FOX News and other media outlets and has spread across the Internet—the part where he complains about the so-called “Ferguson Effect” (the “theory” that protest against police terror is causing violent crime to skyrocket).

In it, Comey talks about how the poor little piggies are now scared to get out of their cars because the youth are threatening them with... cellphone video cameras!*

Really?!? You can’t “do your job” because someone might video it and... then what? They would see that your job is actually one of needless and utterly illegal and illegitimate humiliation and brutalization of Black and Latino people?

Really, come on—you’re going to admit that? You can’t even be as accountable as a football referee?

What does that say about the “job” of the police—that is, the functioning and role of the police in crushing the spirits and hamstringing the lives of the oppressed masses?

It says exactly that what Bob Avakian has been saying for decades is the cold truth:

The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and order that enforces all this oppression and madness. (BAsics 1:24)

*Comey’s actual words from the speech: “I spoke to officers privately in one big city precinct who described being surrounded by young people with mobile phone cameras held high, taunting them the moment they get out of their cars. They told me, ‘We feel like we’re under siege and we don’t much like getting out of our cars’” [back]

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/411/voices-of-conscience-step-up-in-defense-of-quentin-tarantino-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Voices of Conscience Step Up in Defense of Quentin Tarantino and Condemn the Police Union Threats and Boycott

Updated November 10, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Rise Up October to Stop Police Terror, three days of beautiful and powerful resistance, involved people from many different perspectives who recognize that stopping the epidemic of police terror and murder will take struggle and protest. Families of those killed by police murder, voices of conscience, clergy, students, revolutionaries and others joined together to say Police Terror Must Stop and challenged many others: Which Side Are You On?

For his participation in this mobilization, Quentin Tarantino has come under attack. Patrick Lynch, the head of the Policeman's Brutality Association (PBA) called for a boycott of Tarantino’s films. Police unions in LA, Philadelphia, and New Jersey have joined this call. The proven-racist, ex-cop Mark Fuhrman has gone even further, calling for police to deny Tarantino permits or protection to do filming.

The following are statements responding to this attack:

Carl Dix, co-initiator of Rise Up October, representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party
The police threats against Quentin Tarantino amount to a mafia-style protection racket, only the payoff being demanded is toeing a political line, not cash. "Don't dare criticize police who kill people, or we'll make it impossible for you to work in our towns." It is aimed at sending a message, not just to Tarantino, but to anyone whose voice carries great weight in society: "if you speak out, we will come after you, threaten your livelihood and attempt to scare you back into silence." They want the people who suffer the brunt of this brutality alone and ignored. This is unacceptable.

Video after video has shown unarmed Black, Latino, and Native Americans being tazed, stomped, brutalized, and shot in the back by police and almost never are the police even indicted. What kind of society allows this? What does it say when those who raise their voices against this are the ones who come under attack?

We must not allow the intimidation or silencing of those who use their influence to shine a light on the epidemic of police terror. Artists need to be able to express themselves on progressive causes without fear of retribution and attack. We will have Tarantino's back and call on others to join with us.

Cornel West, co-initiator of Rise Up October, Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary
Can we keep the focus on what I, Brother Carl Dix, Brother Quentin Tarantino, Sister Eve Ensler, and THOUSANDS of others tried to do—a moral focus on the unnecessary deaths of those killed by police. Of course the killing of police is wrong but the killers do go to prison. Ought not policemen go to prison when they kill us?

Cornel West and Carl Dix on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC on Rise Up October, the attacks on Quentin Tarantino, the FBI director's claim video keeps police from doing their jobs, and the struggle to stop police terror. Listen here (first 18 minutes of the segment).

Statement by Hector Villagra, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California, in Support of Quentin Tarantino’s Condemnation of Police Killings

So far this year, police in the United States have killed 970 people. The number of people killed by police in Germany and the United Kingdom combined is two. To be sure, the U.S. population is larger than that of Germany and the U.K.—about 2.5 times larger—but not hundreds of times larger.

We are in the midst of a crisis. But it’s not just about deadly policing. It’s about deadly and biased policing. People of color make up less than 38 percent of the population but a startling two thirds of the unarmed people killed by police. This year police have shot and killed an unarmed black man every five days, according to a running tally in the Guardian newspaper. Each death shows just how painfully far our nation remains from equality and brings us back to the same crossroads.

Are we going to accept a deeply divided nation where only some can trust the police? Are we willing to accept that growing up black in this country too often means being vulnerable to the brutality of racism, even by police? The answer should be clear. We cannot remain coldly silent and ignore what is happening.

Quentin Tarantino has decided that he will not be silent or ignore what is happening. He has spoken out, as is his right, in the strongest terms against the biased policing that has led to this sickening tide of fatalities. Organizations representing police officers immediately distorted Mr. Tarantino’s comments, suggesting he was referring to all officers and calling him a “cop hater.” Police unions, as is their right, have called for a boycott of Mr. Tarantino’s films.

The ACLU of Southern California stands with Mr. Tarantino and supports his condemnation of those police officers who have killed unarmed citizens who pose no threat. He has given voice to the frustrations of millions of Americans who stand for justice, and we raise our voice with his, speaking up as we have for decades to make it very clear that we condemn not the police, but police brutality and challenge the conspiracy of silence around police abuse.

Ilan Pappé, historian and social activist
A country in which artists are not allowed freedom of expression, while the police are free to profile, discriminate and even kill innocent civilians just because of their race and color is a Guantanamo country. It is a place where millions of people are faceless and can be arrested, wounded and killed without hesitation or fear of restitution. The right of Quentin Tarantino to express himself freely in his films equals his right to protest publicly against police brutality. Denying either right or both will retain the USA in the eyes of the world as a Guantanamo state.

Ed Asner, actor
There is no freedom of speech and evidently Quentin Tarantino thought there was. He was wrong. You don’t wave that red flag in front of cops and the world of policedom, including that savant Commissioner Bratton. This has come down on Tarantino’s head. Regrettably. Enough gas has been emitted. I think the demonstrations in New York protesting the many killings demonstrate this most important factor—that the training and education of police throughout the country has to be greatly improved and intensified so that the instances of trigger happy shootings will diminish.

Viggo Mortensen, actor:
[from interview on Democracy Now] I saw both the clip of what he said on the 24th of October, and I saw him on All In last night with Chris Hayes, and I thought that Quentin Tarantino knocked it out of the park in his interview last night. He clearly saw what anybody with eyes on their head could see in certain videos. Fortunately, those certain events were videotaped, of police brutality. He was commenting, like the people, the families of those who had been slain by police officers—unarmed people, you know. In some cases, those acts have been condemned, you know, have been called murder. And in other cases, they have controversially not been—what happened on Staten Island, you know, recently, and in other places, even though they were videotaped, and all could see what was going on.

David Zeiger, filmmaker, tweeted:
Yes...it is murder. I call on my fellow documentarians to #SideWithQuentin

Gina Belafonte, Sankofa.org co-director, tweeted:
Defeat attempts at censorship and silencing. celebrities speak out and #SideWithQuentin

Simon Moya-Smith, Native American writer and activist, tweeted:
I #SideWithQuentin. #BlackLivesMatter & #NativeLivesMatter are not anti-police. We are in opposition to systemic oppression of ppl of color.

Michael Moore, filmmaker, Instagrammed:
Quentin Tarantino, a brave and good American, standing with families who've lost loved ones to police violence. Now certain police, the same ones who defend the cops who've killed unarmed innocent black citizens, are out to get Tarantino. They've called for a boycott of his movies. Really? I think just the opposite. I think millions of us not only stand with Tarantino, we're going to make sure we go see his next movie! Who's with me? Stay strong Quentin. They're just frightened and in shock that a well-known and respected white guy would dare to speak out.

Robert Meeropol, founder, Rosenberg Fund for Children
Police departments in the United States have been militarized. The police in many communities, particularly when dealing with people of color, act as an occupying army and treat residents as the enemy. The shooting and killing of unarmed people of color, terrorizing those communities, is the inevitable result. The police violence must stop, and the police in question must be brought to account. Public protest against such police violence is the right thing to do. The protesters, whether they are Hollywood personalities or the average person on the street, should be commended, not attacked, for their actions. Efforts by police fraternal organizations to intimidate them must be resisted. Police violence and intimidation are incompatible with the free, just and democratic society we aspire to.

Sudie Gordon, Founder/Gloria Norwood, Co-Founder, Support for Families and Friends of Murdered Victims (November 9, 2015)

As Founder and Co-Founder of Support for Families and Friends of Murdered Victims, located in Waukegan, IL, it is with pride and determination that we stand behind Mr. Quentin Tarantino in his bold and courageous stand against police brutality and killings.  

Through our mission, we have witnessed much of the violence by police that Mr. Tarantino is speaking about. In the Lake County area that we live in we have families that come to our support group attempting to find others who have been affected and to unite as kindred spirits who are grieving because of the loss of a loved one. We attempt to sympathize, love and share whatever resources may be helpful in giving these families strength. 

We personally feel that Mr. Tarantino is an asset to this country, both as a member of society and as a iconic movie producer.  

Thank you Mr. Tarantino...from the bottom of our hearts...

Jamie Foxx, actor
When Foxx had the stage to present an award at the Hollywood Film Awards on November 1, referring to Quentin Tarantino's words at the Rise Up October demonstration, Foxx told him to: "Keep telling the truth, keep speaking the truth and don't worry about none of the haters."

Joyce Carol Oates, author, tweeted:
It should not require unusual courage to protest police brutality as Quentin Tarantino has done but, evidently, it does.
--
Ironic that police defending police brutality plan to boycott violent Tarantino films.

--

Despite threat of police boycott of literary novels, poetry, & belles lettres we are bravely supporting Quentin Tarantino.

Tom Morello, musician, tweeted:
Proud of Quentin Tarantino 4standing w/police brutality opponents. Bullying by FOP to silence the truth is typical. Would Django apologize?!

--

RATM OFTEN boycotted by police 4 speaking truth. Fuck ticket sales/Oscar backlash. Tell the truth Quentin & let the chips fall where they may

Peter Biskind, cultural critic, film historian, journalist 
Good for Quentin Tarantino for joining the RiseUpOctober demo and incurring the wrath of the rabid police unions.

Roland Martin, radio host, tweeted:
Cops are upset that someone with #QuentinTarantino’s stature would stand w/those of us against police abuse. @Carl_Dix on #RolandMartinShow

Billy Corben, director of Cocaine Cowboys, tweeted:
Tarantino didn’t call all cops murderers. He said: if you murder, you’re a murderer. Regardless of your occupation.

Martin Garbus, civil rights lawyer
Quentin Tarantino is to be complimented and acknowledged for his truthful remarks at the rally [on October 24, 2015]. He accurately helped describe a terrible problem in America today. We should support him, not chastise him, for using his voice in the defense of freedom.

Charles Burnett, filmmaker
I can't say enough about Tarantino. He said what needed to be said. I hope his rage encourages all of us to speak out against genocide. When his new film opens, I will be there to show my support.

Arturo O'Farrill, Grammy award winning jazz musician, Advisory Board, Rise Up October
Last time I checked this was a free nation in which an artist, or any citizen, was allowed to speak their mind without fear of retribution. Calling for the boycott of Mr. Tarantino's work is within the rights of free speech just as Quentin's statements were. Calling for obstruction to his business is probably illegal. One does not have to agree with Mr. Tarantino's terminology to see that the discharge of a weapon is serious business, and when we see the remarkable numbers of unarmed citizens fired upon by police officers, one must speak out. You don't have to agree with anything anyone says publicly but the premise of this nation is the idea that we have an inalienable right to question how we are governed. It is the foundation of the American revolution and constitution, and all of our subsequent liberties.

National Coalition Against Censorship (http://ncac.org/blog/quentin-tarantino-the-nypd-and-the-first-amendment/)
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino exercised his First Amendment rights by speaking at a New York City protest against police brutality. At the October 24 event, he denounced "police terror," and reportedly said this: "I have to call a murder a murder, and I have to call the murderers the murderers."

In response, Patrick Lynch, the head of New York's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association union, called Tarantino a "cop-hater" and said that it was "time for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino's films." A union affiliated with the Los Angeles Police Department has reportedly endorsed the boycott as well.

The union has as much as right to disagree with Tarantino's speech as the filmmaker has to denounce police brutality. But one would hope that police officials would take care not to ignore the constitutional rights of people with whom they disagree. Lynch's statement says that Tarantino "has no business coming to our city" to express himself. He most certainly does have such rights. That a law enforcement official would suggest otherwise sends a very disturbing message that is antithetical to basic free speech principles. Indeed, in light of the police department’s unfortunate history of violating the rights of peaceful protesters, Lynch would do well to remind officers of their obligation to respect the legal rights of even those with whom they disagree.

Peter Coyote, actor and writer
One has to wonder why the statements of a private citizen who is articulating that he has a conscience and is against killing; who speaks critically of police killings which are nearly extra-judicial—consider the shooting of a man in a wheel chair; threatening to “light-up” a woman pulled over for failing to signal, throwing an undisciplined student over backwards in her chair—or any of the hundreds of questionable murders by police now being questioned by citizens because they have cell-phones and can show the world what an undisciplined law officer can do. I don’t understand why this generates formal protests from a police union, for instance, as if the members have all voted and are in accord with seeking financial retribution against a citizen exercising his constitutional rights. Wake up people. It could be any one of us under the gun next time. Police are employees, and until their employers tell them STOP! Enough! We need to understand that that silence is actually a dog-whistle signal to a quiet constituency that is afraid to speak up about their deep fears of African-American men. What is that dog whistle signal? It’s simple. It is, “We’re not gonna let them get you.” And they prove it daily. Until their fellow officers stand up the crazies and until their employers—the mayors, boards of supervisors, governors etc. say, “STOP” it will continue. It will only be a matter of time before some people begin to fight back. That’s a bad future to look forward to. Good for Quentin Tarantino. Shame on those who do NOT speak.

Jen Marlowe, author, filmmaker, playwright 
It's absolutely unconscionable that Quentin Tarantino should face intimidation and threats for speaking out about state murder. As an artist—as a citizen—Mr. Tarantino's right to free speech and to dissent must be protected, not attacked.

Shaul Schwarz, filmmaker—Narco Cultura, Southern Rites 
Police brutality in this country is an urgent problem and the last thing that journalists, artists and filmmakers, should be, is bullied to not say what they think, this is exactly what is done now to Tarantino and I think it's a disgrace.

Bill Ayers, Movement Reimagining Change
Praise to Quentin Tarantino for adding his voice against the serial assassination of Black people by the militarized armed forces of the state. When the Top Cop in the country, FBI Director James B. Comey, gets into a blue rage and goes on a public relations rampage, claiming that the police are being sidelined by scrutiny, blaming the victims of police murder, their allies, and the activists who rally in the name of justice and humanity, it’s high time everyone—residents, citizens, artists, activists—stand and be counted.

Comey’s out front with a clear statement about a particularly perverse police perspective on public safety and the place of the cops in a free society: let the cops loose everywhere; let them do what they do without oversight or constraint or citizen/community scrutiny; don’t watch; trust us. If they would just stop watching, things would be fine.

Good for Quentin Tarantino.

Taigen Dan Leighton, Zen Buddhist teacher, priest, scholar, and author:
The Black Lives Matter movement and Rise Up October is a nonviolent reasonable response to the urgent need for change in the face of weekly or more incidents of murder or brutalization by police of unarmed African-Americans. This horrible pattern of police violence against African-Americans is a threat to all citizens. I deeply respect and congratulate Quentin Tarantino for his participation and support of this demonstration. He represents me and many other "white" Americans who are morally alarmed at this pattern of police violence, but could not be present ourselves at this event. At a time when our society urgently needs a respectful, unprejudiced, responsible police force to protect all citizens, regardless of race, I am further alarmed at the police officials threatening boycott and even suppression of Mr. Tarantino's creative work and livelihood. We must protect the rights of all citizens to speak our truth, and we must work together to heal the violence in our society. This attack against Quentin Tarantino only increases the problem, and reflects poorly on our police forces.

Roshi Pat O’Hara—Zen Buddhist priest and New Yorker:
I am saddened by the reactivity and ignorance of the police, who are supposed to serve as agents of our government, that is, our employees. We need more citizens like Tarantino who will have the courage to speak up against the violence and injustice routinely visited upon people of color. The police should be thanking Tarantino for his citizenship and concern!

Statements from families of victims of police murder who were some of the 100 families who were in NY for Rise Up October.

Paris Bey, cousin of Janisha Fonville, murdered by Charlotte, NC police, February 2015
Quentin Tarantino means a lot to us - at Rise Up October, he wasn't just a film director or a public face - he was a person who cares what cops are doing to us and to all the families. He's not afraid to lose endorsements and he is not scared of boycotts. He walked with us the whole time, speaking with us, hearing us. He gets big ups for that and a lot of respect. And it pushes our movement forward! Yes, the media focuses on his involvement in Rise Up October... but... WHY was he there? He was there for the victims who have lost loved ones to murder by police. We should boycott the police and promote Quentin Tarantino movies, because he cares about the community. The media can put out the positive, but they don't, it's all negativity. The police unions call for a boycott! It's all negativity. Tarantino called the murders murder and the murderers the murderers. The fact is he stood up for us. He put himself out on a limb for us. We are behind him 100%, no ifs, ands or buts. Hollywood A-listers worry about becoming D-listers and don't want to lose their livelihood or money. Hollywood: what is wrong is wrong and what is right is right. We are being shot down. Stand up for justice. The platform you have is powerful. You have the power to change everything. Which side are you on?

Marilyn Covarrubias, mother of Daniel Covarrubias, who was murdered by police in Lakewood, Washington in April 2015
It took a lot of guts, a lot of heart, for Quentin Tarantino to come out and speak [about] the killings that have been happening. And I have much love for him, because he didn't need to do that but he did it. And when his movies come out I'll come see them 5 or 6 times that night. And I'll invite everyone else I know to come see them too. Because I love that man for doing that.

L'Sana DJahspora, father of Cinque "Q" DJahspora, murdered by Jackson, Tennessee police, November 2014
Quentin Tarantino at Rise Up October—Stop Murder by Police! I am impressed that Quentin Tarantino saw our plight and struggle as meaningful enough to place himself among us and take in our experience, our pain. Celebrities often do cameo appearances for such causes, and that can be valuable, but Quentin was with us throughout most of the Rise Up October gathering of victim's families. That impressed me and the other families. We knew it was genuine and authentic. Many would not have the courage to say “murder is murder” and a “murderer” is a “murderer.” The attack on Tarantino and call to boycott his films by the NYPD, LAPD and Philadelphia police unions is pure gangsterism consistent with the ongoing terror of what amounts to a national gang, putting a hit out on him. When you're being bullied, like all of us victim's families feel, you don't disown the ones who stand up for you. No to the boycott; we should be holding Tarantino movie festivals and marathons in appreciation. He put his name, face and livelihood on the line to stand and identify with us, with justice and what is simply right. Place that up against those voices of injustice and Quentin Tarantino clearly holds the moral high ground here. His action shows courage, while police unions throw a protective circle around cowards who commit murder with the expectation of impunity. They position themselves to have NO MORAL STANDING AT ALL! First you kill our loved ones and deny us justice, you criminalize us and our families, and then you incriminate any like Tarantino who dare to stand with us and call it what it is. The police call for boycott is a throwback to the blacklist of the 50s and 60s, and dares anyone to stand on behalf of people of color. Tarantino stood with us, stood with those suffering profoundly from the terror; he connected with the families as we sought to connect with each other.  Stack up Quentin Tarantino's moral stand and authenticity against the government-sanctioned criminal terror raging across this nation, and it is clear who is on the right side of history.

Yohana Flores, daughter of 52-year-old Ernesto Flores, murdered by San Bernardino, CA Sheriffs, April 15, 2015
I appreciate Quentin Tarantino coming out to support the cause of stopping murder by police! A lot of celebrities don't, or just say something once and that's it. Quentin Tarantino took the time to walk with the families—and did so for two of the three days of Rise Up October in NYC to Stop Police Terror. The NYPD and LAPD call to boycott his movies is ridiculous. What he said is he can't support murder or murderers. If you oppose him saying that, then if the shoe fits wear it... because it shows you support murders and murderers yourselves, it shows you support the murder of innocent people by police. So, I am very thankful for Quentin Tarantino's words and his actions and for standing up. He knew he would be criticized but that didn't stop him. All the families who have lost loved ones to murder by police, here and all over the world, appreciate him!

Marie Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton, killed by police in Milwaukee, April 2014
Given the very different class of people Quentin Tarantino is surrounded by, I appreciate the time he spent with me, my family, and other families who have been traumatized by police brutality. It’s a tragedy that so few other privileged people have come out, and taken the blinders off, as clearly as Quentin has.

I’m glad that he recognizes the truth. For me, meeting him was not about the limelight. It was heart-wrenching and heart-felt. I appreciate him because he took a HUMAN stand. I applaud him for coming out BOTH days. He could have come out just one day, and shown us, the moms, and the families, that he cared. He KNEW there would be backlash, and he was compelled by hearing our stories to come out the whole weekend and support us. I wish a lot more of the upper class, the 1%, would take the blinders off and open up their hearts to the solution. It's not going away, regardless of your economic status. You're NOT exempt. My family has had discussions about him since then. He could have taken all the time he wanted when he had the microphone. INSTEAD, he wanted families to speak out. THAT was compassion. We need a lot of people with money and pride to let it go, and speak out. They’re not exempt, regardless of economic status. This affects all people, police brutality is killing all people. RISE UP!

From Nicholas Heyward, Sr., father of 13-year-old Nicholas Heyward, Jr., murdered by the NYPD, September 27, 1994. He was playing with a brightly colored toy gun.
I need to give a big shout out to the brave and noble man, Mr. Quentin Tarantino who traveled to NYC to stand with the parents and families who have been fighting for justice for their murdered loved ones at the hands of police. He didn't have to make this noble stand, but unlike far too many who see this injustice going down on a nationwide level, Mr. Quentin Tarantino could no longer stand back and not say anything. So on October 24, 2015 he stood up with the families. And because he did what many are afraid to do and say, the police unions in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and others are going to boycott his movies, in a cowardly stand which is saying to all others like brother Quentin Tarantino with celebrity status that if you speak out against the injustice of this system, the system will target you to bring you down. Now I tell you brothers and sisters like all the other injustice of this system, this right here is wrong. And I am asking that everyone who believes in truth and justice to please stand up and support Mr. Quentin Tarantino for standing up and being unafraid to say: enough is enough. No more killing innocent unarmed humans nationwide and never being held accountable. We refuse to be intimidated by police and government repression or by threats of boycott on those who seen the injustice for far too long, and have risen up to support the families who suffer from this injustice system. Please stand up and support our brother, Mr. Quentin Tarantino.

Chemika Hollis, partner of Nate Wilks, killed by Oakland police August 12, 2015
Rise of October was a very powerful strong and positive reinforcement that I am thankful to say that I was able to stand in solidarity with so many different families. I am very much appreciated that this brave strong willing human being, I said human being because only a person would know that this is wrong killing our people and only a person would have feelings towards this genocide of our communities. Quentin Tarantino took stance with us. I am grateful for that, there is still lots of people who are sitting down from a computer saying stop police terror and that's it, but Quentin Tarantino put his action into place and came out and marched, spoke and held our hand the whole time as we took over New York City streets to stop police terror on our brothers and sisters. I stand with Quentin Tarantino and his actions and I support him 2,000,000,000%. How could a person want to boycott someone for speaking their rights. Everyone has a freedom of speech and he spoke what he felt, right is right and wrong is wrong. If more celebrities came out and support us then this will be impossible for them to boycott his movies because he'll have a line of celebrities and families. You have me and my family's support Quentin Tarantino!!!

Alice Howell, grandmother of 17-year-old Justus Howell murdered by Zion, IL police, April 4, 2015
Shame on you, for attacking such an individual who has a conscience and knows that these murders are wrong and calling murderers just what they are... murderers. I commend you Quentin Tarantino for standing with the families, exercising your rights as a human being and Rising Up against these murderers. We will not be silent. We stand with you Quentin!

Latoya Howell, mother of Justus Howell, murdered by Zion, IL police, April 4, 2015
I am glad that Mr. Tarantino was in NYC marching with us, the cause of this march was for those who had their lives stolen due to police injustice to come together in great numbers to show the world THIS WAR ON CIVILIANS IS UNACCEPTABLE and to show those who were afraid or just didn't care to speak of these murders by police that by standing in solidarity with others in the name of justice will be a great move to solving the problem. Quentin Tarantino is a huge icon in the public eye so his presence along with others raising awareness is a necessity for change. Police are murdering more than 3 humans a day, if we as a people don't stop this tragedy there is no hope for the future! STOP POLICE TERROR NOW!

Andrea Irwin, mother of Tony Robinson, killed Madison, WI police, March 2015
Me being the mother of a child murdered by police, I appreciate a man of stature such as Quentin Tarantino standing with us. He’s a man. His position and career have nothing to do with what we were doing on October 24th. He stood as a man standing with people who were standing up against what’s wrong. He should not be dealing with retribution. I fully support him. He’s a man above anything else. Retribution is terrible. Why is it just because he’s a movie director, and he’s well known, he has to deal with this? He’s standing up for what is right. It is unfair to attack a man in his position for his personal beliefs. His career should have no bearing on his supporting us. It is disgusting that the New York Police union is highlighting and attacking Quentin Tarantino. If you publicly attack Tarantino, you should attack every one of these mothers. He stood with us, we stand with him. You cannot attack one person out of thousands. You should not be going after his position and his career. Quentin Tarantino spoke my son’s name. He stands with me. I stand with him. The New York City police union is showing their fear. They’re taking it out on the wrong person. Because you (the New York police union) is too afraid, you’re attacking a person of stature, instead of addressing the issue and attacking the problem. You’re going to call him out? Call us all out! This is not a little march or movement any more. This is a revolution! Their fear is showing.

Cephus 'Uncle Bobby' Johnson, Uncle of 22 year old Oscar Grant, murdered by Bay Area Transit Police in Oakland, CA, January 1, 2009
Uncle Bobby, the Uncle of Oscar Grant and ‘The Love Not Blood Campaign', believe Black Lives Matter everywhere and police accountability is a human right. Our vision is a world where no one has the right to take the life of another and be protected from the consequences of doing so by a system of structural racism, obfuscation and propaganda. Quentin Tarantino and many others like himself, have a right, as we families and community do, to call a "murder a murder" and call "the murdered the murdered.” For a system, such as the police agencies, police unions, and its culture to attack someone's belief and freedom of speech, is a direct assault on ones First Amendment right. The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely. It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government. The most basic component of freedom of expression is the right of freedom of speech. The right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves without interference or constraint by the government. Quentin Tarantino, as well as those affected by police terrorism, has this right to assemble and right of expression. For a culture such as the police union to attack an individual or group for their expression and assembly is as heinous as a state that sanctions state violence. We, families, that have suffered this harm say: hands off Quentin Tarantino. For the United States to allow such an attack, people will ask the question, “What kind of country will allow people to be attacked for their expression by police officers that have a history of murder?”

Tawanda Jones, sister of Tyrone West, murdered by Baltimore Police, July 18, 2013
I am so happy Quentin Tarantino stood with the families at Rise Up October. Words can't express how I felt and the deep gratitude I have. It touched my heart in many ways. He even gave his time up at the microphone at the national march because of his support for the families. This pain never goes away. We and he did this to save others from this pain. They want us to turn off our grief and postpone Rise Up October!? Please let me know how you postpone grief? There are too many lives stolen by law enforcement and this has to stop! Quentin Tarantino did something special and significant. Now they come with a call for a boycott!? That's an outrage. We need to boycott killer cops. The entire weekend Quentin Tarantino holds up the families, wipes away our tears, tells us he is very sorry for our loss, and walks with us. He is a humble spirit and is setting a leading example for others in Hollywood. Hollywood! Use Quentin Tarantino as a leading example and join the cause.

Kevin Kellom, father of Terrance Kellom, who was shot dead by ICE agents in his own home in front of his father, on April 27, 2015
The movie director Quentin Tarantino standing with us on the front lines - that made me feel special! The police are killing our kids! But our children are the future. Quentin Tarantino stepping out and standing with us - that's beautiful, and many more movie directors should do the same. I have not felt good since my son was shot down on April 27, 2015. Today I feel good for the first time since my son was shot down in my own home. I have Quentin Tarantino to thank for it. I will stand with anyone, Black, Brown, Red, White, Yellow or Green - to stop murder by police, just like Quentin Tarantino did. This boycott is a damn shame - the police are full of shit. Now we know, again, which side the police are on. Quentin Tarantino is standing up for something right. He is standing up for my son and so many others. Stop being scared and stand up with him. Murder by police happens every day - children getting killed by police. Quentin Tarantino is standing up for us, and I love him for it.

Alicia Kirkman, mother of 17-year-old Angelo Miller, murdered by Cleveland Police, March 23, 2007
I loved that Quentin Tarantino stood with the families! It showed he cares. Even though he is a famous person—he is on the front lines with us—saying he won't put up with murder by police either. He put himself in our shoes. He walked with us. It's not like he's too famous and can't be touched—no, he walked together with us and we feel good about it. More celebrities need to support us like he did. It's not like others who watch police murder our children on TV, but then don't come out because they are scared about their image. It's what they are trying to do to Mr. Tarantino—boycotting his movies, attacking him for doing right—that other celebrities are afraid of. Don't be afraid. Treat us like human beings like he did. That boycott call is ridiculous and I don't think it's going to work!

Freddie McGee, father of Freddie Latrice Wilson, killed by police in Chicago November 13, 2007:
Make me to understand this: Police and authorities in our system act like this is some kind of game. Killing people’s family members – and it’s OK. Our or their lives don’t really matter? What happened to our Black male police officers? Our Black women officers. Did they join the Ku Klux Klan? Against their own people? You hate your own people so much it is time to wake up. Police stop killing us or find yourself another job. Please help stop our leaders from turning over and over in their graves. Think about it before it is too late. If it’s not already. Power to the people of all races! Help stop this darkness so it can come to the light. ’Cause if it does then you can sleep better at night.

Angela Naggie, mother of O'Shaine Evans, killed by San Francisco Police, October 2014
Quentin Tarantino stepped out real good, and supported us. This touched me. He didn't have to do what he did. It shows there are people that care about us, who care about families who have children the police have killed. It is something I truly appreciate. Quentin Tarantino stood with us in solidarity. All the rest of you in Hollywood: support him, join him! C'mon all of you in the movie industry, stand by each other!

Patricia Perez, grandmother of Richard "Pedie" Perez, unarmed, murdered by Richmond CA Police, September 2014
We SUPPORT Quentin Tarantino ALL THE MORE. If there are any other high-profile people, out there...who will STAND UP, on the side of what is RIGHT...that would be very ADMIRABLE. We NEED the SUPPORT of ALL who can “put themselves in our shoes” and “FEEL” our PAIN of having a member of your own family, who is UNARMED and NOT committing any type of a CRIME whatsoever...SHOT DEAD by a Gun-Happy Cop! What is happening to our LOVED-ONES, at the hands of MURDERING COPS, is a HORRIBLE THING. Until the rest of the people are as OUTRAGED as the families of the VICTIMS, our struggle is made all the more difficult. IF it happened to one of your most Loved-Ones...you would be doing exactly what we are doing. THANK YOU Quentin Tarantino.

Edward Powell, father of 27-year-old Martice Milliner, murdered by Chicago police, July 9, 2015
I feel like Mr. Tarantino was standing by a group of many who have lost loved ones due to the excessiveness of Law Enforcement across the U.S. As someone who has lost a son to excessive force by police I felt that comfort and I felt at ease knowing Mr. Tarantino felt my pain.

I’m appalled that the Police Department of New York City would do such a thing to Mr. Tarantino because he felt the pain of many. If standing with people is that wrong to try to stop a person’s way of living we have a problem with the American Justice System.

Ishtyme Robinson, mother of Ahjah Dixon, killed in police custody in Texas, March 2010
I celebrate Quentin Tarantino's presence at Rise Up October in New York City -- all three days! It was moving for me as a mother, who has lost a daughter (in jail custody) and a son, and who up to now has received no support from the surrounding community, to now have support, including from Quentin Tarantino. This movement is helping to create a new story of resistance, of resilience, announcing to the world that our children matter. Many people who are killed by police are poor people, with no value placed on their lives by the judicial system. In most cases these are marginalized groups with no voice. If all lives mattered, we wouldn't have to say Black Lives Matter. For Quentin Tarantino to come to Rise Up October, in a most sincere way, to come and stand up with us, to challenge societies standards, made a world of difference and I say that with all my heart. Boycott Tarantino movies? This is supposed to be a democratic society. Freedom of speech is suppose to be woven into the fabric of society. Families of murdered and lost victims and Quentin Tarantino have a right to voice our opinion regarding any type of infraction, injustice or pathology and no one has the right to rob us of freedom of speech, here or anywhere else in the world.

Chris Silva, brother of David Silva, murdered by Kern Co. Sheriffs and California Highway Patrol, May 8, 2013
Quentin Tarantino showing up to Rise Up October is a great thing. Rise Up October is "trending," there's big attention and popularity, including because of Quentin Tarantino's participation (and I didn't expect it). It shows he cares. He knows he had to stand up to murder by police, and I thank him for being with us. He probably expected the "negativity" because we get it everyday, the families, and myself with David's murder over two years ago—all these internet trolls with their negative comments aimed at us... Quentin called out the NYPD and LAPD and all the cops who kill unjustly. He is not saying anything more than what these cops have done. I'm so glad he stood up, because many celebrities may wear a t-shirt but don't always show up and stand up for what they believe. This boycott call is ridiculous and it makes it sound like Tarantino means all police are killers... he didn't say that. He said there are murders and murderers, cops killing blatantly and for no reason at all. Recognize and hear the truth. I am sure many are telling him to stay quiet but Quentin Tarantino should know he has the backing from us families and many others!

Dionne Smith-Downs, mother of 16-year-old James Rivera, Jr., murdered by Stockton, CA Police, July 22, 2010
It's a good thing that Quentin Tarantino came to Rise Up October and stood with us! It's been 5 years for me, 5 years since my son was murdered. And we had the #1 call—Which Side Are You On? That's serious. That's the call. And Quentin Tarantino answered the call for change. He took that opportunity to walk with us and it was a pleasure to walk with him. He was interested to really talk to us. We support him! We'll get on TV and support him. If they want to fight fire with fire, then let's go. Whatever is needed, I am there. Rise Up October isn't just a march. There is a message. Which Side Are You On? He heard our call. We are not alone and he is not alone. This system is targeting him because he wants to be part of change. He chose to stand with the families. Carl Dix, Cornel West, they all hugged us. They heard what we said. This is bigger than me or him or any one person. Rise Up October is from the heart. There is no script. This shit has to stop. It takes us to take care of us, I am a team player, and we support Quentin.

Cadine Williams, sister of 26-year-old O'Shaine Evans, murdered by Oakland Police, October 7, 2014
Quentin Tarantino's stand at Rise Up October is great, and I mean that with all my heart. More people should be saying NO MORE to this system and its police brutality. More people like Quentin Tarantino should stand with us. And Rise Up October with Quentin Tarantino participating should wake a lot of people up! How can people just sit back and let this happen to innocent people? Quentin's stand is awesome; it means a lot to us. Boycott?! That's crazy. It shows what this country is about and what kind of system this really is. A call for boycott because someone steps out and says what he believes in? That's bull. We need Quentin Tarantino and more people like him in this world. I am willing to be on the front lines marching for him. He has our back and we have his back!

Meko Williams, mother of LaReko Williams, tasered to death by Charlotte, NC police, July 20, 2011
It was an honor to meet Quentin Tarantino at Rise Up October in New York City, to meet someone who understands what we are going through as families who have lost loved ones to murder by police. This is what Rise Up October is about, saying the truth. Quentin Tarantino said "I am a human being with a conscience and when I see murder, I cannot stand by and I have to call the murdered, the murdered and the murderers, the murderers." That is the truth. The police unions are trying to deface our movement, because it's now national and international. They say ""it's the worst thing" - NO, it's the greatest thing. What Tarantino said is no different than Cornel West, Carl Dix or Meko Williams saying the same truth. They want to separate him, put him in a box, but his voicing of the truth is no different than others who voice the truth. Writers and movie directors express themselves through their art; they go off of what's happening in history, in society - just like Django Unchained. This is freedom of speech. And it's ignorance on behalf of the police unions. We know well what the police have done and what they do. Quentin Tarantino was by my side, he was with me, and it was an honor. This boycott is just plain ignorance, because what Rise Up October is, and Quentin's comments do, is bring light to the Stolen Lives and to mass incarceration. Let's focus on that! The use of guns, Tasers, and chokeholds to murder people, like my son. Let's focus on the truth. Tarantino's words... calling the murdered the murdered and the murderers the murders is just simple truth - it is what it is. And I feel the same way he does.

From an older Black woman who attended Rise Up October
I am totally appalled at the denouncing of Mr. Quentin Tarantino because he supported Rise Up October. Yet at the same time they entertain supporting a rich idiot as the lead position of this country. This even goes as far as to tell me again that I don't matter. How do you dare tell someone that has looked in a coffin at someone that was supposed to be on their honeymoon that it was a tragic mistake. How do you tell a mother or father that identifies their child's body that no drugs or weapons just paid protectors' bullets. How do we teach our children to trust and believe in paid protectors when paid protectors killed their mother or father sister or brother or people around them. How do you see this happening over and over and not see a change is needed. Mr. Tarantino: I have a great respect for you announcing that above any and everything else you are human and you have the ability to feel. What is pathetic is that more people of status need to rise up from fear of being ostracized for what they believe in. I will get a group on opening night of his new movie and go just to show love and support. Even more reason to Rise Up.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/411/who-is-mark-fuhrman-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Who Is Mark Fuhrman?

October 29, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On Monday, October 26, as part of the media onslaught against Quentin Tarantino for taking part in the Rise Up October protests and speaking out against police terror, FOX News host Megyn Kelly had on Carl Dix, co-initiator of Rise Up October and representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, versus Mark Fuhrman on the police side. (See video clip of Carl Dix shutting up Fuhrman here.)

The name Mark Fuhrman rings a bell with many people—but for others who don’t recognize the name, this is the former LAPD detective who was revealed during the 1995 trial of OJ Simpson as a fascistic racist. These days, Fuhrman makes regular appearances on FOX News, promoted as a reliable voice for U.S. law enforcement—and indeed he IS! So who is Fuhrman, and what does it mean that this Nazi ex-cop is spotlighted as a major law enforcement “expert” on national TV?

The October 26 appearance wasn’t the first time Megyn Kelly has relied on Fuhrer-man. She brought him in to slander the young people of Baltimore when they refused to quietly accept the police murder of Freddie Gray; and before that when the young people of Ferguson, Missouri, rose up after Michael Brown was murdered while his hands were in the air. During jury selection for the trial of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, Fuhrman described Trayvon as “a dead victim or dead suspect” depending on “which side you’re on.” 

Mark Fuhrman was a key detective in the trial of OJ Simpson, accused of killing Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Fuhrman was early on the murder scene, claimed he found blood in OJ’s Bronco, illegally entered Simpson’s estate, and then claimed he found a bloody glove lying out in the open. When the defense raised the possibility of the deliberate planting of evidence by police, Fuhrman was at the center of it—because he was pinned down as and proven to be a racist and a liar. After testifying that he had not used the “n-word” in 10 years, the defense produced four witnesses—as well as 13 hours of audiotapes from interviews he had given as part of a movie project—that proved he was lying. Fuhrman was eventually convicted of felony perjury.

As Revolution newspaper wrote about those tapes at the time:   

They showed in detail how Fuhrman and his fellow cops hated Black people, Mexicans and women—even Black people and women on the police force. Here was a man who belonged to an organization called "Men Against Women" that harassed women on the police force. Throughout the tapes, Fuhrman uses the "n-word" to refer to Black people—40 times in 61 excerpts selected by the defense. He uses the word casually—it is how he thinks about Black people. The tapes contain 18 examples of Fuhrman admitting to illegal use of deadly force, beating suspects to extract confessions, planting evidence, framing innocent people and lying or covering up the misconduct of other cops. (See below for a few excerpts from the tapes.)

In the trial it came out that people who knew Fuhrman had heard him say that he couldn't stand the sight of a Black man and white woman together and when he encountered such a situation he made a point of harassing the Black man. A letter from Kathleen Bell, sent to Simpson's defense team, described what Fuhrman had told her: "When he sees a ‘n*gger’ (as he called it) driving with a white woman, he would pull them over. I asked, would he if he didn't have a reason, and he said that he would find one."

Whatever people may think about OJ Simpson’s involvement in the murders, these tapes answered the question, “What would be the motive for a frame-up?” They document Fuhrman’s undisguised hatred for Black men (like Simpson) who drove expensive cars, moved into privileged white neighborhoods, and dated white women. And they also answered the question, “How could such a frame-up be covered up?”

The OJ trial took place four years after the LAPD beating of Rodney King was captured on videotape. The Rodney King video was the movie, and the Fuhrman tapes were the soundtrack. Over the past year and more, people have been forced to witness the horrifying videos of the cold-blooded police murders of someone’s unarmed son or daughter or father or mother—one after another. And the Fuhrman tapes are still the soundtrack.   

Think about the fact that Mark Fuhrer-man is promoted by FOX News as an expert on law enforcement. With his arrogant, aggressive racism, with all its genocidal overtones, Fuhrman isn’t “out of touch” with the armed enforcers of this system—he’s considered their voice. His hatred and contempt for the people who have stood their ground in the streets against the murdering police; for the family members of those murdered by the police in cold blood day after day who have courageously stood up and said this must stop; and for those who have come together in Rise Up October creating a vehicle, and pathway, for this movement to Stop Police Terror and Murder to grow more powerful—all of this reflects the great concerns of those who rule who have no answer but to lash back, and show their fangs.

***

Excerpts from the Fuhrman Tapes

On the arrest of a man in the Westwood neighborhood

"He was a n*gger. He didn't belong. Two questions. And you are going: Where do you live? 22nd and Western. Where were you going? Well, I'm going to Fatburger. Where's Fatburger. He didn't know where Fatburger was? Get in the car."

On criteria for stopping cars

"N*gger drivin' a Porsche that doesn't look like he's got a $300 suit on, you always stop him."

On where he grew up in Washington State

"People there don't want n*ggers in their town. People there don't want Mexicans in their town. They don't want anybody but good people in their town, and anyway you can do to get them out of there that's fine with them. We have no n*ggers where I grew up."

On L.A. neighborhoods

"Westwood is gone, the n*ggers have discovered it. When they start moving into Redondo and Torrance. Torrance is considered the last white middle class society."

On the LAPD chokehold

"We stopped the choke because a bunch of n*ggers have a bunch of these organizations in the south end and because all n*ggers were choked out and killed—twelve in ten years."

On changes in the LAPD

"That we've got females...and dumb n*ggers, and all your Mexicans that can't even write the name of the car they drive."

On practicing martial arts kicks on arrested people

“I used to go to work and practice movements....I used to practice my kicks.”

On police misconduct investigations

“Now, it's funny because guys in Internal Affairs go, ‘Mark, you can do just about anything. Get in a bar fight. We'd love to investigate just some “good ol boy” beating up a n*gger in a bar.’”

On brutalizing suspects during interrogations

"Why don't you give them the 77th lie detector test? [The "77th" refers to the LAPD division in South Central L.A. where Fuhrman worked for many years]...And a bunch of guys will laugh—old timers, you know. And then one kid will ask his partner, ‘what's that?’ You choke him out until he tells you the truth. You know it is kind of funny. But a lot of policemen will get a kick out of it.”

On attitude toward interrogating Black people

“When you are talking to somebody it is not like you are really listening into their words because you will key on what is the truth and what isn't. First thing, anything out of a n*gger's mouth for the first five or six sentences is a fucking lie. That is just right out. There has got to be a reason why he is going to tell you the truth.”

On taking a suspect "to the baseball diamond"

“I just handcuffed him and went the scenic route to the station. We searched him again and found the gun. Went over to the baseball diamond and talked to him. When I left, Dana goes, ‘No blood, Mark.’ ‘No problem, not even any marks, Dana.’ Just body shots. Did you ever try to find a bruise on a N*gger. It is pretty tough, huh?”

On assuming guilt and fabricating reasons for making an arrest

Fuhrman: “I didn't arrest him under anything, just took him to the station, ran him for prints, gave them to the detectives to compare with what they've got in the area. I'll probably arrest a criminal that way.”

McKinny (writer interviewing Fuhrman): “So you're allowed to pick somebody up that you think doesn't belong in an area and arrest him?...”

Fuhrman: “I don't know. I don't know what the Supreme Court or the Superior Court says, and I don't really give a shit...If I was pushed into saying why I did it, I'd say suspicion of burglary. I'd be able to correlate exactly what I said into a reasonably probable cause for arrest.”

On falsifying evidence

“So if that's considered falsifying a report, and if some hype [junkie], you know says, ah, you know whatever, I shot [up] two days ago, and you find a mark that looks like three days ago, pick the scab, squeeze it, looks like serum's coming out. As if it were hours old. It's a hard find. You just can't find the mark. Cause he's down. His eyes don't lie. That's not falsifying a report. That's putting a criminal in jail. That's being a policeman.”

On brutalizing people for speaking Spanish

“We don't speak Spanish here. Work Mexican gangs, and I don't know how to speak any Spanish...When they speak Spanish. ‘No comprende.’ Slap them upside the head. Then they speak English. I'm an English teacher. Just like that. That's police work. And that's being able to pick out the people. That type of treatment is necessary...”

On conduct when working in a Black neighborhood

“You have to be a switch hitter. You have to be able to look at your area and look at how you talk to people. Look at how you deal with things and what you can and can't do even with a criminal. You can't go up in Bel Air [an affluent neighborhood in L.A.], and some guy gives you a hard time in broad daylight, and slap them. ‘Dammit. I want to know what's going on.’ You just don't do that. I mean, it's obvious. But when you work down in the south end, Watts, the metropolitan area, you work skid row. You use your stick more than your mouth. You don't—I mean, you just, you go of course. Don't try to tell people to go there. Go there. You just use your stick. Smack 'em. They'll move.”

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/411/moya-smith-filmmaker-quentin-tarantino-sends-message-to-mother-of-slain-native-american-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Moya-Smith: Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino Sends Message to Mother of Slain Native American

October 28, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

This article by Simon Moya-Smith was originally posted at Indian Country Today Media Network.com on October 26. It is being republished here with permission. The original article can be found here.

A few weeks ago, a fellow journalist called me an activist. And although many reporters would rather gouge their eyeballs with broken beer bottles than be called an activist, I don't mind it all. I am one. Indeed, I got into activism for the same reason I got into journalism – to correct the mythical American narrative and effect change.

So when I was asked to speak on Saturday at Washington Square Park in New York City during Rise Up October – a rally and march against police brutality – I did not hesitate.

It was not yet noon when I took the stage with friend and fellow Native American Jared Dunlap, who’s Ojibwe, and reeled for four minutes (my allotted time) about 520 years of domination and conquest and racism and hubris and bigotry and lies. I spoke about the deaths of Sarah Lee Circle Bear, Paul Castaway, and others, and I went into detail about the brutal death of Mah-hi-vist Goodblanket, the 18-year-old Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Eastern Band of Cherokee youth who was shot seven times, once in the back of the head, by Custer County Sheriff’s deputies in Oklahoma in December 2013. The two deputies who shot and killed Goodblanket both received the Medal of Valor.

At about the third minute into my mad rant, I blared into the microphone that it was 125 years ago this year that the Medal of Honor was awarded to 20 U.S. soldiers who participated in the indiscriminate killing of 300 Lakota, 200 of whom were unarmed women and children, during the Wounded Knee Massacre in December 1890. “More medals for more dead Indians,” I think I said.

The overall message [that a genocide was committed on this land, and that that genocide continues] seemed to resonate with the crowd, which by 1 p.m. had swelled to the brims of the park with hippies and NYU students and the families of victims, and wandering tourists who didn’t seem to really know what the fuck was going on.

After I stepped off the stage, one of the event organizers approached me and asked if Jared and myself planned to march with the masses. “Of course,” I uttered. The organizer, Annie, said we should line up a block away and be prepared to lead the march with the other speakers, many of them still with tear stains streaming down their faces from having earlier recounted what happened to their loved one.

One of the last invited speakers to say a few words was Academy Award-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. When he got to the microphone I had every intention of listening to his statement, but I got distracted when a white man standing behind me whispered “This is bullshit. I don’t know what they expect to accomplish.” I turned around, eyed the man and the woman he was whispering to and shot them both a sinister grin before they decided to scurry back into the park where small groups had congregated to share in their own heated debates.

By 1:30 p.m. we were marching – stopping and going, heading north toward Bryant Park. Protesters – including Jared – were yelling at onlookers to join us and march in solidarity. A young, blond passerby began to chuckle as she filmed the march with her phone, which set off a family member who was marching near the fringes. “This is our lives!” she yelled at the girl. “These are our loved ones.” The woman’s cries did nothing to phase the young blond. She just kept sauntering and filming until she was out of sight.

We were nearing 25th St. when I noticed, to my right, Tarantino and I were marching side-by-side. I didn’t notice this at first, until he laughed, and his signature vibrato guffaw reverberated off the facades of the Manhattan canyon.

I immediately noticed he was holding a sign of another victim of police brutality. Jared was marching just a few yards ahead of me when I called out to him to come back. “I want to get him to hold this sign [of Mah-hi-vist Goodblanket] so we can get a photo,” I said to Jared.

“Quentin,” I said, tapping him on the shoulder. He first looked at me, summing me up, and when he noticed I was a fellow protester, he leaned in ear first.

“Hey, man, do you mind if we get a picture of you holding this sign?” I asked.

I showed him the picture of Mah-hi-vist.

“His mother couldn’t make it,” I said.

“Sure,” he responded.

I handed him the placard, which he held with his left hand as he continued to cling onto the other with his right.

In an instant we got the picture, and the filmmaker handed the placard back to me. I thanked him for his willingness and went about hoisting the big board of Mah-hi-vist back over my head, marching deeper into the city. “NO JUSTICE! NO PEACE!” was the song of the day, and Jared and I joined in.

Suddenly, a hand reached out and nudged me. It was Tarantino. “Hey,” he said to me. “Send my love to his mother,” which I did, and to which Melissa Goodblanket, Mah-hi-vist’s mom, responded that she was brought to tears by his heartfelt message.

One foot on the street, one foot on the web, folks. That's how we'll get it done.

Simon Moya-Smith, Oglala Lakota, is the Culture Editor at Indian Country Today. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Follow him @Simonmoyasmith.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/411/police-claim-18-year-old-amonderez-p-green-killed-hiself-nobody-believes-them-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Police Claim 18-Year-Old Amonderez P. Green Killed Himself—Nobody Believes Them

October 29, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Police claim that Amonderez P. Green, an 18-year-old Black youth who died of gunshot wounds on Thursday, October 29 in Normandy, Missouri, next to Ferguson, was a suicide, and that he fired at them before shooting himself on Wednesday, October 28. But their story is contradicted by family members, witnesses, and neighbors who say police are lying—that police murdered Amonderez P. Green. And the police story—that cops shot at Green but missed, and that Green killed himself with a gunshot wound to the face, is contradicted by all the available video and audio.

Neighbors, family, and witnesses say Amonderez P. Green was not suicidal, just upset. His father, Jermell Simpson, posted a statement on Instagram saying, “We even told Ferguson [police—who were on the scene, although they deny they shot at Green]... we had everything under control.” Witnesses say he was climbing over a pole with two hands when he was shot. They describe at least two gunshots—even though police claim he shot himself in the face once, killing himself. Videos show police abusing and disrespecting the victim’s mother as she demanded to see her son. Simpson later told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the authorities’ account of events was a “total lie.”

Within hours of Amonderez’s death, protesters rushed to the neighborhood where this happened. Some protesters also confronted Normandy police officials at a press conference.

The notorious Ferguson Police Department—now supposedly “under reform”—was involved in Amonderez’s death. The current official account says the Ferguson PD began the pursuit of Amonderez. Videos show them on the scene when Amonderez was chased and shot at by police. Amonderez’s father also says it was a Ferguson cop who pulled the trigger. What is very clear is that Ferguson PD has been trying to minimize their involvement in Amonderez’s death.

Clearly the truth is being covered up by police, and an outrageous injustice and horror has taken place.

No one should accept the Normandy police’s account of the death of Amonderez Green just because the police said it—and some of what they claim has already been clearly shown to be bullshit. But in any case, what IS absolutely clear is this: A young Black man was having a problem, and his family was trying to work it out and had asked police to back off—yet Amonderez Green was chased by police, shot at, and then ended up dead.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/411/pro-police-nyc-tabloid-attacks-rise-up-october-march-en.html

Revolution #410 October 26, 2015

Parody Exposes NY Post attack on Rise Up October

October 29, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The Monday, October 26, front page of the tabloid NY Post was a big attack on Saturday’s Rise Up October action when thousands marched through the streets of New York City to demand “STOP Police Terror.”

Keegan Stephan, a NYC writer, quickly tweeted out a sharp spoof of the Post cover, saying “Here’s what’s really going on in that NY Post cover photo.”

As Stephan points out, “The Post apparently did zero research about the people pictured, because unfortunately for them and the NYPD, they speak volumes about the urgency and necessity for protests against police terror.

“The man giving the police the finger (which is well-established, First Amendment protected free speech) is Joshua Lopez, the nephew of John Collado, an unarmed man who was shot and killed by an undercover NYPD cop in 2011 when Collado attempted to break up a fight in front of his house between the undercover cop, named James Connelly, and another man.

“The facts of Collado’s case and the lack of justice for his family, including Lopez, are staggering.

“First, the NYPD claimed Collado had the officer in a chokehold, lifting him a foot off the ground, but the cop managed to pull out a gun and shoot him in the stomach...

“Two days later, the Daily News reported Collado’s family obtained a surveillance video they say shows he was not choking the detective.

“That video has not been made been public because a federal lawsuit filed by Collado’s family against the NYPD is still pending. However, Connelly was cleared by a grand jury in 2012.

“And earlier this year, it was revealed that Connelly had shot and killed another man in 2009 for which he was also cleared...

“Now that’s disgraceful.”