Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Condemn The Police Murder of Oscar Grant— Enough is Enough! February 6: Where Will You Be?
The police killing of Oscar Grant on New Years Day in Oakland, California was an outrage. These murdering pigs took Oscar off a Bay Area Rapid Transit train. While cops kneeled on his back and punched him, another pig pulled out his gun and shot Oscar in the back. What can you call what they did to this brother but murder, execution style?
People from all over the Oakland-San Francisco area took to the streets, outraged over this murder. Cries of, “We Are All Oscar Grant” and “The Whole Damn System Is Guilty” rang out! The police responded with vicious repression, arresting more than 100 people. Despite this people continue to stand up and resist. This is on time.
Oscar’s Grant’s murder was videotaped and seen all across the country on YouTube. That same New Years night, Adolph Grimes was shot dead by police in New Orleans in a hail of 48 bullets sitting in his car in front of his grandmother’s house. On New Years Eve, Robbie Tolan was shot by police in a suburb of Houston after he protested them roughing up his mother in front of her own house, causing injuries that have ended his promising baseball career.
Where’s the nationwide sense of outrage? Where’s the condemnation from the White House of these foul murders? Where’s the call from the highest office of the land for the police to stop brutalizing and killing Black youth? Didn’t Oscar Grant “deserve a chance to pursue his full measure of happiness?” Or is his a case that illustrates what it means when the powers-that-be tell us that Black youth “have no more excuses”?
Back when Obama was running for president, he told people to “respect the verdict” when the cops who murdered Sean Bell, firing 50 shots at him, got off the hook. Back then people excused him, saying, “He has to say that or he won’t win.” Well, what’s his excuse now that he’s won? “New day” with Obama? Smells like the same old nightmare to me.
Even worse, where are the voices of protest across the country? Why aren’t people taking to the streets and responding in other ways in cities nationwide to condemn these murders? Why aren’t prominent voices of conscience being heard saying, with the youth in the streets of Oakland, “Enough is Enough”?
Do we only raise our voices and take to the streets when Bush or Giuliani* are in power? Does having a Black president mean we should be silent when the system commits crimes against the people? No one concerned about justice should be willing to accept that kind of devil’s bargain! Shame on you if you do!
I was down in Washington, DC during inauguration weekend telling people that putting a Black president in charge of this system wasn’t going to change how it operates—that it would still wage wars for empire, exploit whole nations, subject women to oppression and that its cops would still be murdering youth in the streets. A number of people, including a lot of Black people, were acting like they were trying to get jobs as ventriloquists’ dummies. Their lips were moving, but what spilled out of their mouths was the ugly words of their master. These fools told me that if I didn’t like this country, I should leave it and go somewhere else.
Well, I’m not loving it, and I’m not leaving it either. I’m fighting it. I’m throwing my heart and my soul into fighting the power and transforming the people for revolution to get rid of this system and all the brutality and misery it inflicts on people here and around the world. As part of doing that, I’m responding to the call from the Bay Area Revolution Club for a Stolen Lives march in Oakland to condemn the murder of Oscar Grant on Friday, February 6. I’m going to be out in the streets in New York City that day, standing together with people in Oakland, to say, “Enough Is Enough, We Are All Oscar Grant, The Whole Damn System Is Guilty and No More Stolen Lives!” What will you be doing on that day? Will you be standing with us?
There will be a march on:
Friday, February 6 at 3:00 pm
at Frank Ogawa Plaza
14th and Broadway, Oakland, California
WE SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY!"
End Police Murder Now! Justice For Oscar Grant!
Convict The Murdering Cop And All His Accomplices!
The Peoples' Anger Is Justified! Drop All Charges Against Demonstrators!
Oscar’s Grant’s murder was videotaped and seen all across the country on YouTube. That same New Years night, Adolph Grimes was shot dead by police in New Orleans in a hail of 48 bullets sitting in his car in front of his grandmother’s house. On New Years Eve, Robbie Tolan was shot by police in a suburb of Houston after he protested them roughing up his mother in front of her own house, causing injuries that have ended his promising baseball career.
Where’s the nationwide sense of outrage? Where’s the condemnation from the White House of these foul murders? Where’s the call from the highest office of the land for the police to stop brutalizing and killing Black youth? Didn’t Oscar Grant “deserve a chance to pursue his full measure of happiness?” Or is his a case that illustrates what it means when the powers-that-be tell us that Black youth “have no more excuses”?
Back when Obama was running for president, he told people to “respect the verdict” when the cops who murdered Sean Bell, firing 50 shots at him, got off the hook. Back then people excused him, saying, “He has to say that or he won’t win.” Well, what’s his excuse now that he’s won? “New day” with Obama? Smells like the same old nightmare to me.
Even worse, where are the voices of protest across the country? Why aren’t people taking to the streets and responding in other ways in cities nationwide to condemn these murders? Why aren’t prominent voices of conscience being heard saying, with the youth in the streets of Oakland, “Enough is Enough”?
Do we only raise our voices and take to the streets when Bush or Giuliani* are in power? Does having a Black president mean we should be silent when the system commits crimes against the people? No one concerned about justice should be willing to accept that kind of devil’s bargain! Shame on you if you do!
I was down in Washington, DC during inauguration weekend telling people that putting a Black president in charge of this system wasn’t going to change how it operates—that it would still wage wars for empire, exploit whole nations, subject women to oppression and that its cops would still be murdering youth in the streets. A number of people, including a lot of Black people, were acting like they were trying to get jobs as ventriloquists’ dummies. Their lips were moving, but what spilled out of their mouths was the ugly words of their master. These fools told me that if I didn’t like this country, I should leave it and go somewhere else.
Well, I’m not loving it, and I’m not leaving it either. I’m fighting it. I’m throwing my heart and my soul into fighting the power and transforming the people for revolution to get rid of this system and all the brutality and misery it inflicts on people here and around the world. As part of doing that, I’m responding to the call from the Bay Area Revolution Club for a Stolen Lives march in Oakland to condemn the murder of Oscar Grant on Friday, February 6. I’m going to be out in the streets in New York City that day, standing together with people in Oakland, to say, “Enough Is Enough, We Are All Oscar Grant, The Whole Damn System Is Guilty and No More Stolen Lives!” What will you be doing on that day? Will you be standing with us?
There will be a march on:
Friday, February 6 at 3:00 pm
at Frank Ogawa Plaza
14th and Broadway, Oakland, California
WE SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY!"
End Police Murder Now! Justice For Oscar Grant!
Convict The Murdering Cop And All His Accomplices!
The Peoples' Anger Is Justified! Drop All Charges Against Demonstrators!
For more information:
http://rwor.org
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
it was an assasination
I read that in all of the Revolution posts, as if many were calling that out at demos, but it's you guys' slogan and the only people ever saying that are folks obviously from the Rev Club. That's fine and all, and the slogan makes sense, but you shouldn't pretend in press releases that the phrase is catching on and people are hollering it all over. You guys might want to keep in mind what JR says here about not wanting to be guilty of pimping the situation. http://www.blockreportradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=287&Itemid=26
All kinds of people are calling out, "We are all Oscar Grant," though. There's been a real organic quality to the protests that don't fit neatly into any single demographic or organizing structure, and there's a beauty to that.
Regarding Stolen Lives, don't forget Annette Garcia, murdered by Riverside Sheriffs not even two weeks ago. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/26/18565741.php
As for this event on Friday, quibbles aside, I will be there and thank you for keeping the energy moving forward.
All kinds of people are calling out, "We are all Oscar Grant," though. There's been a real organic quality to the protests that don't fit neatly into any single demographic or organizing structure, and there's a beauty to that.
Regarding Stolen Lives, don't forget Annette Garcia, murdered by Riverside Sheriffs not even two weeks ago. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/26/18565741.php
As for this event on Friday, quibbles aside, I will be there and thank you for keeping the energy moving forward.
It was dmore than an assassination. Assassinations are rare politically motivated murders. It was something more insidious. It was business as usual for the police in this country. It is their business to make sure that the people and especially racial minorities know their place. And if that takes killing a few, so be it. 3 murders of Black people in a 24 hour period around New Years Day on the year Obama becomes president. It may have been a warning for the rest of us to stay in line.
with the guys post two up or somthing but ill be there for a shared cause
as a long-time RCP critic, I agree with the previous posts regarding the RCP being the only ones chanting the second slogan, yet I will be at the 3pm Stolen Lives rally, I also do hope folks are out there for the 9am hearings at 661 Washington
nonethelss, it should also be clear to RCP (since I know you are reading this) that folks coming out to the 3pm does not mean, nor is it a license, for RCP to think that they are somehow "leaders" of these latest efforts, nor that it is even something for them to be thinking about "winning" or "providing" leadership for... instead you must recognize that you are facilitating a specific time and space (F3p) for broader community anger and resistance to be manifested
nonethelss, it should also be clear to RCP (since I know you are reading this) that folks coming out to the 3pm does not mean, nor is it a license, for RCP to think that they are somehow "leaders" of these latest efforts, nor that it is even something for them to be thinking about "winning" or "providing" leadership for... instead you must recognize that you are facilitating a specific time and space (F3p) for broader community anger and resistance to be manifested
I share the sorrow at the tragic loss of Oscar Grant's life and I want a fair, open and honest procedure in the trial of the officer who has been arrested for shooting him. However, I'm a little tired of what I'll call the self righteousness coming from many of the people protesting the shooting. Where were they when the well respected and highly regarded community journalist Chauncey Bailey was gunned down in the street like an animal? Where was the righteous anger there? When he was deliberately stalked and murdered in downtown Oakland, I didn't see any marches or protests. Why?
I can only guess that when a gang of bow-tied thugs,(who'd already been implicated in kidnapping, vandalism, rape and extortion), kill a man simply for doing his job then there isn't enough outrage in people's hearts to protest them and demand that justice be served.
The Grant killing, while a terrible tragedy, was more than likely the result of a poorly trained, inexperienced policeman committing a terrible mistake. Maybe not, but the alternative, that he set out to kill Grant, seems insane when you consider that he his wife had just had a baby, he was in front of his colleagues and in front of dozens of witnesses, many of whom were pointing mobile phone cameras at him. That makes an accidental shooting much more likely. Although we don't know for sure. The Bailey case was just the opposite. He was stalked, the killers had staked out his home and the murderer had an accomplice driving a getaway vehicle. He was targeted and murdered in cold blood by a notorious gang of pimps and hoods.
Now I ask again, where is the anger of Chauncey Bailey a community journalist working at a black owned publication? I challenge those protesting the Grant killing to at least be consistent in their outrage. I suspect that call will be met with silence or people will trot out excuses for his killers, which is all too typical these days among the professional activist types. We are all Chauncey Bailey.
I can only guess that when a gang of bow-tied thugs,(who'd already been implicated in kidnapping, vandalism, rape and extortion), kill a man simply for doing his job then there isn't enough outrage in people's hearts to protest them and demand that justice be served.
The Grant killing, while a terrible tragedy, was more than likely the result of a poorly trained, inexperienced policeman committing a terrible mistake. Maybe not, but the alternative, that he set out to kill Grant, seems insane when you consider that he his wife had just had a baby, he was in front of his colleagues and in front of dozens of witnesses, many of whom were pointing mobile phone cameras at him. That makes an accidental shooting much more likely. Although we don't know for sure. The Bailey case was just the opposite. He was stalked, the killers had staked out his home and the murderer had an accomplice driving a getaway vehicle. He was targeted and murdered in cold blood by a notorious gang of pimps and hoods.
Now I ask again, where is the anger of Chauncey Bailey a community journalist working at a black owned publication? I challenge those protesting the Grant killing to at least be consistent in their outrage. I suspect that call will be met with silence or people will trot out excuses for his killers, which is all too typical these days among the professional activist types. We are all Chauncey Bailey.
fed up's comments are not worth responding to as they seek only to instigate and misdirect the energies around the Oscar Grant case....
To fed up: obviously you have not been attending many of the rallies, as there has been attention given to the Chauncey Bailey case at most, though not all, rallies... the point is, fed up's attempt to try to get folks riled up against "bow-tied thugs" shows the clear signs of standard police provocateur and instigation aimed at dividing and conquering the power of the people
and good job today with the march (but my previous comments about leadership stand)!
To fed up: obviously you have not been attending many of the rallies, as there has been attention given to the Chauncey Bailey case at most, though not all, rallies... the point is, fed up's attempt to try to get folks riled up against "bow-tied thugs" shows the clear signs of standard police provocateur and instigation aimed at dividing and conquering the power of the people
and good job today with the march (but my previous comments about leadership stand)!
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$75.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network