NO More Stolen Lives!

Clap , snap, clap "the sound of batons clicking against skin, they surrounded us. three rows in back of us, three in front, one on either side. As far as the eyes could see, they were there, with swinging batons, thick boots on asphalt and helmuts down. They had no eyes, only weapons. Moving in formation, over 500 uniformed military po-lice entrapping mamaz, daddy's, brothers and sons marching in honor of stolen lives, of their sons, brothers, fathers, mothers, lost to the guns and weapons of these very po'lice.

Hundreds of us walked, to their thousands. Signs held up to the sky, eyes trained in front of us, in peace. Voices of pain and resistance, reached out in tandem with our lost ancestors to join the chants filling the Oakland streets, "Enough is Enough, The whole System is guilty, we are all Oscar Grant!" "No more stolen lives!!"

"Our son was shot in the back 8 times," Sony Wahnee, mother of Andrew Moody, testified to the crowd, "'We are proud Native people.'"

It was a chilling afternoon in February. The edges of night lurked at each corner. The sound of our voices, our music, our drums, our spirits, threaded through the Frank Ogawa Plaza in Downtown Oakland. The stolen lives, our family, our ancestors, stood with us as the voices of Rashidah Grinage, whose son and husband was taken down by Oakland PD, Danny Garcia, whose brother Mark was stolen and the fierce Mesha Irizarry, mama of Idriss, also shot down 28 times by San Francisco Po'Lice Department, were just some of the voices that filled the air and gave us strength to remember the lives lost to Po�Lice terror. Gave us the strength to resist the foreboding sound of impending violence and omnipresent fear of the po'lice that surrounded us.

POOR Magazine's multi-generational family of race and poverty scholars, most of us victims of po'lice brutality, po-lice profiling, and/or other forms of po-lice terror, were there to re-port and sup-port on the March for Stolen Lives in downtown Oakland. We joined hundreds of dedicated justice fighters, survivors, family members and advocates to walk in honor of Oscar Grant, Mark Garcia, Andrew Moppin, Annette Garcia, Idriss Stelly, Amadou DIallo and countless other fallen victims of po'lice terror. We were peaceful. We were tired, we were angry. We were surrounded.

"Our son was a father of three children that now we have to raise," Sony Wahnee continued.

As our group started to march, the plaza filled up with literally thousands of armed guards, militia, army, agents of pain, at POOR Magazine we call them the Po� Lice, but whatever you do, don't call them when you need help, feel danger, feel unsafe, because they are trained to kill .

Right before we marched we were informed that the po'lice perpetrator, Mehserle was released on 300,000 bail.Our collective hearts fell at the ongoing just-Us.Seemingly in response, thousands more po'lice filled the streets. They tried to block our path, we did not back down.

"Mama, why are there so many police?" My five year old son walked along side me silently, refusing to stop, never scared.

"Because we live in a police state, because there is no justice, only Just-Us, which is why we march." Clap, snap, clap.

"No more stolen lives!"