NATIONAL STATEMENT: People of Conscience Condemn the Unacceptable NYC #BlueLivesMatter Pro-Cop Rally Friday, Dec 19th To sign on as an individual or as an organizational endorser: Please email [email protected] RSVP on FB facebook/events We as community leaders, family members, clergy, people of conscience join together to say NO to the ‘Thank you NYPD’, racist pro-police brutality mobilization in NYC December 19th 2014. The provocative demonstration callously called ‘Thank you NYPD’, using the hashtag #BlueLivesMatter, is set for City Hall on Friday, December 19. This is insulting and disrespectful to families who have either lost loved ones to police murders and people who have survived police brutality. In fact, also on December 19, at the same time, only blocks away from this pro-police brutality rally, the family of 18-year old Ramarley Graham — murdered in his Bronx home by NYPD Officer Richard Haste on February 2, 2012 — will be holding a rally to demand that the Department of Justice convene a grand jury hearing for his case. We believe this pro-police demonstration is cause of great concern to millions of people across the country who have been in the streets protesting against racism, white supremacy and police violence. After all it is not police officers who are shot down every 28 hours in the U.S. but this alarming statistic is the daily reality for Black people in the United States. We believe this pro-police brutality mobilization is a dangerous threat to communities of color already under attack due to police occupation. We see this mobilization of largely armed off-duty and plain-clothes police and their supporters as an effort to whip up violence against people who have peacefully mobilized in the streets for the past several months all across the country. If the organizers of this pro-police brutality rally go through with their hateful and insulting event and mobilize scores of right-wing and fascistic elements then they and they alone are solely responsible for inciting a climate of violence. The vast majority of posts and comments on ‘Thank you NYPD’ Facebook and Twitter pages for this event confirm its racist and anti-protester intent. The seven-hour police rally from 5pm to midnight is an ominous siege of City Hall. We understand that this pro-police rally in NYC is part of a national campaign on social media on Dec. 19 to turn the issue of police murders on its head and present the well-armed attackers and killers as helpless victims. The NYPD has already begun a political witch hunt to try to justify suppressing the massive protests by targeting seven activists for arrests at the march on the Brooklyn Bridge on Dec. 13, claiming that they attacked armed detectives. Millions of people around the world saw the video of Eric Garner, a loving father of six children, say “I cant breathe” as he was choked to death by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo. We believe to talk about Blue Lives Matter after continual and well-documented police atrocities is to support racist violence. We along with many New Yorkers remember all too well the 1992 police rally where thousands of cops rallied in a racist and intimidating attack upon Mayor David Dinkins. It was the launching pad for the ugly climate that surrounded Rudolph Giulianis rise to mayor. Even the New York Times admitted that Beer-drinking officers broke through barricades to rush the steps of City Hall; others blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and used racial epithets to describe the Mayor. (Sept. 30, 1992) Afterwards two drunken cops assaulted and seriously injured a young Black man on the J train. We fully believe that this racist pro-police brutality, #BlueLivesMatter rally scheduled for this Friday, Dec. 19 threatens more violence on communities of color of New York. In the face of this ominous threat we cannot be silent. We urge all people deeply disturbed by the ongoing police occupation and militarization of communities of color, as well as the escalation of police violence to do the following on Dec. 19th: Please sign on to this statement as an organization or individual endorser and circulate it nationally. To sign on as an individual or as an organizational endorser please email [email protected] RSVP on FB facebook/events/1511165272495912/ We ask New York residents to gather around City Hall in NYC at 5pm on Friday, December 19 with a message of solidarity, unity and justice. We ask people to counter this shameful pro-police brutality rally social media with anti-police brutality messages such as the demand to end “Broken Windows” - a racist, anti-poor peoples policy that led to the murder of Eric Garner. We ask people to use the hashtags : #NoThankYouNYPD #BlackLivesMatter and #ThisStopsToday along with others. We ask for solidarity rallies at city halls and police precincts across the U.S. and around the world, as our sisters and brothers in London, England have called. We urge legal observers and media activists to mobilize in NYC on Friday to protect our communities against the potential racist and right-wing provocations of these pro-police brutality protesters. We urge trade unions and social formations to respond to defend communities under continuing police attack. Once again, we call upon all people of conscience to protest a racist pro-police brutality mobilization of armed off-duty cops and their supporters that threatens further violence in New York City. Join us in Unity on Friday, Dec 19 @ 5 pm at City Hall to say NO to Racism! NO to police impunity! #NoThankYouNYPD #BlackLivesMatter #ThisStopsToday Endorsers in formation as December 18th 3:17am Organizations: BAYAN-USA BlackLivesMatterNYC CAAAV/Organizing Asian Communities DRUM - South Asian Organizing Center Equality for Flatbush Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) Guyanese American Workers United Occu-Evolve May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights New Yorkers Against Bratton Pakistan USA Freedom Forum Peoples Power Assemblies Individuals: Frank Leon Roberts, Co-Founder, National Black Justice Coalition Reverend Osagyefo Sekou Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark ABear, Radio Host, Pinko the Bear Show, IWW Alexia Filpo, CUNY student Cathy Zeitz, Manhattan, NY Chazz Giovanni, Fine Arts Acting Student Christina Borel, LCSW, LICSW, Sacramento,CA Crysbel Tejada, Freedom / Land Defender, New York Daniel Ismael Aguilar, M.Div. Candidate, Union Theological Seminary, Manhattan Dayann Molina McDonough, Police Accountability Activist Emma Hartung, Student, Manhattan, NY Lucy Parks, Queens, NY McKenzie Angelo, High School Teacher, Artist, Brooklyn, NY Mia Anderson, Brooklyn, NY Monica Thompson, Social Worker, Writer, Patrick Arthur, Writer, Manhattan, NY Sasha K Hippard, Artist & Butcher, Brooklyn, NY Sonia Choi, Fine Art Student & Organizer, The New School Sue Harris, Co-Director, Peoples Video Network Tajh Sutton, Young People of Color Inc. Brooklyn, NY Tess Raser, School Teacher, Brooklyn,NY Brenda Stokely, Million Worker March Movement Monica Moorehead, International Working Women’s Coalition
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:06:32 +0000