Vol. 79/No. 29 August 17, 2015
Through their actions they have helped inspire protests against police killings across the country the last couple of years, resulting in the cops being pushed back, most recently with the indictment of University of Cincinnati cop Ray Tensing for the killing of Samuel DuBose (see article on page 4).
In a powerful opening session, members of more than 20 families affected by police and racist violence were brought together on stage. In short, moving presentations they spoke with a picture of their relative who was killed projected next to them. Each ended with the statement, “And this is why I fight.”
The first presentation was from the cousins of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for supposedly flirting with a white woman. The mass outpouring at his funeral in Chicago — with an open casket at his mother’s insistence — was a catalyst for the massive movement for Black rights that brought down Jim Crow segregation over the following decade.
Over the three-day conference participants heard from relatives of well-known victims killed by the police: Oscar Grant, from Oakland, California; Eric Garner, from Staten Island, New York; Ramarley Graham from Bronx, New York; Michael Brown Jr., from Ferguson, Missouri; Tamir Rice from Cleveland; Rekia Boyd from Chicago. And they learned about many cases that haven’t made national headlines, from Stockton, Oakland, and Vallejo, California; St. Louis; Dallas; Tampa, Florida; and Detroit.
Fighters exchange experiences
Those attending came from across the country, from Los Angeles to New York, with a handful of international guests. The conference drew many who have been involved in police brutality fights, as well as activists in the anti-discrimination struggles of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.Some 80 different workshops sparked wide-ranging discussions that bubbled over into meal breaks on all aspects of the struggle. There were sessions on electoral politics, the militarization of the police, the role of the union movement, the role of women, and community organizing.
“I am here because I just can’t be quiet anymore,” said Shannon Rice, a 19-year-old college student from Cincinnati. “We have to figure out how to stop these murders and make the police accountable.”
“I think the conference is amazing,” Arianna McCall, a young Cleveland teacher who is active in fighting for the rights of incarcerated youth, told the Militant. McCall said cops shot her friend’s father in the back, and this experience was part of her becoming politically conscious.
In workshops, conference sessions and informally the families of the victims exchanged information and strategies on how best to fight. They pledged solidarity and active support for each others’ cases.
The workshop “Justifiable Homicide: Building a Movement with the Families Affected by State Sanctioned Violence” was attended by more than 100 people and chaired by Cephus Johnson, Oscar Grant’s uncle. There was a lot of back and forth discussion among family members present.
The Justice Department “almost never comes up with a conviction. You have to push,” said Franclot Graham, the father of Ramarley Graham, responding to someone who asked, “Is calling for a federal investigation helpful?”
“Numbers make a difference,” Graham said. “We need you in body.”
Expressing the determination of the family members, Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother, said, “I have to be the voice of the voiceless and nameless. We have to fight and fight together.”
“Someone has to take accountability for my brother’s death. I am in it for the long haul,” said Cyndi Mitchell in the workshop “Mothers Cry for Justice.” Her brother, Mario Romero, was killed by police in Vallejo, California, in 2012.
At the conclusion of the conference, dozens of participants responded to the attempted arrest of a 14-year-old by Cleveland transit police at a bus stop near the conference center. After more than an hour standoff, during which protesters linked arms and encircled the entire block, the boy was allowed to leave with his mother.
A lunch-time rally of hundreds was held in a courtyard of the conference site July 25 to protest the death of Sandra Bland in police custody in Hempstead, Texas, July 13, three days after she was arrested in a minor traffic stop.
Related articles:
Georgia rally demands arrest of killer cop
Calgary family: Investigate native youth’s death
Cincinnati cop is indicted for killing Samuel DuBose
Cleveland event: Charge cops who killed Tamir Rice
How ‘great migration’ brought Blacks into industrial jobs
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