February 26, 2013—Take to the Streets, Wear Hoodies and Show Your Outrage!

February 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

This statement is from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network at stopmassincarceration.org.

WE ARE ALL STILL TRAYVON!

One year ago, 17 year old Trayvon Martin was murdered by George Zimmerman, who stalked Trayvon, decided he was “up to no good,” and gunned him down.  The police took the killer into custody and let him go right away.  Trayvon’s parents heroically stood up and called for justice for Trayvon, and in response people poured into the streets all across the country.  This is the only reason Zimmerman was re-arrested and charged for his crime.

On February 26, one year after the murder of Trayvon Martin, we must return to the streets, wear hoodies and act in other ways to show that we refuse to accept the bulls-eye that has been placed on the backs of Black youth.  Gather your friends, neighbors and co-workers; and take pictures of what you do.  Make plans for the 26 and send your plans, and your pictures, to the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and spread them everywhere.

Trayvon wasn’t the first and he hasn’t been the last young Black man murdered by vigilantes.  In 1954, 14 year old Emmitt Till was lynched in Mississippi by white men for supposedly whistling at a white woman.  Last November, Jordan Davis was gunned down by a white man who felt Jordan’s music was too loud.  The criminalization of our youth is why hundreds of mostly Black and Latino people, and most of them unarmed and innocent are killed by police every year!  And it is why the US warehouses 2.4 million people in prison—more than any other country.

On February 26, we must mark the murder of Trayvon by wearing hoodies, by gathering in appropriate places and demonstrating our defiance and our determination to refuse to accept this mistreatment.  Gather coming out of school, gather in your neighborhoods, take pictures of yourself and your friends and spread them everywhere.

We have to act in this way on the 26.  If we don’t, the courts could work like the cops did on the night Trayvon was murdered, by letting Zimmerman walk free again.  And the authorities will continue to give a green light to racist vigilantes and killer cops to brutalize and murder our youth.

But if we do act in this way, it will show we refuse to accept in silence a declaration of open season on Black youth.  It will say NO MORE to authorities who criminalize our youth.  It will open the eyes of those who don’t experience this mistreatment to what’s really going on.  And it will give heart to all those who live this injustice and hate it.  When we pour into the streets and act in other ways with defiance and determination on Feb 26, we will be contributing to ending these outrages once and for all.

In New York and Everywhere Around the Country: at 4:00 PM
Harlem: Gather at 135th & St. Nicholas Avenue;
Downtown Manhattan: Gather at Union Square South, 14th Street & Broadway;
Los Angeles: Leimert Park, Crenshaw Blvd. & Vernon Ave.
Other: TBA – Stayed Tuned!

See this article from Carl Dix: February 26: One Year Since the Vigilante Murder of Trayvon Martin—We Are All Still Trayvon! Take to the Streets!

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