Seattle: Fighting for Justice for Oscar Perez-Giron, for April 14, and for a Better World!
March 25, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
On Saturday, March 21, people gathered at the SODO train station in Seattle to say: From Oscar Grant to Oscar Perez-Giron: NO MORE POLICE MURDER OF OUR YOUTH, at the train stations or anywhere else! No more letting killer cops walk! We demand the indictment of killer cop Malcolm Elliott for the murder of Oscar Perez-Giron at the Seattle SODO train station! And, we will NOT live in a society that does this! And we will NOT stand by! On April 14th: There needs to be a nationwide shutdown to stop brutal murdering cops!
Protest in Seattle against police murder of Oscar Perez-Giron, March 21, 2015. Photo: Special to revcom.us/Revolution
Oscar Perez-Giron was a young Latino immigrant murdered by police at this train station last summer over a $2.50 train fare. The inquest into this murder was to happen next week, but the court unexpectedly delayed it. They are trying to sweep this murder under the rug. But people wanted to make it clear that we will MAKE THE COURT KNOW THAT WHAT HAPPENS AT THIS INQUEST WILL BE MADE KNOWN IN THE STREETS, AND THAT THE SYSTEM WILL PAY A POLITICAL PRICE IF IT APPROVES YET ANOTHER POLICE MURDER!
Learn more and get involved HERE.
We also took out in a bold way the call from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network for the April 14 nationwide shutdown of business as usual, to stop police murder. Family of Oscar and other Latinos murdered by police were part of the crew.
From the SODO station we boarded the train and rode it to the main plaza in downtown Seattle. On the train we moved thru the cars giving speeches on Oscar’s murder and reading out the call for April 14.
At the big plaza there was further speaking out, including in Spanish. This sparked lots of debate and back and forth with the crowds there. One young Black man argued that those who get killed by police did something wrong. This was taken on by the April 14 crew, and a Black woman who was hanging out there called out: “The police can kill you for whatever reason and get away with it!” The adopted mother of Oscar spoke to people, telling her story and urging people to get involved in the April 14th shutdown. A young white man who had been part of the fall protests against police brutality and murder in the San Francisco Bay Area stopped and asked how could he get involved in April 14th, and said he would organize his community college to walk out. A white woman stopped to tell us how disturbed she is by the police getting away with murder, and talked about the recent killing in Los Angeles of the homeless Black man known as Africa. She took a bunch of flyers, intending to organize her community to come out on the 14th.
Many people were very receptive to the call, and signed our contact lists. Many also tossed coins and bills into a bucket we kept passing around. We raised more money for the national April 14 campaign, and also, very importantly, we have a growing list of contacts to follow up on for further building actions for April 14.
A very important thing in the mix with all this action, was revolutionaries handing out flyers and palm cards about the upcoming online launch and premiere screenings of the film of the Dialogue between Cornel West and Bob Avakian on Revolution and Religion, and talking to people about how the Dialogue fit into the big picture of getting to a whole new world where police terror and many other horrors could be ended.
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