Drop the Charges on Those Arrested in Los Angeles for #ShutdownA14

September 28, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On October 28, 10 people will appear in Los Angeles Criminal Court in preparation for trial, facing charges thrown at them after they were arrested during the April 14, 2015 action in Los Angeles, part of the national #ShutdownA14 demonstrations to Stop Murder by Police. The people arrested are Stop Mass Incarceration Network members, Revolution Club members, communists, and #ShutdownA14 activists. The trials of the 10 are scheduled to begin within 10 days their court appearance.

On April 14, thousands made no business as usual a reality in 30 cities across the country, the largest rallies and marches taking place in New York, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The #ShutdownA14 protests came at a crucial crossroads in the struggle against police brutality and murder, where efforts by the authorities to put an end to the movement of resistance to police terror nationwide were sharply opposed on that day. In New York City, protesters shut down the Brooklyn Bridge. In San Francisco, City Hall was brought to a halt.

In Los Angeles, nearly 1,000 protesters surged into the streets downtown, demanding an end to police terror and murder. The actions that day began with a rally at LAPD headquarters. A contingent of homeless people marched from Skid Row to the rally, where they were met by hundreds of high school students who had walked out of several schools and marched to LAPD headquarters. After the rally, demonstrators went into the streets and marched all over downtown, stopping traffic and drawing controversy and support. Determined to keep shutting it down on A14 to STOP police murder, dozens sat down in a very busy intersection stopping the Blue Line Metro train, backing up street and freeway traffic for over an hour. (See Revolution, April 20, 2015, “Sights and Sounds of April 14.”) Arrests were made and charges later filed against 13 protesters. Now, 10 of them are scheduled to face multiple charges with up to three years prison time.

While these heroic protesters to stop police brutality are facing jail time, the cops in Los Angeles who murdered Ezell Ford, Brother Africa, Manuel Jaminez Xum, Omar Obrego, Oscar Ramirez, Terry Laffitte, Brandon Glenn, and Johnny Ray Anderson were never charged and were not punished in any way, giving a green light to continue murdering people.

This injustice goes on every day all over this country. Black and Brown people are killed at the hands of the police, and the killer cops walk free. Yet the people who protest police terror are the ones who are attacked, arrested, and hit with criminal charges. This is outrageous!

The authorities are trying to send a message: Don’t you dare lead others to resist police terror—and especially don’t even think about making an actual revolution. They have mounted a counter-offensive to silence this rebellion against their illegitimate use of force and murders. This counter-offensive includes the killing of over 850 people in this country so far this year by the vicious enforcers of this system; outrageously claiming that the cops are the ones under siege; and prosecuting hundreds across the country who have opposed their brutality and murders.

The people need to send a very different message: We will NOT be intimidated; we will NOT be silenced by these attacks and threats from the powers that be.

As the Call to “Rise Up October to Stop Police Terror” in New York City October 22 to 24—signed by hundreds, including family members of scores of people murdered by police—puts it:

We aim to amplify the many forms of resistance against police murder and mass incarceration. More important, we aim to change the whole social landscape, to the point where a growing section of people all over take ever-increasing initiative and make it unmistakably clear that they refuse to live in a society that sanctions this outrage, and where those who do NOT feel this way are put on the defensive.

Then on October 28, when the 10 go to court in Los Angeles, we MUST stand with these righteous fighters against police brutality and murder, and rally others to stand with them, filling the courtroom—to demand that all the charges be dropped.

Pack the courtroom on Wednesday, October 28.

Rally 8 am at the court: 210 W. Temple Street, downtown Los Angeles.

Drop the charges against all those who were arrested on #ShutdownA14!

Jail for killer cops, not the freedom fighters!

 

 

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