$1,000 Raised at a Chicago-Area Hospital
October 12, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
We just raised $1,000 in one department in a Chicago area hospital. An activist gave the PDF “Bring the families of 100 Police Murder Victims to #RiseUpOctober” to a few co-workers who recently have expressed concern about police murders and who were starting to see the true magnitude of this epidemic. He also showed them the 11-minute video from the August 27 meeting in NYC. A Black hospital worker, who lives on the West Side and has experienced threats by the police, and three nurses decided to take the challenge to support these families to as many people in the department as possible. A physician who admits patients there had already contributed and allowed us to say what he had given. He also said we could tell the story of his encounter with the police. He was in his 20s, well dressed, having just left church on a winter morning; the police stopped his car and falsely claimed he ran a red light. He was forced to lie in the slush face down, with hands cuffed behind his back, while they ran his license.
One of the nurses wrote a beautiful fundraising letter stating our purpose and plan. A physician in our department offered to match whatever the nurses or hospital workers in the department could raise and this was in her letter. We also used the YouTube videos of LaToya Howell and Mertilla Jones, which once you enter the YouTube IDs can be quickly shown to others on the spot on a cell phone or department computer and could be texted to many people through our 10-day campaign. We also learned that the actual video of police murder, like the murder of Oscar Grant on the San Francisco BART platform in 2009, really helps people to get what is happening to people of color! We also used a really powerful and outrageous 30-second video on YouTube from Dallas from earlier this year, where a mother calls for police to help get her bipolar schizophrenic son to the hospital for treatment and instead they murder him for holding a screwdriver in his own doorway… caught on their own bodycam!!
These sorts of videos opened many eyes of middle class people around us, who just really have no idea. Following this, we also used the video of Uncle Bobby, Oscar Grant’s uncle, calling for backing these beautiful family members whose voices must and will be heard on O24!! We also used Rev. McCorry’s powerful statement and Carl Dix’s statement on what are reasonable demands from Revolution newspaper and, of course, word of mouth. Through our 10-day campaign, we created an atmosphere where many were engaged and affected and contributed. We are so happy that we have made this contribution and offer our love and solidarity to these families who have suffered so much and are so courageous!
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