NYPD Kills Brooklyn Youth:
It's Right to Stand Up Against Police Murder
March 14, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Kimani Gray. Killed by two plainclothes NYPD cops. Kimani "Kiki" Gray, cut down at 16 years old. Another senseless, wanton killing of a Black youth at the hands of the police.
Every night since he was killed, people have come into the streets in mounting protests, determined to express their anger and outrage over this murder. They have defiantly confronted baton-wielding NYPD cops in vigils and marches. The chants ring out: "NYPD, KKK, how many kids have you killed today?" "Fuck the police" and "Don't shoot. Don't shoot." Others shout: "murders, murderers."
The official story for this murder? The New York Times wrote that "The teenager separated himself from the group and adjusted his waistband in what the police described as a suspicious manner." Also, "A woman who lives across the street from where Kimani was killed said that after the shots were fired, she saw two men, whom she believed to be plainclothes officers, standing over Mr. Gray, who was prone on the sidewalk, clutching his stomach." According to this witness, Kimani said, "Please don't let me die." And one of the cops answered, "Stay down, or we'll shoot you again." Other news reports cite statements by witnesses that Kimani Gray did not point a gun; or that he had no gun at all, or that his hands had been in the air.
Now in response to the outrage and protests by the people comes vicious repression by the police and the powers-that-be. The powers justify this by saying that the youth are violent and attacking the police. But the reality is that it is the police who are attacking the people. As people started to gather last night (March 13) for a memorial vigil for Kimani, 50 riot cops took their positions, constantly harassing people and going up their faces.
The crowd at the vigil grew and included Kimani's relatives and Juanita Young, Nicholas Heyward, and Margarita Rosario, all parents of children murdered by the NYPD. They came with a Stolen Lives banner with the names of people killed by the police. Both Juanita and Nicholas spoke to how their children were killed by the police and the need for this to stop. A revolutionary spoke to the murder of Kimani, saying how long must this go on, and that Revolution, Nothing Less is what it will take to stop the police from murdering our children. He spoke to how we deserve to live in a society where the security forces would sooner take a bullet than kill one of the people, and called on people to come to the premiere of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
A large section of the crowd, mainly youth, decided to march. At the core of the march were fearless young women and men. They were joined by a wide range of people from across the city. The police on foot and on scooters blocked and penned in the people, not letting them cross the street on the sidewalk. On the sidewalk!!! The pigs were trapping people and penning them in. And people broke out of the trap. All along the march, those in the march were constantly having to break into a sprint to elude the police who would attack and grab people. Many of these rebels were pepper sprayed, and 46 people were arrested, including Kimani's sister.
The police attack the people who are righteously protesting and arrest 46—yet the killers of Kimani walk free. Why? Because as Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, has said:
“The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and the order that enforces all this oppression and madness.” (BAsics 1:24)
Emotions run deep in this community, as they do in cities across this country. This part of Brooklyn can only be described as "occupied" territory. People are not free to hang out with each other without fearing what will come down on them. The police constantly harass and stop-and-frisk the youth especially on the streets for any reason, or no reason at all. Hundreds of thousands in New York City alone are stopped and frisked every year. And at any time these encounters with the police can end up with a murder by the police. Think about what it means for millions of Black and Latino youth to be living with the daily reality that not only are they systematically targeted by the police, but they could be murdered by them at any time and this would be declared a "justifiable homicide."
When people take to the streets, it is a fine thing. No one should accept the crimes that people are subjected to on a daily basis. No one should accept that this world they live in is just the way things are and the best humanity can do. This is not the best of all possible worlds—another world is possible. And the fight to win justice for Kimani can be an important part of building the movement for revolution that can bring that new world into being. People everywhere must stand with and uphold the youth defying the police and refusing to accept the murder of Kimani Gray in silence. People must voice their outrage over this cold-blooded murder. NO MORE!
"The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world…when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness…those day must be GONE. And they CAN be." (from "The Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have. A Message, And a Call, From the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA")
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