Carl Dix Speaks on Police Murder of Kimani Gray
April 7, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Watch youtube video of this speech that Carl Dix gave on March 24, 2013 at a protest against the police murder of Kimani Gray.
Let’s start with Kimani Gray, 16 years old. We should be here today talking about the bright future that lay before this young man. But we’re here talking about his death. His life stolen by two undercover cops who fired seven bullets into his body, three of them into his back. This was murder. And it’s no isolated incident. People have already pointed to that. Shantel Davis, Ramarley Graham, Reynaldo Cuevas. We could go all the way back. We could go back to Eleanor Bumpurs, Clifford Glover, ’cause I am that old... Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo. This is unacceptable. This must stop. And I will tell you, it is up to us to stop it.
We should live in a world where those who are entrusted with public security would sooner risk their own lives than kill or injure an innocent person. And it will take revolution to bring that kind of world into being. Because in this world, the so-called trained law enforcement personnel, the pigs that’s who I am talking about, they get the benefit of the doubt when they kill our kids. They can step up there and say I thought that candy bar was a gun, I thought that wallet was a gun, I thought that cell phone was a gun. They can plant guns on the dead bodies of our children, and then claim it’s justifiable homicide. Well, we have to stop that, and ultimately to stop it once and for all will take revolution, nothing less. And if you are somebody who wants to know where all this stuff is coming from, why it happens again and again, and what if anything we can do about it, I urge you to get a copy of this film, BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! It will get you into all those questions.
What we need today is we need to build resistance, determined mass resistance, to what the cops and the whole criminal injustice system brings down on people. That’s what I was doing when Cornel West and I called for nonviolent civil disobedience to STOP “Stop & Frisk.” Because if you don’t stand up, they will beat us down so far that we will never be able to do anything about what they do to us.
Look, there’s one more important thing I gotta speak on. ’Cause a lot of people have said that people in this neighborhood were wrong to stand up and resist. They said it in the newspapers. Politicians were saying it. Preachers were saying it. Well, let me be very clear. You were right to stand up and resist in this neighborhood. You were right to stand up and resist in this neighborhood. If people in this neighborhood hadn’t stood up, they would have had a much easier time trying to sweep this murder under the rug. But because people stood up, people are talking about this all over New York City, what happened to Kimani, what happened, did the cops throw that gun down. They are talking about it all across the country, because of what people here did. And look, the other reason you were right to stand up is because of what the police have been doing in this neighborhood, the way they sweated the youth 24/7 before the murder of Kimani. Then they murdered Kimani. Then when people gathered in vigils to mourn the young lost brother, the police harass them, manhandle them, push them around. When people tried to march on the sidewalk, they started brutalizing and arresting people.
Kimani’s parents submitted an application for a permit to have a legal march to protest their son’s killing, and the police department said, “No, you cannot march.” What they are saying to us is, “We can kill your children, but you can’t protest it.” We have to say, “Fuck no. We will stand up. We will fight back, we’ll march and we’ll resist in other ways as well. We will not sit back and let you murder our kids.
And I will say again, for me, I’m very clear it will take revolution—nothing less to end this once and for all. Whether you agree with that or not, though, if you got an ounce of justice, just an ounce of justice in your heart, then you have to be out here, standing together with people in this neighborhood, resisting what the police do. Saying no to police murder, saying no to brutalizing people for standing up and resisting. That’s what we have to do, sisters and brothers.
Thank you. Continue the resistance.
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