Statement for Rise Up October by Alicia Kirkman, mother of Angelo Miller, killed by Cleveland policeman John Lundy, March 23, 2007
October 8, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Rise Up October! It means a lot to me. It’s never happened in our lifetimes. All together: WE ARE NOT TAKING THIS KILLING AND MASS INCARCERATION! We are not tolerating it anymore. We do it in our cities, but never altogether like this. I knew we had to do this, all the relatives of people murdered by police nationwide... but I never knew how to do it, so I never tried. And I can’t rest until this happens. Last night, everything hit me. I don’t talk about this much... so it was real emotional for me. Rise Up October shows what everybody is doing, everything that is being done. And I am included. Before, I held back, thinking my son, Angelo Miller, had done something wrong, take a radio out of car, and that’s why not a lot of support. But the police shot his car up with 8 bullets and murdered him. His hands were up! They were supposedly going to charge those cops for murdering my son. That never happened. How is this justified?!
Now, I am reaching out to families for Rise Up October to STOP police from murdering young people like my son. I got my goal of 25 people to NYC from the families in this area from my outreach. I got fundraising plans with big events October 10 and also neighborhood sales with hot dogs, chips and soda. Some families are confused, like they become activists and get taken up under the wing of the city and police to fight violence in the community. Sometimes they don’t know where to turn and end up there. But what happened to their sons is not right and they got to be with Rise Up October and in NYC too. Rise Up October is really challenging me. I am still hurting. But I am no quitter and now I can’t stop, I am working to reach out to all the families everyday and I am working to be a better fundraiser. I’m not stopping and I can’t even sleep! How about you? Which Side Are You On?
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