Minneapolis: Hundreds of Teachers Take to the Streets Against Police Terror
July 21, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Teachers demanding justice for Philando Castile and other victims of murder by police, Minneapolis, July 19. Photo: @WintanaMN/Twitter
July 19—Hundreds of teachers from around the country took to the streets of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, demanding justice for Philando Castile and other victims of murder by police across the U.S. Philando was killed by pigs in a nearby suburb on July 6, the day after Alton Sterling was murdered by cops in Baton Rouge, Louisiana—both murders caught on video. Philando was a school cafeteria supervisor and a member of the teachers’ union.
The teachers were in Minneapolis for a national convention of the American Federation of Teachers. When the protest blocked street traffic and ignored police orders to move, 21 teachers were arrested. The protesters chanted, “From the schools to the streets, we want justice, we want peace,” and a large banner leading the march said: “Teachers 4 Black Lives.” The march stopped at the headquarters of U.S. Bank, accusing the bank of financing private prisons and helping cities pay settlements in police misconduct cases.
The heads of the pig federations of Minneapolis and St. Paul attacked the teachers’ protest, saying, “Educators should demonstrate more common sense than rushing to judgment...” “Rushing to judgment”?! Over and over and over again, the armed enforcers of this capitalist-imperialist system are murdering Black and Brown people, before the eyes of the world. And over and over and over again, these pigs go unpunished—because it’s their job to keep the people down through violent terror. People from every corner of society need to be filling the streets—demanding and fighting for a STOP to murder by police.
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