After the Verdict in the Trayvon Martin Case
Chicago: Outpouring of Outrage on the West Side and Downtown
July 14, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
July 13, Chicago West Side after verdict freeing George Zimmerman. Photo: Special to Revolution
West Side
July 13, evening: On Chicago's West Side at a busy intersection, hundreds of fliers of Carl Dix's statement, "The Response That's Needed—The World We Want To Live In," and stickers of the Trayvon Martin hoodie image were gotten out. People from the neighborhood went out into the street with fliers and stickers, passing them out to cars, while young men hung posters on themselves that read, "We Are ALL Trayvon – the Whole Damn System is Guilty! Get with the Real Revolution." Many people coming through, including people pulling over in their cars, got handfuls of fliers and stickers to get out. People took posters to take home and to take to work. One woman took a poster to put up in her gallery.
People on the corner were of all ages but mainly young people. Many of these youth were clear that this verdict means that anything can be done to them and they can expect no justice. This is a neighborhood where the police had shot a kid a couple of years ago. It is a neighborhood of Black and Latinos, where many took up the "Blow the Whistle" campaign against police brutality. People there who consider themselves part of the movement for revolution immediately took up activity. People were coming through saying, "I want stickers," "Give me fliers."
A number of police cars arrived on the scene, both patrol units and detective cars, in an attempt to intimidate people gathered on the corner. They told people that they could protest but not block flow of traffic into the corner store. The expressions on the faces of these young men answered back, "We are here every day," and the young men stayed posted up on the corner as people circled the four corners with a banner with a gigantic picture of Trayvon Martin.
Downtown
July 13, evening: It started with a Facebook post from Gregory Koger, a young revolutionary with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and the movement for revolution saying, "If the verdict comes in tonight—whenever we hear the news—we will be out in the streets... Keeping our ears to the streets and our eyes on a world where the Trayvon Martins and all oppressed youth can flourish..." Once the outrageous news of George Zimmerman's being found not guilty came down, a small team of revolutionaries rushed to downtown Chicago, unsure who—if anyone—would show up.
People trickled in at first, with a small group from another organized trend uniting around the bitter outrage of another Black youth—one of far too many that we all know the names of—gunned down, whose life was over. Another life snuffed out and the killer given a pass by the system. Revolutionaries spoke directly to the point that the system worked exactly as it is designed to—and that is the reason we need revolution and communism, and the leadership of BA to end the crimes of this system.
People took to the mike—some in tears—pouring out their heartfelt agony and anger over the system doing what it does—one more fucking time... Name after name—Oscar Grant, Rekia Boyd, Sean Bell, Abner Louima, Rakeem Nance, Darius Pinex, Corey Harris... As anger began to swell, people began to shout—"NOT ONE MORE!"
As we started to march through the cavernous streets of downtown Chicago, the name of Trayvon Martin rang off the skyscrapers. As we marched through the streets, we began drawing in many people out on the town who either had not heard the news of the verdict or were heartened by seeing a multinational group marching through the streets expressing their outrage at the verdict. Many joined what turned out to be three separate rolling marches, interspersed with very emotional speak-outs from mainly young Black men who live every day under the gun of this system. A number of women also spoke, including a young Muslim woman from Saudi Arabia who spoke powerfully to the anger that everyone—no matter what their background or where they are from—should feel about the murder of Trayvon—and that this is intolerable. A Latina woman in tears spoke about the case of Marissa Alexander in Florida—who received a 20-year sentence for shooting a warning shot into a wall to stop her abusive husband from hurting her. Yet George Zimmerman walked free.
Within an hour and a half of the verdict, people searching for ways to express their outrage had made their way downtown after hearing of the growing rally and march. Two carloads of Black youth drove in from a Black leadership conference 30 minutes outside of Chicago. Many of them were from out of state. People of all different backgrounds showed support as we marched through the streets—from the basic masses, to the homeless white dude who joined the march and started passing out 'We Are All Trayvon' stickers, to the middle aged men and women in tuxedos and fancy dresses who joined in the chants and put the stickers right on, on the spot.
Over the course of over three hours, hundreds of people had joined in a bold public outpouring of outrage at this slap in the face of letting George Zimmerman off. Hundreds of flyers of Carl Dix's statement "The Response That's Needed—The World We Want To Live In!" and "We Are All Trayvon" stickers got to people. We ended the night with 150 people—including a significant number of white folks—raising their fists to a moment of silence for Trayvon and a call for everyone to come out the next day and bring many more people out into the struggle for justice for Trayvon—and for a radically different world where all the youth counted as nothing under this system could flourish. As the night closed, some debated the questions of how to end mass incarceration, and what kind of power and change is needed to end the centuries of oppression under this capitalist system.
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