Posted by Anti Police-Terror Project on Tuesday, April 21, 2015
The Anti Police Terror Project is one of the major visible organizations working to transform Oakland into Black Star of the West. Their work is allowing Oakland resident to shine the city’s loving rays onto the rest of this fair Planet.
Oakland has seen her fair share of Police Terror. Most recently Yuvette Henderson, a mother of two, was gunned down with military style weapons after the police were called at a Home Depot around the corner. APTP is making all connections, being very clear in their message that Police Terror and Economic Violence are two sides of the same coin. They are both use as tools of oppression to keep us in our collective places. Thanks to the ILWU, the Oakland Port ( one of the busiest in the nation) will be closed during May Day. Supporters will be streaming into the Port to express their support. If you are in the Bay Area, I suggest stopping by. APTP has been conscious of making these marches Family Affairs. I frequently see baby strollers, and sometimes the children even lead the march’s chants.
May Day’s #LaborAgainstPoliceTerror March will be an amazing experience. I look forward to seeing all the shining stars there. You can find the event page here.
*edited: Here are some more memes that were released today. Please share #LaborAgainstPoliceTerror #JusticeForLupe #JusticeForYuvette !
For those, unaware, APTP was one of the main organizers behind the #ReclaimMLKDAY. Here’s an excerpt from that day’s press release, illustrating the reasons for what they are doing:
Monday, we will connect the dots between police violence and economic violence with a march
at 11 am from Fruitvale Station, where Oscar Grant III was murdered by BART police, in
solidarity with Ferguson, New York, Cleveland, Sanford, Salt Lake City, and countless others
who too have lost young Black men to police terror. We know well the grief that comes when
brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers are gunned down by those who are
supposed to “protect and serve.” We march to reclaim King’s legacy and demand an immediate
end to the war being waged on Black people in America.
“Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We
merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the
open, where it can be seen and dealt with.” – (1963) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Our march concludes at the Coliseum City project in East Oakland, where half of Oakland’s
Black population has already been displaced, as the city seeks to continue the trend of
economic violence that has plagued this part of Oakland for decades. What began as redlining,
and continued through a lack of outside investment and predatory lending ultimately has
decimated our neighborhoods. This project’s projected outcome does little to serve the
immediate communities of color and does much to serve football fans and entertainment
seekers. We march to demand an end to economic violence, police violence, educational
violence and psychological violence that is perpetrated without consequence in our
communities.
The same things affecting Baltimore affect Oakland. When we hit the streets here in Oakland, we stand in solidarity with all the oppressed people in the United States and abroad. Fergusson and Baltimore will be on our minds, but so many people of color have dealt with grief similar to the grief felt by these communities.
Now is the time to shape and mold history. Now is the time to take back what is rightfully ours. Class and Race are so intimately connected that 9 times our of 10 they are synonymous. And now is the time to put them to rest. Change is in the air, and its intoxicating properties are taking our country by storm. The 1%, the oppressors, …they can smell it, and it makes them sick. They know change means that their undeserved way of life will have to change.
Its funny how we have freedom of speech and freedom of assembly until it makes these people nervous. If these freedoms can be taken away, then did we really have them in the first place? Do we really have freedom if we must fear that the police will beat us over the head for our expression? If the Supreme Court believes that money is equal to speech in this country, then lets level the playing field so that certain people are outrageously freer than others.
I look forward to this #LaborAgainstPoliceTerror because we have to come out this racist-imperialist governmental-economic system at more ways than one to bring peace and equality to this Earth.
Hope to see you on the Streets,
Junior