We discussed what our #DefundThePolice and #InvestInCommunity campaign looks like today.
Childcare. Free housing. Youth centers. Liberated curriculum. Mental health and healing. Cultural visibility. Community land trusts. Community accountability. Small classroom sizes.
Our community demands the resources to thrive!
Make sure to come out to our second session Tuesday June 30th at our office 6pm! We will be doing what we did today. Freedom Inc
2 P.M. Meeting at the Mural on Holton and North Ave. Walking south to water then headed to national. Go pass the gay bars then meet with the youth march.
Waukesha March for the Future of Black Lives
515 W Moreland Blvd., Waukesha, WI – 2 P.M.
This is the third march in Waukesha, the third march where we demand equity for the black community. We march because Black Lives Matter. We march because all lives can’t matter, until the lives of those left impoverished by society matter.
Like the last two times, bring a mask and water.
https://fighting-words.net/2020/06/22/ballots-bullets-and-the-african-american-struggle-in-georgia/
CONTINUING PROBLEMS WITH VOTER SUPPRESSION AND THE BRUTAL EXECUTION OF RAYSHARD BROOKS IN ATLANTA HIGHLIGHTS RACISM AND NATIONAL OPPRESSION IN THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTH
June 22, 2020
By Abayomi Azikiwe
“This is why I say it’s the ballot or the bullet. It’s liberty or it’s death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody. America today finds herself in a unique situation. Historically, revolutions are bloody. Oh, yes, they are. There has not ever been a blood-less revolution, or a non-violent revolution. That don’t happen even in Hollywood. You don’t have a revolution in which you love your enemy, and you don’t have a revolution in which you are begging the system of exploitation to integrate you into it. Revolutions overturn systems. Revolutions destroy systems.”
(Quote from Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik Shabazz at the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit on April 12,1964)
Atlanta, Georgia, often referred to in recent decades as a “mecca” for African Americans in the southern United States, has become a focal point in the movement to end police brutality.
Outside a Wendy’s fast food restaurant on June 12, a 27-year-old Black man was reported to police for sleeping in his vehicle. Once two white police officers arrived on the scene the entire atmosphere shifted to one of suspicion, interrogation, breathalyzer testing, attempted arrest, confrontation and execution by law-enforcement. The entire episode was captured from various angles on video as was the case in regard to the recent murder of George Floyd, 46, in Minneapolis.
Since the brutal killing of Floyd on May 25, the U.S. has been alight with mass demonstrations and urban rebellions along with a fierce political debate over the current status and future of policing. More than twenty people have been killed and in excess of 10,000 arrested as municipalities, state governments and the White House deploy security forces in an effort to halt, contain and misdirect the antiracist movement.
In the immediate aftermath of the killing of Brooks, people in Atlanta took to the streets picketing the restaurant and shutting it down. The Wendy’s restaurant where the killing took place was burned down the following evening. Hundreds of people blocked the expressway near the location while Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the dismissal of the police officer involved in the incident.
By June 17, the two officers, Garett Rolf and Devin Brosnan, were facing criminal charges. Rolf, who was seen in the video firing the fatal shots which hit Brooks twice in his back, was indicted on 11 criminal counts including felony murder. Brosnan, who was placed on administrative leave, is also said to be awaiting charges for aggravated assault. Although Brosnan did not discharge his weapon, he was videotaped sitting on the back of Brooks prior to his being shot to death.
The police action against Brooks prompted the resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields which was announced by Mayor Bottom on June 13. The mayor said the shooting death of Brooks was unjustified and the police chief had decided to allow for new leadership in the department.
A lawyer for the Brooks family, L. Chris Stewart, said to the media that the homicide was completely unjustified. Brooks had asked the police officers if he could walk home after the questioning and alcohol testing. Instead he was placed under arrest prompting a confrontation with Brooks. The African American man later attempted to flee the police effort to put him in handcuffs and was shot to death.
According to Attorney Stewart, “It didn’t have to go to that level. And that’s what we’re saying in America with policing, is this type of empathy gone. … Where is the empathy in just letting him walk home?”
The widow of Brooks, Tomika Miller, said: “I can never get my husband back. I can never get my best friend. … It’s just going to be a long time before I heal.” Brooks was a father and was well-loved by his relatives who spoke passionately about the struggle to win justice in the case.
Georgia Primary Reveals Further Voter Suppression ….
Jeremy Scahill June 27, 2020
…. JS: I have to ask one last question then to follow up on that. It’s a big question, so you can share any aspect of it you want, but I think you beg the question there. Is it possible to end a society that is rooted in racism while leaving capitalism intact?
RG: That’s a great question and it is the question that has been asked in South Africa, and that is can you end apartheid and leave capitalism intact? No. I mean, South Africa is our portal, in some ways, of recognizing why the only future that is a truly abolitionist future is the dismantling of capitalism and the racial and gender structures that oppress us because capitalism was created on the grounds of a theory of inequality. Inequality was foundational to capitalism. The inequality of who has land and who doesn’t. The inequality of why certain people should get paid a small wage and that the wealth produced, the surplus produced should be in the hands of a handful of people. And that theory of inequality is sometimes based on the idea of physical differences, intellectual differences, the idea that no one is the same and some people should be beasts of burden and other people should be the recipients of wealth accumulation. I mean that is ultimately based on ideas about race and gender. And as long as we hold onto those ideas and as long as capitalism exists as a means of accumulating wealth through exploitation, then those ideas are not going to go away. You can’t get rid of them. So that’s why I think this generation is seeing that both need to be dismantled. I’m not saying everyone says that. I know that there are some people who are making the argument that we need a kinder and gentler capitalism. But what does that actually mean if capitalism is still based on extraction of peoples’ labor, and peoples’ knowledge, and peoples’ bodies turned into wealth held by a few?
So, to me, this is not a matter of a slight redistribution, like let’s give more crumbs to the poor. Nor is it about just ending poverty as we know it. It is really about creating a structure of caring and repair in which we all can benefit from our labor and our kind of collective generosity and create a whole new ethos, not just for the United States but for the world.
Dr. Robin D.C. Kelley
Milwaukee Protest Organizers to Headline Newsmaker Lunch Hour
Khalil Coleman, Destiny Monae and Mariah Smith will field questions from a panel of journalists and from the audience from noon to 1 p.m. The three organizers are quick to note they are among a larger group of activists who play key roles in the marches and demonstrations that have occurred daily here since shortly after Floyd’s death.
National Black Out Day Block Party
Come join us on National Blackout Day, July 7th, as we celebrate Black art, businesses, entertainment, and wellness. National Black Out Day is a designated day where the Black community and our allies boycott corporations and businesses that exploit Black bodies. We decided that the best way to partake in this is to celebrate Milwaukee’s black beauty and to ensure that the Black dollar is regulated in our community.
These past few months have been even harder for the Black community. We want a space where we can grieve and build. Legend Tupac Shakur said “it’s time for us as a people to start making changes”, and we believe that while we destroy the systems that oppress us, we must also uplift our community in the process. We are calling on all Black people, to sign our Black Upliftment Pledge.
We will be enforcing COVID-19 regulations, so please bring a mask and stay protected.
Interested in vending, please fill out this form and we will contact you! https://forms.gle/c677McTsH4HbcLjV6
Interested in volunteering, please fill out this form and we will contact you! https://forms.gle/poVp9ZXbaxcLt57M9
Wanna donate? Cash app: $Uhuru2020
Have questions?: empoweruscoalition@gmail.com or feel free to message the crew!
Much love,
The Uhuru Coalition
