​At 6pm in New York City’s Union Square a small group gathered to express outrage at the Charleston, South Carolina shooting by Dylann Roof of nine black men and women during a bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, after sitting with them for about an hour, according to the “official” story.

The march was organized by StopMassIncarceration.net, Students against Police Brutality, Carl Dix and Cornel West. Cornel West was not present, representative of the Revolution Communist Party and Bob Avakian, american political activist and chairman of the Revolution Communist Party.

The rally was led by Steve Yip of Stop Mass Incarceration Network who introduced Carl Dix who spoke into a bullhorn to address the crowd. Carl blew a whistle calling the shootings an Emergency situation and that it “Happens everyday in America!”. He said the shootings were created by the “Atmosphere that the state creates”. Carl then read out the names, ages and titles of the victims and connected the mass shooting in Charleston, SC to the poster that was held up that read, #ShutDownA14 Stop Murder by Police, a mass march that happened in April of this year in protest of recent and past killings of unarmed, black youth by police with impunity. “We have to see this and we have to say No More!” The crowd repeated, “NO MORE!” “It’s going to take Revolution nothing less to stop it once and for all”, said Carl. He referred to Activist leader Bob Avakian and said, “it’s not something we can wait around for”. “We said No More, we have to act on that No More”.

Carl told the crowd about the mass march he and Dr. Cornel West are working on in NYC coming this October 24th. “Hundreds of thousands of people have to descend on NYC. No More to Police terror, No More to people being warehoused in prison, no More to the youth being treated like criminals, guilty until proven innocent if they can survive to prove their innocence”.

“Which side are you on? Don’t tell me you’re neutral when you hear about Eric Garner being choked to death. You’re either on the side to stop it or you’re OK with it going down.”

Carl went on to talk about “healing” and how healing can’t occur until you “diagnose the disease and root it out”, otherwise you’re just “covering it over and allowing it to continue to fester”. Carl spoke about the Governor of SC who said he was going to remove the confederate flag then said “some think it’s the flag of slavery but some of us think it’s the flag of southern heritage and tradition”.

“Stop Lying”, said Carl Dix, “it IS the flag of slavery”. “The civil war was fought for slavery”, and states rights to enslave black people.

Next to speak was Nkosi Anderson, grad student at the Union Theological Seminary wearing a T shirt that said, Got Privilege? on the front and “I Can’t Breathe” on the back, who first offered his condolences to those affected by the SC killings then reiterated what Carl said about “Which side are you on?” Nkosi went on to say, “in 2015 black and brown people continue to suffer within a society that reminds us that our lives do not matter. That we remain subject to wanton acts of state sanctioned violence, vigilante violence, and mass imprisonment all while being denied fundamental human rights like access to decent paying jobs, adequate schooling and hope for a better future”.

“What kind of world do you want to live in? Nkosi then went on to talk about a “system that benefits a small few while the masses can’t find jobs. We’re living in an oppressive society which we Theologians call a System of Death”.

Mo Tyler from Students Against Police Brutality said a few words next about Dylann Roof getting his inspiration from George Zimmerman, a private security guard, who shot and killed unarmed black teen Travon Martin 2/26/12 and was acquitted of the charges.

“Aunt Shirley” from Black lives Matter, spoke about the people needing to stick together and “We’re not doing that. This is not just a movement for black lives, this is not just a movement for church people”. When the people were killed in the church these U.S said Oh, that’s so terrible. What about Eric Garner, what about Michael Brown, Nicholas Heyward Jr? People should be up in Arms, people should be ashamed of themselves”.

Shirley went on to speak about Police who have a gun and the ability to Kill somebody, “there should be a Conscience behind that”. If you kill somebody and the system says it’s alright, “Something’s wrong, something’s wrong with Pantaleo (NYPD who killed Eric Garner). “Something is wrong with someone who has killed someone innocent, something’s wrong with Capitalism! Capitalism Sucks! It’s promotes racism. No matter what nationality, no matter what gender we all need to stick together”. Shirley went on to say the same thing about the people if they see one another doing something wrong and say nothing, “we’re just as wrong”.

Arrested multiple times for marching against police brutality, Noche Diaz spoke up next. His talk can be viewed on the Stop Mass Incarceration Youtube channel along with the words from Nicholas Heyward Sr who lost his son, 12 year old Nicholas Heyward Jr, to a cops bullet 20 years ago while playing with an obviously toy gun. Nicholas Heyward held up a flyer reading #No New NYPD and spoke in outrage about the new Cops DeBlasio hired to “Criminalize us” and called William Bratton a “Supreme Racist”. Nicholas Heyward, “What’s happening is a lot of us are being criminalized and a lot of us are just sitting back and watching. If you’re not with an organization you11 gotta get with one, this is Real Serious. We need you, We need you!”.