Nkosi Anderson moderated Thursday evening’s event at the First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem for the upcoming #RiseUpOctober ‘Which Side Are You On?’ mass march against police murder where the guest speakers were Dr. Cornel West and Carl Dix. In a room full of supporters and activists of a few hundred people. “I wish I could say that we were gathering here tonight for a celebration but, that is not the case. In fact, it is quite the opposite. We are in a State of Emergency in this country. Broken Windows type Policing, Mass Incarceration and the killing of black and brown people are terrorizing our communities”. 
Noche Diaz from Revolution; Nothing Less spoke next and talked about the Baltimore killing of Freddie Gray. He then went onto mention women who were arrested and not having the charges stick yet, to be released they had to “agree” to be GANG RAPED by all the Cops in the precinct!
Reverend Phelps, formerly of the Riverside Church, was next to speak. He spoke about 12 clergy meeting with Ray Kelly about 3 years ago in his “massive offices at One Police Plaza”. He said he was annoyed at his fellow Clergy who he said were “throwing Soft Balls”. Rev Phelps said he told Ray Kelly that his staff are “terrified to see your men in blue on the streets of this city, Terrified. This degrades the whole social fabric”. Ray Kelly’s response was, “Someone has to pay for safety in this city”.
Is it just me or does anyone else see anything wrong with that type of thinking? People need to be terrified to feel safe?? That has No logic. And it isn’t supposed to because the system is NOT about helping people. It’s about enslaving.
Rev. Phelps admitted to religion being complicit in all kinds of evils. “God hates it when people are shaken and refuse to wake up”.
The Rev. Francois of the church the vent was being held was next to speak. “God requires us to do Justice “.
Prof. Jamal Joseph (formerly Eddie Joseph) is a U.S. writer, director, producer, poet, activist, and educator. Joseph was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. He was prosecuted as one of the Panther 21. He spent six years incarcerated at Leavenworth.
Prof. Joseph read the story of Eleanor Bumpurs, the 66 yr old, 300 lb. woman with a history of mental illness who was shot by NYPD with a 12-gauge shotgun in the chest in Oct. 1985 when they tried to evict her from her apartment.
Prof Joseph spoke about a 10 year old named Cliff Glover who, in 1973, was shot by police who thought his hair pic was a weapon. People rioted for several days. Aug. 1943, “Right here in Harlem”, Prof. Joseph, “a brother coming home from WW11, was shot to death by a white police officer and Harlem rioted for 2 days. The history lesson is to say that, nothing has changed”.
Marsha Coleman-Abedayo is an American former senior policy analyst for the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Beginning in 1996, she filed complaints alleging that a company from the United States was mining vanadium in South Africa and harming the environment and human health. “I don’t even think we have the Right to call ourselves mothers if we don’t stand up and protect our children”.
Hearing that was music to my ears since, for decades, I’ve been trying to bring light to the brutality many children face by their very own parents in their “homes”.
Gina Bellafonte was another speaker who spoke out on behalf of those being victimized by Police. “My name is Gina Bellafonte and I’m a human being”. Gina pointed to the pictures of some of those who were killed by Police then asked the crowd to have a moment of silence for them. “I come from a family that is rich and multicultural, I am unapologetically black”.
Family members of those who were killed took to the stage.
They included Juanita Young, Nicholas Heyward Sr. and other families from out of town such as the grandmother of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a seven-year-old African-American girl from the east side of Detroit who was shot and killed during a raid conducted by the Detroit Police Dept Special response team on May 16, 2010. The police officer responsible for the shooting, Joseph “Brain” Weekley, is a member of Detroit’s SWAT team and was a frequent subject on A&E, whose film crews were also filming the investigation for the documentary TV series, The First 48.
Mertilla Jones with Juanita Young cannot hold back her grief in describing the death of her grand daughter while lying on the couch with her on May 16, 2010 when SWAT busts into the house. “Lying on the couch, blew my grand daughters brains out right in front me, I saw the life and light leave right out of Aiyana’s eyes. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t care how Ghetto they say I am”.
The grandmother of Tony Robinson spoke, “We as a people were taught to stay divided because they can control us easier”.
Then Reverend Jerome McCorrey led the room in a fund raiser, trying to get people to donate $500, $100 or $50. “Do what’s necessary to support this movement”. Rev. Phelps was one of the donors.
Carl Dix from the Revolutionary Communist Party, next to speak spoke about Emmett Till who, at 14 years old back in 1955, was beaten by the husband Roy and half brother of the white woman he whistled at. Emmett Till had one of his eye gouged out then was shot in the head, then had his body weighed down in the Tallahatchie River with a 70 lb cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire.
“I’m not gonna talk to long tonight”, said Dr Cornel West, the last speaker of the eventing, “because this is not a time for words. Words are too cheap when Action is Necessary”.
“I’m here, I am who I am because somebody loved me. Somebody cared for me. Somebody attended to me”. Then Cornel West pointed to the pictures of those slain and said “the tears of the family are not in vain”. Cornel West, like he frequently does, refers to the music of the times and mentioned the Isley Brothers and the song the Caravan of Love. “when you’ve been terrorized, traumatized for 400 years, when you’ve been stigmatized for 400 years but, you still produce a John Coltrane who talks about Love Supreme and Marvin Gaye who says What’s Going on?”
Cornel West ended on, “For black people, any time we decide to straighten our backs to tell the truth, bear witness and be willing to live and die”.
More videos from the event can be found on my YouTube channel:
BONUS VIDEO:
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