In the last two months we’ve seen at least nine horrific murders, all products of the mass criminalization of black people, immigrants, Muslims, and other people of color in the U.S. While our nation is now aware of the February 26th tragedy of Trayvon Martin, 17, his case is but one example of a long-standing human rights crisis in the United States. On February 2, Ramarley Graham, 19, was killed by the police in front of his grandmother in the bathroom of their Bronx apartment. On March 1, when two New Orleans brothers were stopped by the police while one was driving the other to work at Burger King, one of the brothers, Justin Sipp, was shot dead by the cops — the officer who killed Justin Sipp was recently put on desk duty because he posted a messages online stating that Treyvon Martin was a thug and should have been killed by vigilante George Zimmerman. On March 2, in Dayton, Ohio, Dante Price, 25, was shot in the head by private security guards in an apartment complex. Dante’s car was shot over 20 times and it went up in flames. On March 10, Kenneth Smith, 20, was chased by an off-duty police officer who shot him in the head in Cleveland, Ohio. On March 14, in Del City, Oklahoma, Dane Scott, 18, was shot in the back and killed by the police after a car chase. On March 22, Rekia Boyd, 22, was shot in the head and killed in Chicago by an off-duty police officer. On March 22, Shaima Alawadi, 32, an Iraqi woman wearing a hijab was killed in California in an orchestrated hate crime. On March 24, Ervin Jefferson, 18, was shot and killed in Dekalb County, Georgia by private security guards. Behind them are countless others: Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Abner Louima, Oscar Grant, Anthony Baez, Mathew Shephard, Mark Duggan, James Byrd, Eleanor Bumpers, Tyisha Miller…
On April 24, 2012, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s 58th birthday, we will gather at the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington DC. A large-scale rally will amplify our request that Eric Holder immediately meet with a delegation to discuss police corruption and civil rights violations in Mumia’s case and in the cases of hundreds of other victims of racialized violence and defendants across the country. Some demonstrators will engage in acts of civil disobedience to draw greater attention to these and other injustices.
