Anderson@Large

Inner City Blues in #Ferguson and Across the Country

It’s been more than three months since Michael Brown was gunned down in Ferguson, Missouri. The city is on pins and needles as it awaits the grand jury’s verdict which is expected to be handed down in the coming week.

Groups across the country are mobilizing for after the verdict protests. At Saturday’s action rally at the House of Justice, Rev. Al Sharpton said the “abuse of the grand jury” is fueling suspicion:

All eyes around the country have been on Ferguson, Missouri as the grand jury has wound down there… The abuse of the grand jury is the reason there is the suspicion from many of us that they are setting up to do nothing, which is why we want the federal government to come in.

Sharpton added:

It doesn’t take three or four months to determine if unarmed men were responsible for what happened. So you’re trying to figure something out that we done already figured out. We’ve done figured out you’re trying to figure something else. We are on high alert that within 24 hours we’ll be hitting the streets in 20 cities.

Sharpton said “the object of the protest is to put the pressure on the federal government to go forward.”

The community is on high alert. And so are the police.

Before you go to the protest, know your rights. If you are in the Philadelphia area, you are invited to a free interactive training session co-sponsored by Up Against the Law Legal Collective and Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (F)ilm the Police Committee (full disclosure: I’m co-chair of the committee).

Come hear and see what to do when you have an encounter with the police whether walking, driving or chilling on your porch. For more information, call (215) 552-8785.

It’s about to go down.

 

UPDATE
On Monday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon issued an Executive Order declaring a State of Emergency in Ferguson activated the National Guard.

 

We Will Not Go Back March for Justice for Eric Garner

A month ago, Eric Garner was killed by a police officer who had put him in an illegal chokehold. The New York City medical examiner ruled the death was a homicide.

Garner’s crime? Selling loosies.

Garner’s death and the police use of chokeholds have sparked outrage across the country. On Saturday, August 23rd, the National Action Network will lead a justice caravan and march to protest police brutality and the use of excessive force.

The justice caravan will travel across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in a dedicated lane on their way to Staten Island. The activists will rally at the spot where Garner was choked to death by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo. They will then march to the office of the Staten Island District Attorney and demand that charges be brought against the cop.

Rev. Al Sharpton said:

If you want to stop chokeholds, get on the bus.

Don’t think marching matters? Think again. NAN Acting Executive Director Janaye Ingram recently wrote:

Well, I understand that the end game is not the march itself. Marching in and of itself never solved anything. Marching is a public display of solidarity around a particular issue. It’s one part of mass action that people can do to show that they are united around a specific cause.

On August 23, we will march in New York to call for action in the case of Eric Garner, the man who was killed by police after breaking up a fight.

Police officers put him in an illegal chokehold and he stopped breathing while cops and EMTs looked on without helping. It’s not the first case of overly excessive force being used by police, but we have to make it one of the last.

So we march.

We show that this is an issue that we won’t let pass by without action. We won’t just be social media activists, posting our thoughts and feelings today and then tomorrow talking about who wore it best. We have a responsibility and a role. That role is to stand united with our brothers and sisters who want to see justice served, and the more people that come, the more that people in positions of power will recognize that they need to pay attention.

Sharing “hands up” photos on social media is cathartic. But we must move beyond hashtag activism. It’s what you do offline that will bring about change.

To find a bus stop near you, go here.