Why Obama Holds Nat'l Crisis Meeting

Mainly led by millennials of color, nationwide sit-ins, highway shutdowns and walkouts using professional training including high-tech savvy have been so concerning to police and the White House, President Barack Obama met with activist leaders Monday. 

Protests Against Racism Show No Signs of Halting

One week after a St. Louis County grand jury failed to indict police Officer Darren Wilson for shooting to death Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager, chest and arms, communities nationwide continue responding to the miscarriage of justice. It represents one the most prolific civil and human rights abuses in the nation. Americans have responded to the killing with over 150 sustained, sophisticated, coordinated and intense protest actions showing no signs of halting.

Rights groups across the nation have united in the cause, offering professional direct action training and taking the lead in what the New York Post called on Monday “tech savvy.”

“Tech-savvy anarchists ran rings around the NYPD during last week’s Ferguson-related protests — and cops are now on edge over what the renegades may be able to pull off after a ruling in the Eric Garner case,” the New York Post reported today.

Throughout last week, Occupy activists armed with untraceable “burner phones” used social media and online bulletin boards to stay one step ahead of city cops and create mayhem after a grand jury cleared Officer Darren Wilson after shooting unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson.

“The anarchists clearly won the game of “Whac-A-Mole’’ — shutting down major roads including the FDR Drive, Lincoln Tunnel and West Side Highway and frustrating the NYPD, sources said.” (NYPost)

The NYPD is “very concerned, more because of recent events,” a law enforcement source told the Post.

Obama is also very concerned. Today, the president, Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder met with seven Black and Latino organizers from Ferguson, Mo.; Columbus, Ohio; Miami, Florida; and New York City. Each of the organizers has been leading ongoing actions to disrupt a status quo that the millennials say “is intolerable”.

“The president requested this meeting because this is a movement that cannot be ignored,” said Ashley Yates, a co-founder of Millennial Activists United, a St. Louis-based organization.

“We have two sets of laws in America – one for young Black and Brown people, and one for the police. We are sick and tired of our lives not mattering, and our organized movement will not relent until we see justice.”

The movement even reached CNN, even more important since the network has been criticized for its lack of reporting on the nationwide unrest in a demand for justice. This weekend, the Rams began their game against Oakland with their hands up, in honor ot Michael Brown and those protesting the injustice.

The young leaders conveyed personally experiencing a traumatized community in Ferguson, where police have terrorized peaceful protesters with pointed guns, rubber bullets, chemical agents, bean bags and menacing threats. 

Police killing young Brown was America’s new civil rights tipping point. Since Brown’s murder, with impunity, white police have killed fourteen unarmed black youth.  The young civil and human rights advocates discussed with Obama police inflicting routine harassment and violence on countless communities of color across America.

The millennials listed and discussed their demands for the federal government to hold police departments using excessive force accountable.

“We attended this meeting to make it clear to President Obama that we are in crisis, and police officers must be held accountable,” said Rasheen Aldridge, director of Young Activists United St. Louis. “It is a crisis when a Black American can get locked up for traffic fines, but police officers are rarely prosecuted for killing unarmed children. Black communities have suffered under racially biased policing and unconstitutional law enforcement policies for far too long. This has to stop.”

Among other avenues for change, the group’s demands include:

• The federal government using its power to prosecute police officers that kill or abuse people.
• Removing local district attorneys from the job of holding police accountable, and instead having independent prosecutors at the local level charged with prosecuting officers.
• Establishment of community review boards that can make recommendations for police misconduct, instead of allowing police departments to police themselves.
• Defunding local police departments that use excessive force or racially profile. Instead of having the Department of Justice (DOJ) wholesale giving more than $250 million to local police departments annually, DOJ should only fund departments that agree to adopt DOJ best practices for training and meaningful community input.
• The demilitarization of local police departments.
• Investing in programs that provide alternatives to incarceration, such as community-led restorative justice programs and community groups that educate people about their rights.

“Today we presented great models for policing alternatives,” said Jose Lopez, lead organizer for Make the Road New York. “These include restorative justice programs that promote alternatives to incarceration – work that the federal government should be investing in, instead of funding the further militarization of police who often patrol our streets like commandos in a war zone.”

“In previous remarks, the president has used language that criminalizes our movement, lumping in the vast majority of peaceful protesters with violence and bad actors,” said Brittany Packnett, a St. Louis educator and activist. “In our meeting, we explained that most violence in our community is coming from the police department, and something needs to be done about it.”

“As young people of color who are often criminalized for our mere existence, we are the experts in how our communities are treated by law enforcement,” said Phillip Agnew, executive director of the Florida-based organization, the Dream Defenders. “We accepted the president’s invitation so that we could present our expertise and needed policy changes to the nation’s top leader.”

“If police departments are not committed to community input and oversight, and refuse to train officers appropriately, they should be completely defunded,” St. Louis-based hip-hop artist T-Dubb-O stated. “Funding body cameras and other tactics to review police actions is a start, but that doesn’t solve the problem of too many officers who see us as ‘demons’ and not members of a community. Until we deal with that, we can’t move forward.”

“We appreciate that the president wanted to meet with us, but now he must deliver with meaningful policy,” said James Hayes, political director for the Ohio Students Association. “We are calling on everyone who believes that Black lives matter to continue taking to the streets until we get real change for our communities.”

The millennials who met with Obama today were:

•  Ashley Yates, Millennial Activists United
• Rasheen Aldridge, Young Activists St. Louis
• Brittany Packnett, St. Louis educator and activist
• T-Dubb-O, St. Louis hip-hop artist
• James Hayes, Ohio Students Association
• Phillip Agnew, Dream Defenders
• Jose Lopez, Make the Road New York     

Today, Obama called for more police body cameras as part of $263M reform package. In areas where police have been required to wear body cameras, police brutality has plummeted.

Sources: Ferguson Action, New York Post, The Daily Beast

Main Photo Credit: Ferguson Action