Sept. 19 Day of Protest: Stop Police Crimes! Withdraw Federal Troops! Community Control NOW!

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

We in the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and we as participants in this present historic rebellion against the racist lynch-style violence that took the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others call upon all the various strands of the peoples move to join us in another national day of protest. We believe recent events with the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the subsequent murder of protestors demanding justice for Blake, the murder of Trayford Pellerin in Lafayette, Louisiana, Miguel Vega in Chicago just this past Tuesday, Dijon Kizzee a 29-year-old Black man just murdered in Los Angeles and the recent evidence of the murder of Daniel Prude at the hands of Rochester police and the continued denial of Justice for Breonna Taylor have demonstrated in the most stark manner that the powers that be, those in and out of the Trump Administration have no intention of conceding to the just demands of the people. Like the pandemic these police shootings are raging unchecked.

Also, Trump refused to condemn and in fact defended the 17-year-old white vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse, who allegedly shot and killed two protestors in Kenosha, WI—Anthony Huber and Joseph D. Rosenbaum. A third person, Gaige Grosskreutz, was shot in the arm.

Over 22 million have taken to the streets in the midst of a pandemic demanding an end to the racist violence and outrages perpetrated against us by the police and vigilantes and yet the only decisive action taken has been against peaceful protestors. Hundreds of thousands gathered in Washington, D.C. this past Friday, Aug, 28 and still nothing from Congress and the White House except a uniform chorus condemning violence in the abstract instead of the racist violence being mercilessly imposed on Black people on a daily basis.

Trump’s refusal to condemn racist, vigilante violence while he eagerly exploits every opportunity to deploy DHS, U.S. Marshalls and federal troops against peaceful protestors. This is not only a disturbing indicator of how far down the road he has gone toward squashing with violence and terror the people’s right to protest, it is also a testament to his willingness to be a demagogue crying for law and order to win the election or undermine it.

We must protest now and demand justice now because it is precisely now when everything is at stake. It is now that we are seeing over 183,000 deaths to COVID-19 infections. It is now that Black, Brown and poor white and working class people are dying at an alarming rate, that we have over 26 million unemployed with reduced benefits, that we face unprecedented social misery and economic devastation. While tens of thousands are dying in isolation from their families because they have been abandoned by the federal government and Black and Brown people are being murdered with impunity by the police we can not fail to act, to protest even more loudly and put in the streets even greater numbers demanding justice and an end to weaponizing the coronavirus against the poor, the workers and the oppressed.

So on September 19, 2020 whatever city you’re in we call upon you to join in protest with us to advance the struggle for community control of the police wherein we immediately proceed to transfer funds from the police to our community needs. Here are our demands:

We demand that the cops who shot or murdered Breonna Taylor, Daniel Prude, Jacob Blake, Miguel Vega, and Trayford Pellerin be immediately arrested, charged and convicted.

We demand the immediate withdrawal of federal agents and National Guard troops sent to our cities to brutalize protestors and terrorize our communities.

We demand real police accountability through all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Councils (CPAC) establishing community control of the police, shifting police funding to essential public services like education, housing, and healthcare and regulating police to address the real demands for safety of the people.