People gathered at the statue of Gen. Harriet Tubman in Harlem, New York, on Oct. 14 to honor George Floyd. The Black father would be celebrating his 52nd birthday that day if he hadn’t been murdered by a Minneapolis cop five years before.
People around the world saw the video of Officer Derek Chauvin putting his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, killing him. The May 25, 2020, atrocity sparked a movement of at least 20 million people who marched across the United States against police violence and all bigotry.
Yet the U.S. Congress decided to honor instead the fascist demagogue Charlie Kirk, whose birthday also happened to be Oct. 14.
Just behind Gen. Tubman’s memorial is the New York Police Department’s 28th precinct. Malcolm X led 2,000 people to surround it in April 1957, to demand medical treatment for Hinton Johnson, who police had viciously clubbed.
Omowale Clay, chairperson of the December 12th Movement, reminded people that New York City cops killed the 10-year-old Black youth Clifford Glover in Brooklyn in 1973.
At least 1,100 people are killed every year by U.S. police. That’s three homicides by cops per day.
Many organizations, including the December 12th Movement, Arm the Dollz, Black Alliance for Peace, Bronx Anti-War Coalition, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Jazz Against Genocide, Struggle for Socialism Party and Workers World Party, endorsed the action.
People at the rally recalled other victims of the police, like Breonna Taylor and Erik Garner, who, like George Floyd, were strangled to death by police. Members of Jazz Against Genocide gave a musical tribute.
Speakers denounced the fascist roundups of immigrant workers by ICE and the genocide against the Palestinian people.
Trump has now declared war on Chicago and other cities with large Black and Latine communities while he’s preparing to attack the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The people will stop him.
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