Mass Gathering for Trayvon Martin, MONDAY, JULY 15, at 5 p.m. NYC

[Troy]

The same day of the verdict and the day AFTER the verdict
SHOW YOUR OUTRAGE IN THE STREETS!
In New York City
MONDAY, JULY 15
5 p.m. - Gather at Union Square
14 St. & Broadway - Manhattan
When the verdict comes down,
we will #riseup4trayvon
#wearetrayvon
To demand:

    No to racism, police brutality and racial profiling!
    Jobs and schools, not jails!
    End mass incarceration and deportations!
    End stop & frisk and the war on youth!

Plan to hold justice assemblies in downtown squares, in communities, at schools and at busy street corners in your city or town.  Distribute flyers; hold youth and community speak outs, marches and protests. The murder of Trayvon Martin should be generalized with other local cases of atrocities against youth, especially youth of color.   
 
It's critical at this moment for the movement to define this issue rather than the big business media or those who have little interest in defending Black, Latino/a, Indigenous and poor youth.  
 
We are issuing this emergency call prior to the verdict because we have little faith in the so-called justice system which is riddled with racism and class bias; a system that jails over 2.3 million mainly people of color and keeps another 5 million under the repressive thumb of parole and probation status and a system that rarely successfully prosecutes racist police or wanna be cops like Zimmerman.
 
Show your outrage and solidarity in the streets & on social media. Use the hashtags:

    #Riseup4Trayvon
    #Justice4Trayvon
    #WeareTrayvon
    #millionhoodies

Send us your rally, speak out and event information along with general support for this call to: in...@peoplespowerassemblies.org
Post to us on Facebook at http://iacenter.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a8010181fb&id=4b345fe222&e=f845fe681f
 
This call was issued by the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly, founded at the 10,000 person March 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin demonstration in Baltimore City which shut downtown Baltimore and City Hall down for five hours. Organizers called for a people's vote and the convening of the June 30, 2012 Peoples Assembly to Stop Police Terror and Abuse. Go to www.PeoplesPowerAssemblies.org
Call: 410-218-4835 or 410-500-2168 or 212-633-6646.

[Cynique]

Already a subtle schism has started to manifest itself in the landscape of black America.  You have to look for it. Have to scan the  rag tag gatherings all over the country being held to protest Trayvon Martin's murder.  Grass roots demonstrations, if grass ever took root in the inner cities. Check out the folks milling about, carrying their hand made signs and  yelling for action.  Note their pained facial expressions and simmering  body language. Desperation personified.  See who's on the platforms, standing before podia and shouting into microphones, - the neighborhood activists doing their best imitations  of Rev Al Sharpton.  And speaking of preachers, the pulpit is right in the thick of it, the black robed pastors blotting their sweating faces with their white handkerchiefs exhorting their female congregations mourning their dead sons to trust in Jesus. Yes, Lord.   The ghetto is so rich in tragi-comedy.       

 

Meanwhile, back in the middle class enclaves, cool-headed Blacks are stepping up, speaking out of both sides of their mouths, lamenting the tragedy of Trayvon' death, glibly comparing their childhoods to his  while declaring the verdict to be a sign that the justice system works. The jury has spoken. The versions of the living must take precedence over the silence of those they found it necesssary to kill.  Self defense, indeed.

 

So, the perennial parting of ways is underway as the black middleclass distances itself from the common folk, choosing instead to dutifully sign the NAACP's petition before returning to their $50,000 a year paycheck to pay check existences. And the beat goes on. Unless the beat happens to be the throbbing heart  of an innocent  black kid shot dead by a profiler standing his ground. Or by a thug who can't shoot straight.

 

Just another chapter in the book of Being Black in America.  

 

BTW, Troy.  I've come up with the perfect person to portray George Zimmerman in a movie.  Look-alike Chaz Bono, a wanna-be who yearns to make it as a man.  Is that type casting or what?

[Troy]

Chaz Bono!  Perfect