Join us for a rally for Justice for Michael Brown at Occupy Elgin on Saturday, August 23rd at 1:00 PM at the corner of Kimball Street at Grove Avenue in Elgin.
Justice for Michael Brown – Michael Brown was ‘walking while Black’ and paid for this ‘offense’ with his life. A murderous Ferguson, Mo. cop, Darren Wilson, shot an unarmed, unresisting Brown six times. Brown’s body lay in the street unattended, unexamined and uncovered for four hours. Medical personnel were not allowed to help the victim. The officer who killed Brown did not even check for a pulse. .
To protect other citizens of Ferguson, these measures must be taken:
–Darren Wilson, Brown’s cold-blooded murderer, who still has his job, must be fired and arrested for murder immediately.
–Ferguson’s Chief of Police, Thomas Jackson, who keeps contradicting himself about the Brown murder and who seems to be making up a story as he goes along, must resign or be removed immediately.
–Authority for the investigation of Brown’s murder must be transferred to the FBI.
–The Ferguson Police Department, which has 53 officers, 50 of whom are white, in a city that is two-thirds African-American, must be reorganized from the top down.
End Racial Profiling – ‘Walking while Black’ is only one of many ‘offenses’ for which African-Americans, including Mike Brown, are ‘guilty.’ Many studies and much direct experience show that although racial profiling is illegal, African-Americans and other people of color are still stopped by police, searched, ticketed, arrested, verbally threatened, physically abused and shot on the spot more often than white people.
Such treatment – unrelenting and endless – can only breed ill-will and hatred, of the sort that exploded in Ferguson, Mo. We demand that the Justice Department ensure that federal laws against racial profiling be strictly enforced, especially at the local level where most of the profiling takes place.
End Militarization of Police – Missouri Governor Jay Nixon was “thunderstruck” after seeing video from Ferguson that showed “the over-militarization, the IMRAPs rolling in, the guns pointed at kids in the street — all of that, I think, instead of ratcheting down, brought emotion up.”
But of course. We could hardly distinguish between the videos of Ferguson and those of Afghanistan and Iraq. Citizens of Ferguson were faced with an occupying army, possessing overwhelming force and ready for battle. But police are not troops; they are rightfully called ‘peace officers.’ We demand that our police give up military equipment and tactics and act truly like ‘peace officers’ who serve and protect and not occupying foreigners who kill and destroy.