Martin Luther King Meets BOB: Freedom Is What We Want

This was really well done and I have to admit I got really choked up while watching it. It was really a good thing to watch with all the tension I’ve been feeling from watching the developments of the trail of Oscar Grant’s murderer.

I saw Jack Bryson Sr., (the father of one of Oscar’s friends who was also attacked by the cops at the BART station on New Years) speak at the Socialism 2010 conference this weekend and he spoke about dealing with all the lies that the cop’s defense team have been spreading and the way they’ve been demonizing Oscar, Bryson’s son (and basically every young man of color in Oakland by extension) and I can only imagine how hard it is to deal with. I feel like I get just a fraction of that anger and pain from the way that the victims of police racism and violence in the US are always blamed for it (like when women get blamed for their own rape). Hearing the lies and apologies and excuses for cold-blooded murder coming from the cops and media is hard enough for me to take, so Jack and Oscar’s mom and everyone else who are really going through deep pain in this process are heroes to me for standing up to all that in order to fight for justice not only for Oscar but everyone who’s been victimized by the police and the courts.

That MLK speech is a good reminder that change can happen, not overnight from an election of some politician, but from people forcing the government to respect our demands and needs, working together to build movements that are too strong and confident to be ignored and marginalized and can counter all the lies coming from those that want to keep this crooked status-quo going.

I hope to join fellow Oakland people in a celebration of the first conviction (ever in California) of a killer cop sometime soon. If not, then this struggle continues until we disarm all those cops and get justice for all of us.