Jasiri X Steps Up for October 22 Drops a New song to Resist Police Brutality

Today is October 22, marking the 18th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. Since 1996 the National Day of Protest on October 22nd has been bringing together those under the gun and those not under the gun as a powerful voice to expose the epidemic of police brutality.

This year has seen a sharp escalation in a full spectrum of attacks on the people. In Bakersfield, CA, 33-year old David Silva was hogtied and savagely beaten to death by law enforcement officers, who had found him passed out on a street. The vicious killing of 30-year old Melissa Williams< and 40-year old Timothy Russell, shot down in a hail of 137 bullets by Cleveland police, has been described as a modern-day lynching. As of yet, the thirteen officers are still on the job.

In an assisted living home in Chicago, 95-year old John Wrana was killed by police after being tasered and shot with a bean bag round. Witnesses say that Miami Beach police high-fived each other after tasering to death 18-year old graffiti artist Israel Hernandez-Llach Police around the country continue to kill young Black men with impunity, such as 25-year old Cary Ball, Jr killed in a hail of 25 bullets by St. Louis, MO police, and 16-year old Kimani Gray shot seven times by NYPD, three times in the back.

In Dallas, TX, the last time a killer cop was indicted was in 1973. Dallas police have killed 250 since, with 68 Black men killed since 2001. Over and over, we hear the justifications for police brutality and killing. The reason Miami-Dade police gave for restraining and choking 14-year old Tremaine McMillian that he gave “dehumanizing stares,” shows just how much law enforcement expects impunity.

The list goes on and on with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement releasing a report that shows every 28 hours a Black person is killed by police…Yet even through some of the most repressive attacks that the government has made, there are signs of hope in the nationwide eruptions of outraged people and communities who are fighting back. We have a heavy responsibility going into the 2013 National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, to stoke these sparks of resistance into a movement that can not only stop but reverse these escalating attacks.  For more info on Oct 22.. go to http://www.october22.org/

Here’s one example of that resistance … Pittsburgh rapper Jasiri X goes in..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kvI1McyLPI