#mlkshutitdown

"Rise Up! Resist! Need No killer cops or jail. THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY AS HELL!": Oakland, CA marches to Remember & Reclaim MLK’s Legacy| AmericaWakieWakie

January 19th, 2015

"Rise Up! Resist! Need No killer cops or jail. THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY AS HELL!": Oakland, CA marches to Remember & Reclaim MLK's Legacy| AmericaWakieWakie

January 19th, 2015

Oakland Community Demands Justice for John Crawford III at East-Side Walmart | AmericaWakieWakie

January 18th, 2015

Pictured: John Crawford, 22, was shot and killed Aug. 5th by police in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek, Ohio, while holding a toy rifle in a Walmart. He was remembered today as protesters shutdown an East Oakland Walmart and placed stickers on products reading "WARNING: Persons of color picking up this object may be subject serious injury or death at the hands of Walmart and police". It has been 163 days since Crawford was gunned down by two police officers, neither of which were indicted.

This action, like several others across the Bay Area this weekend, took place in response to the Anti-Police Terror Project’s call for a weekend of reclaiming MLK’s militant legacy of direct action, a call which came initially from Ferguson Action. The Anti-Police Terror Project is a multi-racial, multi-generational coalition of concerned and committed institutions, organizations and individuals committed to ending state sanctioned murder of Black, Brown & Poor People. 

QUEERS OF COLOR TARGET CASTRO DISTRICT, VOW TO “SHUT DOWN BUSINESS AS USUAL” IN SOLIDARITY WITH #BLACKLIVESMATTER

Planned Action to Coincide with Nationwide MLK Jr. Weekend Protests 

San Francisco, CA – Saturday, January 17th, 2015 – An organization of Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC) plan to shut down nightlife in the Castro tonight in solidarity with the #Blacklivesmatter campaign, which has called for an escalation of nationwide actions to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. 

Organizers of the event plan to rally at 18th street and Castro at 9:30pm. Activists say they chose to rally at the Castro because it is a space dominated by white middle class men, and is symbolic of the racial divide within the LGBT community and gentrification in San Francisco in general. 

Organizers say they are also protesting the Castro due to its housing of many mainstream LGBT organizations who have remained overwhelmingly silent on the #Blacklivesmatter movement, and who, they argue, are generally apathetic towards issues affecting black and brown members of the LGBT community.

In a letter addressed to mainstream LGBT organizations, activists stated that: “Politicized rituals of mourning… were once central to LGBT culture. But now that AIDS is wreaking its worst devastation within the Black community, and now that most reports of hate violence involve attacks on Black and Latina transwomen, mourning has become a footnote in many white-dominated LGBT spaces.”

QTPOC organizers say this action is just the beginning of a larger campaign of solidarity actions they are planning in support of #Blacklivesmatter. QTPOC activists hope to pressure mainstream LGBT organizations to take action on #Blacklivesmatter and to adopt its goals and demands as their own. 

Addendum: QTPOC activists’ full list of demands:

1.  Pressure San Francisco LGBT Center, Horizons Foundation, Equality CA, Human Rights Campaign, all mainstream LGBT organizations to take concrete action in support of black lives

2.  Donate money to efforts that support queer and trans black leadership including TGI Justice Project, Trans Women of Color Collective, and BreakOUT!

3. Support the Black Friday 14: #BlackLivesMatter #NotOneDime.

Sign the petition to demand that BART stop its persecution of civil rights protesters who halted BART on Black Friday.

4.  Find alternatives to calling the police to keep our communities safe.