October 22: National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation Actions in 38 Cities Nationwide
Protests on October 22 against intensified police killings, tortuous conditions being inflicted on tens of thousands of incarcerated people, and young people treated like criminals, guilty until proven innocent if they can survive to prove their innocence, will mark 19 years of the annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. Continuing defiant protests in Ferguson, MO, in response to the police killing of Michael Brown are part of heightened resistance to police murder all across the country.
Against this backdrop, people in more than 38 cities across the U.S. are planning to take to the streets and act in other ways on Wednesday. The Organization for Black Struggle has called for civil disobedience outside the jail where people arrested in Ferguson have been imprisoned. A march is planned in Ferguson from the site of the murder of Michael Brown to the police station. In NYC, organizers are waging a battle to be allowed to take the October 22 march, and their message that police brutality must STOP into Times Square and before the eyes of the world.
This year the annual protests are part of an October Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration which was initiated by Cornel West & Carl Dix. Cornel and Carl were both arrested in Ferguson in October as they participated in and amplified the protests in Ferguson.
The Month of Resistance has garnered the support from notable figures such as Chuck D, who recorded a Pledge of Resistance, and Alice Walker, who wrote a poem “Gather”, dedicated to West and Dix. It has also included protests against attacks on immigrants and deportations, panels and assemblies on High School and College Campuses, and support from the Faith based community where over 30 churches/synagogues have lent their moral influence to speak out against mass incarceration and police brutality.
Carl Dix, speaking in Ferguson, stated:
“October 22 is a day when those who have suffered the devastation of police murder have a platform to speak about this. And when others throughout society are rallied to stand with them in the fight to STOP police murder…Are we going to stand aside while police wantonly murder Black youth, or are we going to act now to put up a big STOP SIGN to the horrors the criminal injustice system enforces on tens of millions of people?”