Monday, September 3, 2012  The Stop Mass Incarceration Network distributed thousands of bright orange and yellow whistles to parade viewers and marchers heralding a new and more widespread wave of public protest of the NYPD police of stop-and-frisk beginning Thursday, September 13. 
Their message “No one will be stopped-and-frisked in silence,” was cheered. Thousands of photos were snapped of their banner “Blow the Whistle on Stop-and-Frisk Thursday Sept. 13.”

But one group did not like the contingent’s message, and blocked them from entering the parade, then encircled them with hundreds of armed officers.  The NYPD, despite the group’s authorization from the West Indian Day Parade Association to participate in the parade, refused the contingent admittance at several times and places along the route.  At one point, after they were directed to their place in the march, police pushed the contingent out of the march and onto a side street.

Carl Dix, an initiator of the campaign along with Cornel West, said, "The NYPD set out to keep our message--Blow the Whistle on Stop & Frisk--from getting out on Labor Day.  A ‘white shirt’ cop told us that he wrote the permits for who gets to march on Eastern Parkway in the West Indian Day Parade.  This is what a police state sounds like."


The Stop Mass Incarceration Network says, “If it sickens you to know that under Stop-and-Frisk, almost 2000 people, most of them Black or Latino are subjected everyday to harassment, disrespect, brutality and even worse; if you are tired of seeing Muslims and South Asians are targeted;  if you hate the way immigrants and LGBT people are treated as less than human by NYPD;  if you are someone who knows this will never happen to you but also know it's wrong; Join in BLOWING the WHISTLE on STOP-and-FRISK Thursday September 13. On September 13, nobody gets Stopped-and-Frisked in silence!”

The Network has announced gathering points where youth are regularly stopped and frisked in 5 boroughs on September 13, and also plans to symbolically “blow the whistle” on 1 Police Plaza at 4:00 pm that day.

It took 45 days of nation-wide protest to get Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, arrested. 

Now, the powers that be and their mouthpieces are creating public opinion to exonerate Zimmerman. NOT AGAIN.  NOT THIS TIME. 

June 5th marked 100 days after Trayvon’s murder.  On that day, activists across the country wore hoodies to let people know that we will not let this case be swept under the rug.  We will win justice for Trayvon.
The fight for justice for Trayvon must be linked to fighting against how the criminal ‘injustice’ system in this country comes down on people. His murder concentrated the outrage so many feel about racially targeted mass incarceration. 2.4 million people in prisons across the U.S., Blacks and Latinos treated like criminals; guilty until proven innocent, if they survive their encounters with cops to prove their innocence; torture-like conditions faced by those in prison and former prisoners forced to wear badges of shame and dishonor after they’ve served their sentences. It is way past time to say NO MORE to all of this.

Until recently George Zimmerman, his murderer, was out on bail—while Marissa Alexander, a Black woman who fired warning shots to chase off an abusive former boyfriend who was threatening to kill her, got 20 years in prison. No stand your ground protection for her.

We are being told it’s time to get out of the streets and let the system work. The system was working when Florida cops found Zimmerman standing over Trayvon’s dead body and let him walk free. It’s working now, as news stories appear backing up Zimmerman’s claim he was defending himself and slandering Trayvon’s name. What are they telling us—that traces of marijuana in your blood is a reason to kill you?

They want us to think our job is done, and now we should step back and let the gears of justice turn. We say no to that! It is only because masses of people poured into the streets that Zimmerman now faces charges. This is part of the workings of a system that continues to quietly grind away warehousing more than 2.4 million mostly Black and Latino people in prison and victimizing millions more with racial profiling.

Now's the time to continue to deliver the message: We are all Trayvon, the whole damn system is guilty!  Here’s what you can do:

1. Wear your hoodies and encourage others to do the same. Take pictures and spread them.

2. Organize speakouts, spread the message We Are All Trayvon Martin, The Whole Damn System is Guilty!

3. Bear Witness: Break the Silence--End the Shame.  Tell your story of abuse by the cops, of suffering in prison or discrimination against former prisoners.  Record your own story (go to www.bearwitnessproject.tumblr.com) or contact us and we’ll record you.  Organize “Bear Witness” days in your school, community center or church.

4. Most importantly, stay connected! Tell us what you did—or are planning to do.

The massive response to the vigilante murder of Trayvon pushed some of the truth about the way this system heaps abuse on Black and Latino youth out there for all to see. Let’s keep on pushing and fight for justice for Trayvon, bring to light all the crimes this system has perpetrated and condoned and through that change the way people look at racial profiling and mass incarceration.