Stop Police Brutality! End Racial Profiling!
End ICE and Police Raids!
An Injury to One is an Injury to All
This May 1st, "An injury to one is an injury to all" should be our battle cry. The rising ICE raids and deportations are actions that are cut from the same racist cloths as the recurrent brutal attacks on innocent victims by the police.
To protect and serve is the police’s upheld motto. But for communities of color this translates into harassment and terror.
In Bay Shore, this racist police violence turned deadly. On April 12th, 2008, Kenny Lazo, son of immigrant parents, was stopped and apprehended by the Suffolk County police. Under 3rd precinct custody, Lazo was severely beaten with flashlights and as an autopsy later revealed, was ultimately strangled to death by the same blunt object while he was handcuffed. The DA failed to indict the five police officers involved in Lazo's death. They shamelessly continue to patrol the streets of this immigrant community today.
Kenny Lazo was just one of a long chain of victims of police brutality since immigrant worker Amadou Diallo was killed by NYPD in 1999. At least 183 more people have been killed by the NYPD since then. And for undocumented workers this threat cannot be any greater. Immigrants live in the shadows as they are faced with xenophobia and then threatened by deportation if they speak out. As a result, many racist attacks go unreported. The disregard by local and state enforcement sends a clear message to the population at large.
Marcelo Lucero became a target of this criminalization of immigrants. On November 9th, 2008, a group of teenage boys set out to find Latinos to beat, what they called ‘beaner jumping’. Lucero was stabbed in the chest by Jeffrey Conroy and left to die. This racist murder was one of a long list of attacks on immigrants in Suffolk County in recent years. Local authorities are being blamed for instigating a racist and anti-immigrant climate.
Racist killer cops don't just target immigrants. The murder of Sean Bell, along with so many other others in the African American community, show that racial profiling and racism do not stop to ask for a passport.
This May 1st we must come together to declare that the struggles faced by immigrants and racist murders at the hands of cops are not isolated and unrelated incidents.
We demand equal rights for all immigrant workers and an end the police terror in all our communities! Stand with all victims of police brutality!
An Injury to One is an Injury to All!
We will be meeting at the corner of Leonard St. and Centre St. at 10:45AM-11:00AM tomorrow morning. We will be at Foley Square from noon-1PM, and hit Union Square afterwards. Don't miss a stellar performance by Rebel Diaz from 2PM-4PM at Union Square. SEE YOU ON THE STREETS!!!!!
