"The Whole Damn System is Guilty!" From Rochester to Ferguson -- a community report back

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Submitted by T. Forsyth on Thu, 2014-12-11 13:56

Part of October's stop mass incarceration programming at the Flying Squirrel Community Space included "The Whole Damn System is Guilty!" From Rochester to Ferguson -- a community report back. Local activists and organizers went down to Ferguson, MO to forge relationships with on-the-ground organizers there as well as to see first hand what was happening. The panel consisted of Natajah Roberts, Adrian Elim, Makia Green, Anansa Benbow, Tonya Stevens, Ricardo Adams, and Rosemary Rivera. Six of the seven panelists who went to Ferguson were delegates of B.L.A.C.K.--Building Leadership And Community Knowledge. Look for them on twitter.

"The whole damn system is GUILTY!" a community reportback from Ferguson

The panel and discussion took place on October 17, 2014, at the Flying Squirrel Community Space located at 285 Clarissa St.

A short video of compiled footage from #FergusonOctober was also shown at the report back.

FERGUSON

After the reportback, our videographer had to head out. Thankfully, another Rochester Indymedia journalist picked up a Flip camera and was able to get part of the Q & A.

Partial Q & A from "The Whole Damn System is Guilty"

No justice, no peace. Black lives matter.

Statement from the Flying Squirrel collective on stop mass incarceration programming:

The Flying Squirrel Community Space joins in the call-out for a month of mobilizing against mass incarceration! We demand an end to mass incarceration, police terror, repression and the criminalization of a generation! Our month of action and education against mass incarceration is a scream against the societal effort to cover up, white out, ignore, neutralize and suppress the reality of the prison industrial complex. The PIC imprisons over 2.2 million people, and monitors another 8 million people through parole, probation, ankle monitoring, general surveillance and other measures of state control. If the prison population in the U.S. were put together in one city, it would be the 4^th largest city in the country.

We REFUSE to live in a society that has no better fate for millions of its people than segregation, harassment, brutalization, incarceration and outright murder at the hands of its enforcers—and we will not rest until this is STOPPED. We refuse to make our peace with this “new Jim Crow” – a social system which targets communities of color, immigrants and the undocumented, disabled people, youth, elders, transgender and queer people, women, the poor, the homeless, and others. This system of correctional control, injustice, and domination is nothing but a slow, structural genocide. We will not tolerate this. WE RESIST!

Related Articles in the Flying Squirrel's stop mass incarceration programming: Refugees and Immigrants: Challenges in the U.S.A. | "They think it's a game, they think it's a joke!" Ferguson organizers speak! | U.S. out of my living room: The case of Leslie James Pickering, the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, & Burning Books | The impact of mass incarceration on families | Vulnerable Populations/Critical Populations: The criminalization of poverty, homelessness, and dissent | Keith LaMar AKA Bomani Shakur: Live from death row | Partial Q & A from "The Whole Damn System is Guilty"

Related: No Justice, No Peace--a response to the non-indictment of Darren Wilson | Black Lives Matter March & Rally @ UR: a response to the Ferguson grand jury decision | Ferguson Response Press Conference hosted by UCLM & CPR | Spontaneous protest in response to Wilson non-indictment | Ferguson Revolutionary Community Organizers Speak! | The Results Are In: An Open Letter from Protestors on the Grand Jury Decision (11.24.14) | Huey Jakhi on the role of women in the movement | Huey Jakhi speaking on "a real dirty devil" in St Louis | Huey Jakhi on life, liberation, and oppressive systems | Reign on white supremacy and police in St. Louis | Revolutionary community organizer Reign speaks! | The Injustice Freak Show | Black Lives Matter: Die-in at Delmar Loop in St. Louis | Ferguson organizers interviewed | "They think it's a game, they think it's a joke!" Ferguson organizers speak!