shut it down! Newsletter No 1

Conviction Or No Conviction We Need Abolition!

Officer chauvin’s murder conviction is not justice

Although we can celebrate the people’s victory in forcing the state to hold one of its own accountable, at least in term of our current mass incarceration system, Officer Chauvin’s conviction on murder charges for the lynching of George Floyd does nothing to change the fundamental nature of policing.

Even as the verdict was being read, police in Ohio gunned down 16 year old Black girl Ma’Khia Bryant. In the days surrounding the trial three Black men (Daunte Wright, Andrew Brown, and Donnovan Lynch) and a Lantinx child (Adam Toledo) were killed by police and we now have a new lynching video showing North Carolina police putting a bullet in the back of Andrew Brown’s head while his hands were on his steering wheel. As this wave of racist police murder sweeps the country, the mainstream media continues to ignore any discussion of police abolition. The abolitionist strategy of defunding the police, voiced during the height of last summer’s uprisings, has been all but erased.

It has not occurred to a single mainstream media commentator that killing Black people is not a failure of policing but the proper execution of its institutional mandate. When we say systemic racism in policing the implication is that the institution must be abolished, not reformed to be more palatable to white liberal sensibilities.

Enforcers of White Supremacy:

To re-establish white supremacy in the former confederacy after reconstruction, the institution of lynching was developed, making the ritualized murder of Black people a regular occurrence between 70 and 80 times a year in the decades leading up to 1890. Today, police kill between 200-300 Black people a year, with around 100 being unarmed Black people. If the prison industrial complex, which includes the police, has become the main enforcer of white supremacy, as Michelle Alexander makes clear in “The New Jim Crow”, then we can not expect this murderous record to be erased with piecemeal reforms. Just like Jim Crow spectacle lynching, New Jim Crow police lynching must also be abolished.

MAy day workers say: “pigs out of our unions!”

As workers gather around the country today to celebrate our strength and give solidarity to to movements, NYC Shut It Down! will be joining workers at Union Square to demand police be expelled from the labor movement. The rally and march will be calling for solidarity with the Black Amazon workers of Bessimer, Alabama in their fight for their rights and dignity in the workplace, and will be demanding the abolition of ICE which terrorizes migrant workers and an end to police terror in our communities. The liberation of all oppressed people can not be achieved without the emancipation of the working class. All power to the people!

Under the current colonial occupation of Black, brown, and indigenous communities by police forces across this country, as Daunte Wright’s mother said, “There is never going to be justice for us.”

Until we abolish the institution of policing and reappropriate those resources to develop our own community based solutions to security and well being, police will continue to kill our people because, as an institution of white supremacy, that is its purpose.
*Photo: The Portland Police Association building, set on fire April 13. (Justin Yau)*

Shut It down actions in april

Officer Chauvin Verdict Response:

On April 20th NYC Shut It Down took to the streets in response to Officer Derick Chauvin’s conviction for the murder of George Floyd, to re-affirm our commitment to the abolition of policing in the U.S. Several politicians and police collaborating organizations tried to co-opt our action by calling their own rallies at the same location and time. The mainstream media also blacked out our abolitionist message instead focusing attention on patron of a taco shop that was disrupted during the action. Fortunately, independent journalists for the people Ashoka J, Issa Khari, and Protest News NYC, got the real story, documenting the fact that we took more than half the crowd at Barclays Center to march when cop apologist Jumanee Williams tried to use our platform to increase his clout. Showing the majority of the hundreds of people who came were there to affirm their dedication to the abolitionist movement.

Follow them here: @AshAgony, @IssaKhari, @protest_nyc

FTP Brooklyn Kicks Off:

On April 23rd, along with The Nicholas and Donna Heyward Foundation, NYC Shut It Down held its first Feed The People Event in Brooklyn, expanding our free food program to three boroughs, The Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. The joint effort was held at the Guwanus Houses where Nicholas Heyward Jr. was murdered by the NYPD in 1994. After the passing of Nicholas Heyward Senior in 2019, his partner Donna has been carrying on his 25 year long fight to get justice for his son through the work of the foundation.

FTP Harlem Guest Chef:

Our food serve in Harlem had a special guest chef, with Hertencia Peterson (affectionately known as AunT), the aunt of Akai Gurley, treating the people of Harlem to her delicious currey chicken and Mac n’ Cheese.

Black and indigenous liberation movement:

The first general meeting of the Black and Indigenous Liberation Movement (BILM) gathered on April 14th, bringing together more than 30 Black and indigenous groups across the hemisphere, from Canada to Brazil, in an effort to unite our struggles across the Americas. Presented in english, spanish, and portuguese, delegates including those representing NYC Shut It Down, created a democratic structure to move forward with deciding on ideological unity, fundraising, and actions to strengthen our fights for liberation. To find out more about BILM or register to join go here:

www.blackindigenousliberation.com