ISE board member Negesti Cantave is on the ground in Ferguson and offers this update:
In the past 48 hours here in Ferguson, MO I have personally been affected by tear gas, and been in close vicinity to rubber bullets and pepper spray. I was personally directed by either National Guard or county police to leave the Ferguson PD area at gun point – to be exact an assault rifle about a foot away from me and pointed at my body where, if I had been shot, I would not be writing this message to you because I would be dead. I have heard reports of sound devices being used and “less lethal” bean bag-shooting guns against people who have committed the crime of being black in America and nothing else.
Partners in struggle, I say this to you as a non-resident of MO, but as a New Yorker, that my perception of some of the things we need down here are for people to be watching on live stream, Twitter, facebook and all other social media, and blasting it out to their networks; the whole world really does need to be watching. We also need people to donate to the bail fund and to local groups doing the work out here, like Hands Up United and the Organization for Black Struggle, M.O.R.E. ( more isms organizing for reform and empowerment ) M.O.W., etc. I hope that in solidarity you all will continue to shut your cities down across this country until some true racial justice appears. Power gives nothing without a demand. Our demand needs to be, “stop murdering black people in this country and stop telling the world that in this country it is OK to murder black people.” Keep this country shut down.
In solidarity,
From another criminalized black body in America.
