GDC Endorsed - learn more at www.OCTOBER22.org - hook up with other local organizers of this event. October 22, 2008, is the 13th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. We ask you to endorse this call for action. Check www.october22.org for events in your area. Write to info@october22.org to become part of organizing an event in your area on October 22nd. Why do we need to act on October 22nd, 2008? The current economic crisis looms large in people’s thinking, and the media talks endlessly about the upcoming elections, as if nothing else is happening in the world. Meanwhile, attention is diverted from the increasing incidents of repression and violence towards people in certain neighborhoods, towards immigrants, and towards political dissent. Verdicts from the court system in recent years have clearly established that all the police need to do is invoke the "terrorism" word, or say that they “thought” there might be a danger, and they get a free pass to raid, beat, bomb, gas and arrest. We need to put a stop to this, and drag the truth about the nation wide epidemic of police violence and repression into the light of day for all to see. Many people would be outraged if they knew what was happening. It’s up to us to let them know, and call on them to join us in the streets. October 22nd is a day to rely on ourselves, not the politicians. People of all different classes and nationalities come together, in events in local areas, to say, “No More!” 2008: what’s been happening across the country? Not-guilty verdicts in New York for the three detectives who shot Sean Bell 50 times on his wedding day. The court system once again put its stamp of approval on any action taken by a police officer, no matter how outrageous. Then in July, a Grand Jury refused to indict the NYC officer who killed 25 year old Jayson Tirado in a fit of “road rage.” District Attorney Robert Morgenthau described the incident as “ a justifiable shooting in unfortunate circumstances.” A police “surge” in Chicago leaving six people dead in a month. Between June 11 and July 5, in Chicago, police shot twelve people, all Black and Latino. Six were killed, six wounded and survived. The Governor of Illinois responded by suggesting that state troopers be sent into Chicago to help control “violent crime”! More than forty murders by police in L.A. County, including four by Inglewood police alone in four months. 19-year-old Michael Byoune killed by Inglewood police in the parking lot of a burger stand – bullets rain into the car until his body falls out. Six weeks later Inglewood police shot 23-year-old Ruben Walton Ortega five times, executing him in an alley. Kevin Wicks blown away in his own apartment by the same cop who killed Michael Byoune. Then Inglewood police shoot 47 times at an unarmed homeless man, Eddie Felix Franco. One of the seven cops suspended also killed 20-year-old Richard Tyson just last year – shooting him in the head and back while he was on his bicycle. 17-year-old Carlos Rivera killed by Newton Division police in South Central, shot at more than 20 times as he was hanging out with a friend in front of his house, then shot again in the head as he lay on the ground. 46-year-old Roketi Su’e, killed by Long Beach police in front of a birthday party. A nurse at the party who tried to help him after he was shot was handcuffed and put in the police car until Roketi was dead. More than twice as many people have been shot and killed this year in Maryland by Prince George's County police than in all of last year. County police have killed seven people this year, compared to three in 2007. Torture and death by police taser, prison-like schools and the school to prison pipeline. Andre. D. Thomas, 37 years old, in Swissdale, Pa., was killed by taser, after he was handcuffed. Activists in nearby Pittsburgh, Pa. organized protests and vigils. In St. Petersburg, Florida, fourteen year old Keon Dawson was dragged from his classroom, detained and searched as part of on-going harassment against him and other witnesses to the cop’s murder of his brother, Javon Dawson. A 10 year old school girl in Marion County, Florida was arrested for bringing a knife from home to cut her sandwich! Massive raids and round-ups of immigrants ripped from their families and sent to detention centers and prisons. Six hundred people arrested during raids in Mississippi, three hundred twenty-one arrested in South Florida. Hypothermia inducing tactics are used on many detained in order to get them to sign a waiver of rights to deportation. Increased police state and attacks on political dissent: FISA Amendments of 2008 legalized the wiretapping and email spying Protesters against the moving of war equipment (Strykers) to Iraq in Olympia, Tacoma and Fort Lewis have been met with tasers, rubber bullets, and more. The highly repressive conduct of police during both the DNC and RNC went largely unreported in the major media. STOP POLICE BRUTALITY, REPRESSION AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF A GENERATION! NO MORE STOLEN LIVES! FIGHT BACK! ON OCTOBER 22nd, WEAR BLACK! We wear black on October 22nd in memory of those whose lives have been stolen from us. ________________________________________________________________ ENDORSEMENT Name: Organization: Email: Contribution Enclosed: (Make checks out to IFCO/October 22nd, and mail to: October 22nd Coalition, P.O. Box 2627, New York, NY 10009)