From Shantel Davis to Kiki Gray: Why is NYPD Murder on the Rise?

From Shantel Davis to Kiki Gray: Why is NYPD Murder on the Rise?
featured speakers: 
Natasha Davis, sister of Shantel Davis
Thenjiwe McHarris, anti-police brutality activist
Evangeline Byars, activist at Medgar Evers College
Gina Sartori, Shantel Davis Organizing Committee and ISO member

The Davis and Gray families--along with many others--have been forced to mourn the tragic deaths of their loved ones taken by the hands of police in East Flatbush. The questions must be asked: what kind of society do we live in where the police can kill with impunity? How is it that New York City has the lowest crime rate of the nation's biggest cities, according to an FBI report, and yet at least 700,000 people (87 percent people of color) were Stopped and Frisked in 2012?

What is behind the rise in police murders? Why have neighborhoods like East Flatbush been turned into literal war zones? Why are there police in children's schools? Why are there seemingly infinite police officers to be deployed with no attention given to the issues of joblessness, poverty and cuts to social services?

The fact is that the racist police violence is also producing struggle. There are many families that continue to demand justice for their loved ones. In addition, activism around the Stop and Frisk policy has forced a class action law suit against it in this city on the grounds that it blatantly discriminates against Black and Latino New Yorkers. These are all indications that there is widespread disgust with the police. 

Join us at this panel organized by the Brooklyn International Socialist Organization and endorsed by the Shantel Davis Organizing Committee for Justice and Beyond (www.justice4shantel.com). Speakers will be followed by open discussion of why police violence exists and what kind of movement it would take to fundamentally challenge it. We stand behind the family members of those taken by police and demand justice for every death.

contact: nycbrooklyniso@gmail.com or 347-770-2476