SAN FRaNcISCO strations and riots that took place in Oakland California afte a white cop killed shot & Killed a handeuffed Oscar Grant, a young black father, in the back on a crowded subvay platform in front of hundreds of people in the very firs hours of 2009, These events became known by many as the Oscar G at rebellion or in the Bay Area simply, Oscar Grant, Oscar Grane marked the beginning of the current period of iece anti-police ioting and uprisings ll over the country that have climaxed in Ferguson and made their way back to the Bay. Oscar Grant was killed several weeks before Obama's firs inaugur ion, and this murder and the subsequent uprising in tesponse 1o it shattered the foolish notion that somehow the election of a black president signified that we were lving in 2 post racial society: You Canie Shoot Us All s by no means a comprehensive study of the Oscar Grant re- black man who participating in the rebellion as well as an intellectual challenge to the would be politicians who tried to control the Oscar Grant struggle. It offes those of us of the combatants who fought n the strts of the Bay Area. The author delves into the issue of the outside agitator and the myth of the legitimacy of outrage. The politicians dredge up many of the same issues addressed in this bief essay. The author alo offers us a unique perspective in that he is both a young black man and a militant anarchist. This s not 0 say tha there are no black anarchists n the countey because thereare, especially i the Bay Ara; but i i rare in our mileu for someone o xplicidy writ from thac perspective. We believe that this csay is mportant o be spread among those of us who are engaged in the current nation wide rebellions aguinst the police. (geliwindsbayorg/uplosds/20120 funiished_2012_bweh.pd) You Can’t Shoot Us All When we realized that, in the eyes of the powerful, ur lives are just pils of bones waiting to be shattered, arteries and veins on the verge of tearing open, hearts and lungs that stop beating and expanding at the moment they pull the tigger, the only thing lef 0 do was to come together and make them temble before us. Everyone saw the video. Atleast it scemed that way at the time. A young father's last breaths press against a cold ain platform, a cop holsters his firearm and calmly pulls out his handeuffs, Why would they kill an unarmed man with so many people around? Why dorit we know how to re- spond? I wanted to break windows, o set fites, o strike fear into every cop on the sereets that nighe. Twanted to show the powerful that they: too, would learn the meaning of violence, just s we have been forced to learn i time and time again. They needed to understand that we dorit forget, we needed to feel chat we were still aliv. But what could we do? We were so weak then, we didn't know each other. Somewhere I heard call for a demonstration week later. I came alone. A warm winter night, not 100 long ago, a long march and then the sun sets. Shordy afer,there i a fire and kids are jumping on top of a police car, shards of glas glimmer along the asphale, and strangers are, for the first ime, coming together. To see people who hours earler hung their heads in fear of the police, people who were aftaid to step into the stret, inally come together and stand up to the cops was amazing. Days earler we ran from the police, that nigh, when we were all together, we ran toward them. No one will ever forget that evening; the moment those kids jumped onto the roof of the police car was the most beautiful moment I've ever witnessed. For an instant, we ralized that we are strong, watching the police tremble a they. cowered on the other side of the interscction, we got a glimpse of our potenial. Later chat night, as the cars were still burning, we talked with frends, discussing ways o keep fighting, ways to ensure that the memory of the dead continues to haunt the living, In the following weeks, we continued to fight i the srcets. Ttwas on those warm January nights, evenings which now scem so distant, that T met some of the greatest people I have ever known. Our friendships have created the foun- dations of a network of struggle and formed bass for a different kind of communicy. We learned so much from the courage of some of the youngest people on the scrces in those nighs. For weeks afer that firse night of outrage, everything felt different. People held their heads higher and the feeling of anger toward the police was finally out in the open. The violent and repressive nature of the police was the main topic of discussion everywhere I went. People openly disobeyed and insulted the police to ther faces every day and the cops were on the defensive. We could finlly breathe. July 8,9:30pms A jewelry store s being looted. 30 people tear apare the ot gate and flood the store. Acoss the stret someone is writing 2 message about Oscar Grant on the wall of a business. A block away, people continue to fight with police, in some places separated from the advancing lines by small fires. ‘Wete moving slowly avay from the center of downtown. On Broadway the crowd is extremely thin, about 80 people spread acoss two blocks. Police are everywhere, yet are unsure of how to bring the situation under control. A bank window shatters and 20 people rush inside auempting to take anything that isn bolted down. Nearby, a ire is burning inside a department store. Two blocks cas a larger crowd is advancing near the ke, tiled closely by armored police as they break the windows of stores and throw their contents into awaiting hands of the crowd that surrounds them,. That nigh, the night of the verdict, we were reminded how ltl our ives mean to this system, and that police offcers do, in fact, get away with murder Demanding jusice is not enough. The concepr of justice for an individual doesn' address the need to dismantle the system that murdered him. It doesnt prevent any of us from being killed by the police. What is important now is not speaking in terms of justice, but atacking and weakening the instiuion of policing that continues o wage war against us. For people who hold the weigh of the carth on their shoulders, the fastest way from the bottom to the top is t tun the world upside down, to throw the property of the tich into the street and to dance on the roofs of police cars instead of riding in the back “When the South has trouble with its Negroes — when the Negroes reuse to remain in their place'— it blames ‘outside agitators” — James Baldwin “The term “outside agitator” was popularized during the civil rights sruggles of the 19505, when southern politicians would blame the growing unrest in exploited black communities on the presence of (ofien white) radicals from outside of the city. Present- Iy, isa term used by Oakland poliicians (and aspiring policicians) to try and keep the siuation under control, o prevent local marginalized people from realizing the power they have. Today, we face enemies that we could have never conceived of before this. Sometimes, i the people thar pretend to be on your side that are the most dangerous enemies. The non-profic world has, for 18 monhs, waged a campaign againt this movement. Many non-proficsthat function independently of the local government have disparaged us. “They oppose collective uprisings and spontancous activity because they fel the need o control the movement. These organizations view themselves as they saviors of the down- trodden; when dominated people rse up on their own terms, it threatens the posicion of leadership these organizations occupy in their imaginary worlds. ‘We have also come under atack from non-profitsthat operate entirely under the influence of the city government. One of these city-funded non-profis has taken up a full Redged assault against us, using some of the $2 million in city money they have received to wage a propaganda campaign against the unity we have found with each other through this struggle. They have even used city money to pay young people o come to their indoctrination workshops where they speak of the evils of people coming together and standing up to their enemies. They have also helped to spread the ab- surd logic of the Mayor's Office that only peaple born and raised in Oakland have the right o take to the steets. This micronationalism is an avempt to foste collaboration between disenfranchised people and their exploiters in a unifid front against the enig- maic “outsiders” I is incortect to asset that nonprofits o this type have motivations of their own. They are simply the hip mouthpeces of the city government that funds them. Their agenda i the agenda of the Mayor’s Offce and the police deparement. They. use the language of “peace” o try to preserve the instiutions that created them. We have never been concerned with thei peace. The peace of the powerful is the silent war waged against the dispossessed. I the past, our enemies have attempred to divide movements by distinguishing the “good” elements from the *destructive” elements. This time, it seems that the primary division they created was ot between the “peaceful” and the *violent,” but a raial divi- sion wedged beaween groups in the uncontrollable elements in an atempt to neurralize our collctive srengeh. 1, idencifying with a man whose photograph was not unlike my own refection, won- dered if people who did not sce themselves in Oscar Grant at leas saw in his image theis friend, the neighbor, their classmate, someone whose life was worth fighting over. Thoped that there were white people who, after watching a video of a black man being murdered by the police, would be angry enough to break windows. In time, | met these people, because they fought alongside us, throwing botles and chunks of concrete, cursing the police and writing the names of the dead along the walls of the ciry: July 17, 8:20ams The cops killed someone lse. Once again in Fruitvale. Forty cight year old Fred Colins died afier being shot multiple times when five officers from BART ‘and OPD discharged their weapons. July 18, 11:27pm: Shots fired at police from an upper floor of high-rise building in the Acorn housing project complex in West Oakland. The officers were performing 3 wraffc stop in the area and had 1o take cover when they heard the shots, however, no officers were hit by the gunfire Today, the situation is every bitas dismal a it was esterday. Every hour of ou lives spent at work creates the revenue that srengthens the army that confionts us. In Stock- ton, in Livermore,in Bakersield; the police continue to open fire on us, we continue to die. We have yet o create a force thar can subject them to the misery that will one day confiont them, however, we have come closer than we ever thought we would. Until now, we believed we were fighting battles. On the day of a demonstration, we walked he streets, we fough, and we went home that night, unsure of what to do in the time uncil the next barle presented tself, Today, we understand that we are at the beginning of a war. Wars are protracted conflcts. Their results aren' determined at the end of the day. The police have killed again, and, a of today; our response has been less than forceful. In warfae, it is ecessary to develop weapons. We need to learn neww tactics. There i stillso e we really know how to do. We could learn how to blockade roads or shut down BART trains. With better communication, we could attack police propery or raid supplies in places where the cops aren' waiting for us. We are working toward developing the capacity 10 tespond forcefully every time the police kill one of us. This movement has never had leaders. It i composed of independent and often dis- connected groups of people. These groups tend to operate outside of the typical political and social ustice necworks. So fa, their autonomy, thei lack of reiance on both the non-profic world and the radical policical scenes, has been a srength. We all come from vastly different places, and many people may not be wiling to work with one another, Therefore, the poin ist 1o try to bring everyone together into one organization. What is important is o begin providing supplies o people to assse their ablity to continue o seruggle autonomously. “Lkenow you'll win in the finish all ight. You have a formidable arsenal at your disposal, and what have we got? Nothing. Well be beaten becase you're the stronger and were the weaker, but in the meantime, we hope that youll have 10 pay for your victory.” - A Rebel We have spent 100 many nights living i fear of the police. When we strted fight- ing back, the world that surrounded us began to fecl different. Today, we can tell the children in our neighborhoods that we stood up for our communities, chat, when we al stand together, nothing seems so frightening. Since that warm January night, we have made the mistake of allowing this movement to be confined to the borders of the city of Oakland. The BART police ae a regional prob- lem, policing in general a global problem. Disruptions ar as relevan at Civie Center in San Francisco or Downtown Berkeley as they are a 14th and Broadway: The movement becoming entirely centered around the city of Oakland has confined us, it has weakened us because it defines the struggle by the borders created by the powerlul instead of by the lines drawn by the outraged. This system exists o erase memories, o eviet us from our childhood homes, t incarcerate ou loved ones, o exceure the fathers of children 00 young to fully understand what happened. Our struggle has been an effort to create memories that they can never take from us Running toward the sunset, we have found that the horizon only moves farther avay: ‘We awake every morning to the same cycle of death and power that we escaped in our drcams the nighe before. Yet we continue to trudge to the ends of the earth, we continue o fight. Tt is when the airis sill when al scems quiet, that we are planning our next At he vy last, we have inflicted harm on our enemies, and because of his, we live with dignity: