Original Post Date
2020-05-30 09:30 PM
Original Body
Hello people this is Leroy Moore. Usually I don't do you know solo video recordings of myself but you know, I just need to get things off my chest as we see another police brutality killing of a black man. Anyway this video is entitled "three generation of black men against police brutality." I wanted to talk about that because I see the cycle that happens. In the degree black men are. My granddad in the 60s, my dad in the 70s and myself in the late 80s, 90s and today. All three of us fought against police brutality. And all three of us had different answers. My grandad used to say as the F police get them out of our community. My dad has almost the same answer.
Today I see the community wants to do everything except getting police out of the community. Through my like 15-20 years of activism against police brutality since I think since 1988, 1987. I've seen state answers over and over and over again. I see the answer of training. Police need more training. That started in 1989 in Memphis, Tennessee. I see that the police needs more weapons, more this, more that, more this, more that, more this, more that. it's 2020 and you know, I don't have all the answers, you know, I was there in the 80s when Elenor Bumper, an elderly disabled woman got shot in her own home. I protested and wrote letters in 1984-85 something like that.
I moved to San Francisco in 91 or ?. Idriss Stelly and Mesha, Mesha’s son, Idriss Stelly. Hey guys, shout out ? told me ? on theater in San Francisco. At first we thought that training was the answer. And only a year and we realized that we've been duped one more time and we saw that training was another statewide cycle that goes around and around and around constantly. Poor Magazine told me all these three generations , my Grandad, my father and me. And I just had to say today that you know, I'm tired, of the same answers, the same cycle. Yes, protest. Yes, burn down cities. But, be honest with yourself. After three generations I know that police don't follow policies
Because they are protected from local judges, local lawyers, local politician, all the way up to the federal level. So if we know that the police are protected in that way, why do we always try to change the police. Poor magazine has a workshop called 'never ever call the police'. And we say, I say, that its about time that the community get the money, the funds, and the resources, so that we don't have to call the police. Finally orgaanizataions are talking about defunding the police, I've been saying that since the nineties. I go back to these three black men. my father, my granddad and myself fighting police brutality. And I wonder am I going to pass on to my nephew. If my nephew will make a video like this and say my uncle used to fight the same fight. This is not a job. It's not a Ford Foundation Grant. It's not a movement. It's not... none of that. It goes deeper than that. It's the system that we live in because many of us have jobs in the system.
Beyond me and a police officer. Have jobs, prison guards and in all kinds of institutions that do us wrong. But because we live under capitalism, we choose to work in these jobs. I posted on Facebook .. you know. Is justice just out of reach because of capitalism? And because of a j-o-b . Police brutality is more than policing . It's the whole state. And when the state pays you to go against the system that's just another job. I see movement come and go. October 22nd, Mothers Against Police Brutality and Black Lives Matter. Come and go. And we're still living under this police state. You know why? Because a lot of them don't deal with the real core of the issue because they can't because they're funded. The core of the issue is, we work in it. We're a part of it. You raise our kids to go to school, to get a job. and once you are a part of the system, It's almost impossible to eradicate. Activists get grants, book tours, film, whatever. And we see once again that this continues to happen.
About what 7 years ago, I wrote my suggestions on ending police brutality. You can go on Poor Magazine and look up Krip Hop Nation. With a K. its like 13, 14 suggestions. And not one of them deals with training. Not one of them deals with getting a job in a movement, but all of them deals with completely changing the way you live. I learned that from Poor magazine.
Like I said, they have a workshop that's called 'never call the police.' It reminds me of my granddad and his philosophy back in the 70s and even 60s when my dad told me about him, saying that we don't need police. We don't need to oversee them. We don't need a committee on them. All we need is more community control and community answers. The is what Poor magazine is doing now with no funding. You know they're building houses, growing food, have their own school, their own radio station with no funding. Poor Magazine teaching their philosophy, their experiences. After knocking on the door of the system for years and years. They realize that the answer is within them. And they are doing it. Poverty scholarship. Idriss Stelley's mother Mesha has been doing it for years after her son was murdered. But it's not pretty because it doesn't fit into a grant guideline. It doesn't fit into ABC or Fox News. It doesn't fit into activists climbinging that ladder to get to another level. We saw that in the Bay Area. And I have to say it, Van Jones climbed that ladder. When are we going to cut that ladder off. This is not a job. Its not a career. Its not a grant proposal.
Three generations of black men against police brutality. And here I am sitting at my computer in 2020 and its still going on. We need to change our strategy. We need to know that the state has a cycle for us. The cycle for us is. They kill us. They let us protest for a little while. They handpick a few people to spokesperson, you they get a grant. You know, they might be on Fox news or CNN. You know, the family gets a, gets a settlement. In the settlement, in the paperwork, it says that you can't protest anymore, you gotta stay quiet. So that's why a lot of the parents disappear after a year or two or three because they had to because its in their settlement that tells you that even the lawyers for them are complicit. It's hard to say because these lawyers are activist. I know a lot of them. I like them. But they know that with these settlements parents disappear. So what do you do if you're a family? And you're in the settlement? You know what do you do? You say no? To the money? Or do you take the money and just go on. But it's not up to the parents. It's up to us to know the system to know that these settlements had these contracts. So we should make other underground ways of how parents can get involved without breaking that contract. But that means activists need to do things outside the system. To do things that that will go against the funding. To do things that go against so-called president. We got to do things for our children, for our nieces and nephews.
And if that means not having a job. if that means saying no to Grants, if that means saying no to a media interview. then lets do it. Cause if we don't do it another person going to sit here in front of the computer and say yeah, I remember Leroy Moore. And now I'm 40 50 years old. And there's another case of police brutality. Think about it. You can go to Poor magazine.org. Go to homefulness, go to Krip hop Nation. You know Krip Hop did a Hip-hop CD in a movie, a documentary called 'where is hope' in 2012. We got no help for that. 'Where is hope' is a film about police brutality against people with disabilities. Me and Emmitt Thrower, Keith Jones. We did that. You know Poor magazine. Lisa, I can tell you about this. Did that film, CD with DJ quad. And we didn't get any support, in the height of black lives matter. What does that say? What does that say when people with disabilities have seventy percent of police shootings, but there's no Disabled activists that has a high profile that really saying something. that say something for the whole movement around police brutality.
Because if you have 70% of your community getting shot by the police and there's not one person with a disability that has a high profile. Think about it. My friend Patty Berne started Disability Justice. If you want to know about disability justice go to sinsinvalid.org. They have the ten principles on how to practice disability Justice. We tried talking to police brutality activists around disability Justice they didn't get a callback. Well you know I'm saying today, you know, three generations of black men against police brutality. Please don't let it be the fourth generation. Let's change the system. Like like we burn down our communities. Let's bring down the system. You know I think CONVID is doing it but we need.to do it for ourselves, but we need to do it. We need to bring down the system. Burn charity and nonprofits to these police boards. You need to burn it all down.
Three generation of black man, My granddad, my father, and me, all fought against police brutality and here I am in May 2020 still talking about the issue that tells you that its protected by the system by the president all the ways down to the mayor? To the judges, to the jury. It's protected. Because you can't have 3 generation of black men fighting for it and very little changes. That tells you that the system wants it that way and that tells you that the system is protected. protecting police so they can continue to do this. So what what can we do? We can be honest with ourselves and we can really say that its not about the system. Its about taking a step outside and really putting your life on the line and I'm talking about physical and talking about not being able to be patted on the head. Not getting that grants you wanted. Not getting that promotion you want. Not getting that book deal that you want and also practicing what Poor magazine preaches about knowing your neighbor?. That's how you change it. Yeah, it is a slow process. It's not a big movement. Its about knowing your neighbor. And say hey neighbor can I call on you?
There generations of Black man. Don't let it be the forth. This is Leroy Moore from Poor magazine, Krip-Hop Nation. I just had to get that out around police brutality because like I said. It's been three generations. my granddad, my father, and me. Something needs to change. its called the system. Peace.
Leroy F. Moore Jr.
5/31/20