Thousands of Power-FUL young people demand justice for Andy Lopez
Crying now and I’m not going to stop crying. Today’s tears are for 13 year young Andy Lopez shot by Santa Rosa Sheriff’s for holding a toy gun he was returning to a friend. Yesterday it was for Manuel Diaz Jr from Anaheim and last week it was for Kenny Harding Jr from San Francisco and the week before it was for Trayvon Martin and Ernesto Duenez Jr and two years ago it was for Oscar Grant and ten years ago it was for Idriss Stelley. And while Im crying for all these babies shot by the occupying armies called Po’Lice I’m crying for their mamaz who brought them life in the Indigenous stolen land called Amerikkka built by the wite-supremacist men who stole it.
“F- tha Police, there was no reason for Andy to be shot. This was murder,” said 17 year old Gabriel who was one of thousands of young, activated people who marched out of their high school, with the blessing of their conscious teachers to the Santa Rosa City Hall and then to the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s department demanding justice. He and other angry and hurt young peoples spoke with myself and my fellow Prensa POBRE familia, Vivi T and Tiburcio who went there to march, cry and scream with all those young leaders.
“What do we want justice ? – when do we want it.? . Now!!!”, the voices screamed, chanted, shouted. They were loud, they were focused and they weren’t giving up.
We stood together, youth, mamaz, tias y tios, refusing to leave, refusing to stay quiet any longer, in front of the closed doors of the welfare-food stamps-jail complex of Santa Rosa. The plantations doors were sealed shut like a coffin. A metaphor for the death of so many behind their plantation walls.
Andy Lopez' parents stood to the side of the huge crowd, crying, shell-shocked, lost, almost confused, tears never leaving their cheeks, eyes filled with the deepest sorrow that no-one could ever be inside unless you had experienced the loss of your baby.
Me and Vivi saw that hole in their hearts, we saw it in a way beyond words. We held our own children closer and wrapped our own souls and arms around theirs.
“He was my brothers friend, he was just walking home, he wasn’t hurting anyone, they didn’t need to kill him,” Maria, 16 shouted above the chants to PNN family. She couldn’t say anymore, her words became more tears.
Maria’s tears joined my tears and the thousands of other tears to become a river that rolled down the streets of Santa Rosa into the streets of Oakland and into the streets of San Francisco and reached all the way into the gated, racist community of Sanford, Florida, lifting us up to our young ancestor warrior suns so we will never stop focusing on the justice we must demand.
Next Actions:Tuesday, Oct 29th, @ 12:00 noon - -Santa Rosa Junior College - 1501 Mendocino ave- Santa Rosa,
-Old Courthouse Square- 300 Mendocino Ave- Santa Rosa
@3pm- Sonoma County Sheriff's Dept 2796 Ventura Ave Santa Rosa, Ca