Minneapolis, MN – On April 24, protesters took the streets for the second time here to demand justice for Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Mexican-American boy who was shot to death by a Chicago Police Department officer while he had his hands up. The video footage of the murder was recently released, sparking a wave of protests in Chicago and around the country.

The Minneapolis protest was led by a banner reading “Black and Brown United,” followed by militant and disciplined contingents from Los Brown Berets – Minnesota, Original Black Panther Party, New Black Panther Nation, New Black Panther Party, Camp Migiizi, and the American Indian Movement. Behind them were danzantes from Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue and Kalpulli Tlaloctecuhtli and other grassroots organizations including the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), Asamblea de Derechos Civiles and others.

The protest started at South High School then marched on Lake Street. The marchers stopped in front of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct which was burned during last May’s uprising after the police murdered George Floyd. There several speakers talked about the importance of Black, brown and native peoples uniting to support each other’s struggles for justice.

The march then continued for several more blocks, and finally merged with a larger community vigil for Yadhira Romero Martinez at Lake Street and 18th Avenue. Yadhira was a 19-year-old Mexican-American woman who was murdered in a house near that intersection last week. She was born in the U.S. but left at a young age when her parents were forced to return to México. She had recently returned to the U.S. to work, until suffering this gruesome attack. Few details are available about what happened, other than that she left work in Bloomington, Minnesota, took an Uber, then wasn’t heard from again until she was found dead in Minneapolis. Yadhira’s case has sparked a growing movement to confront sexist and misogynist behavior and attacks on women, with particular focus on women who are already oppressed in this country. More vigils for Yadhira are planned.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #MinnesotaImmigrantRightsActionCommitteeMIRAC #AdamToledo #YadhiraRomeroMartinez

Appleton, WI – Over a dozen people gathered on April 18 and April 25 to continue voicing their outrage over the murders of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo who were gunned down by police this month. Body camera footage from both incidents quickly went viral, triggering protests around the country. Both incidents prompted local organizers and residents to hold a rally with signs, chants and music demanding action.

The group marched to the Appleton Police Station and held a moment of silence for all victims of police violence. The event organizer, Cole Bennet, wants to continue to rally saying, “We need to let people know that this is still happening. Even if it’s just 20 people protesting, we need to get out and make our voices heard.”

Despite multiple national calls for police accountability there are still many people dying at the hands of police.

#AppletonWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #DaunteWright #AdamToledo

Minneapolis, MN – On April 18, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), Los Brown Berets, Asamblea de Derechos Civiles and other groups organized a protest and car caravan to demand justice for Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Mexican-American who was murdered by the Chicago Police Department. The video footage of the murder was recently released, sparking a wave of protests in Chicago and around the country.

Protesters gathered on Lake Street to decorate their cars with signs, crosses and flags in honor of Adam Toledo. The protest began at the statue of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata at Lake Street and 12th Avenue S. Protesters held a banner with slogans of support in Spanish that read: “Queremos justicia para Adam Toledo” and “Minnesota si se nota.” The program featured various speakers from different organizations who spoke in both English and Spanish before protesters took to their cars to drive down Lake Street.

The speakers called for justice for Adam Toledo and spoke on the issues that immigrant communities face when dealing with police. Speaker Susana De Leon said, “We are here today for another member of our community that was gunned down by violence, but the biggest gang that exists is the police.” She continued: “We don’t do anything to deserve to be killed,” and went on to link the struggles of the violence at the border with the violence in Chicago and Minneapolis at the hands of the police. Another speaker highlighted that her community does not feel safe or protected by police and those who are undocumented do not speak up because they are afraid to do so. All speakers demanded justice for Adam Toledo and an end to murders at the hands of police.

The action continued as protesters took to their cars and rolled down Lake Street, holding fists out the window and yelling chants such as “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! For who? Adam Toledo!” and “No justice, no peace!” People on the sidewalks waved, chanted along and held up fists in support and passing cars joined in with enthusiastic honks. The cars passed by the former Minneapolis Third Precinct that was burned down during the George Floyd uprising last summer, protesters chanting loudly as they passed by before heading back on Lake Street towards the end point at George Floyd Square.

Protesters then got out of their cars to join up with a Black-Asian solidarity rally that was underway at the square at that time.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #MinnesotaImmigrantRightsActionCommitteeMIRAC #AdamToledo

Dallas, TX – On April 18, about 90 people rallied at Dallas city hall to protest recent police killings such as the murder of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo. The rally was called by the Dallas Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression. Speeches were first held with DAARPR co-chair Jennifer Miller giving a passionate speech about her fears as a Black mother of an autistic child, “What happens when my son stops being a cute black boy and becomes a Black male threat. My son is Tamir Rice, my son is Trayvon Martin, and so many more.”

Next Kawana Scott of DAARPR spoke next, comparing the police murdering Daunte Wright with another case in which a Black man was tasered 15 times by a police officer, and called for justice. Afterwards local activist Olinka Green spoke, discussing local incidents of police terror in Dallas and calling for more intensity to the movement against police terror, calling for “more fire” in response to police violence. Green also discussed her concerns as a Black mother of a bipolar child, and her concerns that the police will abuse him in response to mental health incidents.

After the speeches 100 protesters marched around downtown Dallas, chanting, “Indict, convict, send all killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!” and “The people united will never be defeated!” People in the march demanded the community control of the police to stop the violent massacre of Black and brown people.

#DallasTX #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #DallasAllianceAgainstRacistPoliticalRepressionDAARPR #DaunteWright #AdamToledo

Chicago, IL – More than 5000 people took to the streets, April 16, in response to the police murder of Adam Toledo. As demonstrators approached the home of Mayor Lightfoot, Chicago police formed a line in the street. More protests are expected, and support for community control of the police is growing.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #AdamToledo #LoriLightfoot

The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression demands justice for Adam Toledo, who was just 13 years old when he was gunned down by a Chicago police officer on March 29, 2021. Adam was a child and he did not deserve to die. As the newly released COPA video shows, Adam had his hands up and was complying when he was executed in cold blood. We must identify the officer who killed Adam and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. We must end the madness of a police department that kills Black and brown children without consequence or intention of stopping.

We have been here far too many times before. Tatouin Williams, Jerry Moore, Rickey Childs, Dakota Bright, Cedrick Chatman, Tywon Jones, Michael Westley, Christian Green, Pedro Rios, Warren Robinson, Desean Pittman, Pierre Loury, Corsean Lewis, and Michael Elam. All of them were children, all of them murdered by CPD under Rahm Emanuel’s watch – not to mention, of course, the attempted cover-up of the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Under Lightfoot, this deplorable pattern continues with the cover-up of the Anjanette Young raid and now the murder of Adam Toledo.

In Chicago, we are treated like an occupied population with whom CPD is at war. Many of our elected leaders have thankfully joined us in demanding an end to this human rights disaster. The Mayor had a chance to do so, too, but has refused. While our people are violated and degraded day in and day out by the police, while Chicago mourns the death of another of its children killed at CPD’s hands, and while the country cries out for justice for Daunte Wright and George Floyd, Mayor Lightfoot refuses to allow hearings on the most important police reform legislation in decades. She has instructed her handpicked Chairman for Public Safety, Alderman Taliaferro, to cancel two Public Safety Committee meetings and avoid the topic of civilian oversight until further notice.

As the communities who give meaning to the very term “public safety”, we have no democratic say over what CPD does, who is in charge of it, and how officers who violate are rights are held accountable. We have the inalienable right to determine our own safety – but instead, our safety is decided almost entirely for us by a paramilitary organization and its union and a Mayor who plays them both to protect her own political power.

We need to give communities the power to do what the Mayor will not do: defend our rights to true safety and true accountability. Last month, Lori Lightfoot made the decision to abandon altogether the overwhelming community demand for democratic power over the police department. In response, the campaign for an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) joined forces with the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) to create a unity ordinance. The new Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) takes elements of CPAC and GAPA to create the strongest, most democratic police accountability legislation in the entire country, including allowing voters to decide how much democratic control they want over the CPD. ECPS is the People’s Ordinance and is ready to be introduced now and made into law — but the Public Safety Committee and Lightfoot won’t allow it.

It is time for communities to take charge of our own safety – the police and Mayor clearly have no intention to. Today’s video shows once again that it does not matter if you’re a child or if you comply. If you are Black or brown in this city, you are not safe from the police – they will hunt you down alleyways and slaughter you. We need ECPS now to stop this slaughter. We need ECPS to stop our mayors and the CPD from justifying these murders as the price to pay to keep us safe. Murdering Adam Toledo and other children will not keep us safe. Incarcerating, criminalizing and shooting our way out of decades of disinvestment does not keep us safe. A police department that swallows over 40% of our budget to the exclusion of non-policing and community strengthening alternatives does not keep us safe. Communities need to be able to determine if, when and how the police play a part in achieving what we say safety is. And we need the power to discipline those officers who refuse to uphold our demands. ECPS will give us that power.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to the Toledo family, who has had to bear more than any family should. We are heartbroken at Adam’s loss and grieve with his family and this entire city. We call on City Council to pass the People’s Ordinance now so that communities finally have a say and real power over our own safety. Until communities lead the way in defining our safety and until officers are held accountable when they violate our leadership, this madness will continue. We have the power and the right to stop it. Now we have the legislation and the political will in City Council to do it. We must pass ECPS now.

Justice for Adam Toledo!

Indict and convict Adam’s killer!

Power to communities to end police terror and impunity!

Pass the People’s Ordinance!

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #PoliceBrutality #ChicagoAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #AdamToledo