Washington DC: Rally for victims of police violence
Washington, DC – On Tuesday evening, September 17, over 50 community members gathered outside of the 7th District Police Station in Southeast DC to protest recent instances of police violence. Just two weeks before, in the early morning of September 1, 26-year-old Justin Robinson was found unconscious in his car after crashing into a McDonald's. As he began to regain consciousness, an officer held their gun just inches from his face. When Robinson groggily reached up due to the light shining in his face, Officers Vaso Mateus and Bryan Gilchrist shot Robinson ten times.
“I want to know how somebody can be a threat to you if they're passed out in their car,” asked , one of many local community members who spoke. “There's a hundred ways you could've figured that situation out.”
“We want justice,” said DC Alliance Co-chair KB Bonner. “We want the arrest, indictment and conviction of killer cops Vaso Mateus and Bryan Gilchrist.” According to an organizer, the protest's official demands also included the independent, community-led investigations of all police killings and the full, public release of any 911 calls related to those shootings.
After this recount, a brief moment of silence was held for all victims of police violence. Then, community members, local activists, poets, and representatives of the organizing groups gave speeches and calls to action on police accountability and community control.
“These killer cops are doing exactly what they’re supposed to,” shouted the speaker from FRSO DC, “to ‘secure DC’ by killing Black people and oppressing their communities.”
The rally was organized by a coalition of organizations, led by the DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and featured speeches from activists and affected community members. Speakers included members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Anakbayan, Pan-African Community Action, and the International League of Peoples' Struggles.