"This Stops Today!- We Cant Breathe" August 29 2015 Mass March for CPAC

 

UPDATE: AUG 29 MASS MARCH FOR COMMUNITY CONTROL OF THE CHICAGO POLICE

 

This is what united action for community control of the police looks like. We’ve initiated a new stage in the struggle with a clear political objective demanding systemic change. CPAC is about power to the people!

On Saturday, August 29th, 3000 people from Chicago and across the country marched on City Hall. This was the largest protest in Chicago against police crimes since the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri one year ago.

The march put forward the demand for a systemic change in how the police are controlled: an all elected, all civilian police accountability council (CPAC). Marchers came armed with 21,000 signatures on petitions demanding CPAC, gathered in the neighborhoods of Chicago’s South and West Sides.

Police Crimes survivors and families of those murdered and tortured by police lead the march for CPAC to the rally at City Hall. Along the route, at major intersections of downtown, marchers performed die-ins each with a minute of silence given in honor to all those slain and tortured by the police. The crowd was very diverse: Black, white, Arab, South Asian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Filipino. It was Muslim, Christian and Jewish. There were young marchers, elders and all ages in between. There were immigrant groups, peace groups, labor unions …all strands of the Peoples Movement marching with community members from across the city.

All these people and organizations came together under a call by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression: to end the police occupation of oppressed communities–to empower communities to hold cops accountable for their crimes and to decide and control how they are policed.

Thank you to all the photo-videographers, tweeters, FB posters, live streamers documenting and spreading the news about the march, we appreciate the power of real independent media–media of and for the People!

More Video Coverage: Scott Marshall’s
Chicago Demands an Elected Civilian Police Accountability Council..

FB Photo Albums of Aug 29 Mass March for CPAC
CPAC (8/29) Stop Police Crimes CPAC March CPAC Rally and March, Chicago, 8-29-15 Stop Police Crime March {08|29|15}
CPAC March Chicago Against Racist Police Terror 8-29-15

FightBackNews Photo essay: Chicago March for community control of the police

Live Streams cpac2015 #StopPoliceCrimes#ChiRising
Storify March for Community Control of the Chicago Police

Press Coverage:
Chicagoans March in Solidarity to Support Community Control of the Police
3000 march in Chicago for community control of the police
Protesters Rally Downtown, Demand Police Accountability Council
TV Alijazeera (via FB) Chicago Police Protests

 

en español

“THIS STOPS TODAY!” WE CAN’T BREATHE

MASS MARCH AND PROTEST DEMONSTRATION FOR CIVILIAN CONTROL OF THE CHICAGO POLICE
WHEN: 12 NOON, SATURDAY AUGUST 29, 2015
WHERE: FEDERAL PLAZA AT DEARBORN & ADAMS, CHICAGO

Download Call for Support
Download flyer
Read Call for Support from Angela Davis and Howard Morgan
List of Endorsers ‘This Stops Today!- We Can’t Breathe” Mass March Aug 29, 2015

Video: Muslims Join Aug 29 March for Black Lives Matter

PRESS COVERAGE Defending Dissent
Chicago Defender Activists seek civilian oversight to improve police accountability
Chicago Muslims Mobilize to Support Community Control of the Police
Is It Time To Assert Civilian Control of the Chicago Police Department?
WCPT 820AM Radio – Frank Chapman, Chicago Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression
Aug 29 Mass March for CPAC and the urgent need for community control of the police

How to endorse this march? Simple and quick, email Frank Chapman [email protected] or call us a 312 939-2750 say “YES! we/I endorse the August 29th March. My name is /Our organization is …. ” A big ‘Thank You’ to all who have endorsed so far.

In alliance with community based organizations and victims of police crimes and torture the
Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression calls upon all our sisters and brothers and
all strands of the people’s movement to join us in a mass protest and march on the Federal
Building and City Hall this August 29, 2015. Join us in commemorating the 50^th anniversaries of
the March on Selma, the Voting Rights Act and the Watts Rebellion. And on this day we will stand
in solidarity with Fergusons everywhere. The march will kick off at 12 Noon from the Federal
Plaza, at Dearborn and Adams, in the Loop.

We issue this Call at a time when we face a national epidemic of police crimes. This has
provoked an unprecedented wave of mass protests, both spontaneous and organized, led by a
new generation of African American youth. They have learned to see clearly through the mental
fog created by white supremacy and oppression; and they have valiantly taken up the fight to
end injustices perpetrated every day, by police departments that are governed, by a policy and
practice that criminalizes Black and Latino people. This policy sets up police officers as judge,
jury and executioner.

The cry for justice captured in the expression “Black Lives Matter” addresses the racist cutting
edge of police crimes We issue this call at a most urgent and critical time of defiance, rebellion
and the jubilance that comes when the oppressed take the helm of struggle, but also at a time
when we need to heighten the demand for an all-elected, all-Civilian Police Accountability
Council (CPAC). In Chicago and the nation there is virtually a daily count of African Americans
being murdered. We want criminals in blue prosecuted the same as anyone else but we also
need to address policies that allow these criminals to murder and torture people with impunity.
That is why we are demanding that our City Council enact our proposed ordinance creating an
elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC). This is not just remedial legislation. This is
about empowering the people to hold the police accountable. This is about oppressed
communities deciding and controlling how they are policed.

Finally, we are calling upon the entire people throughout the length and breadth of our country
and the world to join us in taking this giant step in our historic fight for community control of the
police. “I CAN’T BREATHE!”, the dying words of Eric Garner, have been immortalized in the
current phase of our struggle. Now it is time to inscribe on our banners going into the march of
August 29, 2015 something else Eric Garner said, and that is: “THIS STOPS TODAY!”

WE ASK YOU AND/OR YOUR ORGANIZATION TO ENDORSE THIS CALL. SIMPLY

GET BACK TO US ASAP WITH A “YES.” ALL ENDORSEMENTS WILL BE PUBLICLY

ACKNOWLEDGED. EMAIL: [email protected] OR CALL OUR OFFICE:

(312) 939-2750.