Refusing to Tolerate Business-as-Usual Police Brutality in McKinney, Texas

June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

We received the following report from Revolution newspaper distributors who joined a protest in McKinney, Texas, against the police assault on Black teenagers trying to enjoy a pool party on Friday, June 5.

 

On Friday, June 12, as we drove into McKinney, we ran into barricades blocking off neighborhoods, the police station, and the library. Nearly 200 people gathered to rally and march to demand an end to police brutality. In the midst of the rally, confrontations broke out between protesters and several dozen pro-police counter-protesters who were trying to drown out the rally. Several speakers at the rally spoke about how they would not stand by any longer and watch their children be mistreated. And they called for authorities to arrest Eric Casebolt, the cop who threw a young Black woman to the ground and kneeled on her back, on civil rights violations.

A person with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN) brought bags of signs of the Stolen Lives posters with the faces of dozens of people, mostly Black and Brown, murdered by the police, and offered them to the protesters to carry. After the SMIN activist and a revolutionary communist spoke, many people came up to find out how they can get involved in Rise Up October to STOP Police Terror and get copies of Revolution newspaper.

A Black woman who had gotten a copy of Revolution came up to us and wanted revcom.us to know about the situation in McKinney. She talked about how her husband and nephew were brutalized by police and nothing ever happened to the police. She said, “This is not just an isolated incident. There are more officers who’ve done more stuff. Collin County has a problem.”

The family of Ruben Garcia came out to support the protest. Ruben Garcia was murdered by police in Euless, Texas, on February 20, with his hands up, and the police were not charged. A woman came up to us and, pointing at the picture of Ruben Garcia on the Stolen Lives poster, said, “That’s my nephew.” His brother-in-law said, “We want this situation to stop. We don’t want no more families to be broken. We don’t want families hurt with their [the police] actions. They need to stop. They need to get better training. They need to get better because we are not animals. We are human beings. We’re not just a piece of meat. We deserve to be treated with respect.”

After the rally, people marched through the streets into the night, chanting and encouraging onlookers to join the march. Two of the young women involved in the swimming pool incident joined the protest for a while. Outside the Collin County courthouse, marchers stopped to deliver a message that the protests won’t stop until there is justice. The protest concluded by taking over the feeder road of North Central Expressway while a small group broke off and attempted to stop traffic on Highway 75. One person said, “Overall the march was successful in letting authorities know that the people of McKinney are fed up with business as usual and refuse to take it. No More.”

After the protest, we talked with several protesters who wanted to tell their own personal horror stories about the McKinney Police Department. Apparently this racist behavior by the McKinney cops has been going on for quite some time. We also spoke with a white man in his 20s who is a videographer. He expressed to us that what finally moved his consciousness level was that while attending law school, he began to understand the way the laws are written—that the police are not breaking the law, but the law itself is unjust and actually protects the cops. So he has decided to use his skills to bring out the truth. A man from McKinney said that he has had enough of all the police brutality and murder going on in this country. He said that he and other families have to worry all the time about what the police may do to their kids. He said that more needs to be done and that he wants to help organize a bus from the Dallas area to go to New York City for Rise Up October on October 24. Several young activists said that they want real solutions and feel more inclined to revolution. Some were interested in getting the DVD of the film REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between CORNEL WEST & BOB AVAKIAN, and getting connected with the movement for revolution.

 

 

 

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