Hackensack Rally to Stop Police Brutality and Racist Violence #blacklivesmatter

All photos copyright Joe Gerace, 2020 (please email for usage permission)


Hundreds gathered on a sweltering June afternoon in Hackensack, NJ, to call for an end to police brutality against people of color in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others.

Organizers provided a platform for members of the crowd to step up to the microphone and share their thoughts. Many of those who spoke stressed the need for swift and definitive change to race relations in America, and the importance of community, solidarity, and voting — in local, state, and federal elections.

The peaceful rally convened from noon to 1 p.m. on Ward and State streets in Downtown Hackensack before protesters marched south toward the Bergen County Courthouse.

Uniformed Hackensack police officers blocked traffic to allow protesters to rally and march freely.

The death of Floyd sparked rallies and protests across the country and a handful of protests occurred in New Jersey over the past several days.

To Think and Choose in America Now

Wikipedia Poem, No. 576

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“What can I do to myself? Bones / and dusty skin. Heavy eyes twisted / between the adequate thighs of all / humanity (a little h), strumming my head / for a living. Bankrupt utopia sez tell me / no utopias. I will not listen. (Except the raw wind / makes the hero’s eyes close, and the tears that come out / are real.” Amiri Baraka, 1964

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Sources: 

Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Brian M. Rosenthal. “State of Emergency Declared in Charlottesville After Protests Turn Violent.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Aug. 2017. Web. 13 Aug. 2017.

Baraka, Amiri. “History as Process.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, Dec. 1964. Web. 13 Aug. 2017.

How’s The Weather?

 

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“drive the point like a nail”

 

one strikes up a conversation
how humid it’s become as if are
your children well as if what did
you get them for christmas as if and
then recedes into art objects intake
compression power as if exhaust

one finds the hole has been dug
too deep and in one’s dream the
trains are on time as if but the platform
is too far and the feverish ticket agent
exhibits unusual aggression shoes drywall
paint wood animal fiber surgical thread

one remembers white men first then
white women then black women then
black and brown men an asian someone
from estonia dracula came from trans-
ylvania a real place i suspect no know
pain drink pen paper focus foreskin

pokemon go was released for mobile
Alton Sterling and Philando Castile
were killed by men sworn to protect
in july 2016 wooden tables silk human
hair thread lead steel intention as if action

Wikipedia Poem, No. 201

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“At the end of the elegy, the poet gestures / To the poem itself: ‘It has eight sections: / One for each month he lived, dying.” from 18. by Sally Keith

 

ONE

killing of Michael Brown
protests against excessive
force continues for conservatives

oakland or ferguson or baghdad on
the case the others of course crime
police killing Michael Brown that protest

excessive use of force continues
for conservatives like trump ferguson
assaults the times expanding that cities

in syria or areas target of those figures
to international ones thought watching
that cities of course of reason of course

the police expanding that protests against
excessive use of what you might call run-of-the-mill
violent crime ferguson and oakland or baghdad

isn’t a particular data point murder rates in missouri
out of 75 for which full fbi data rates are highest
there are four americas that sparked national communities

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targets of figures and racial political conversations
places where you are dangerous places to list

not only st louis most whites were watching
that most dangerous st louis for a number
of murder a mexican non-government

in its murder rate
while the most dangerous
doesn’t include the FBI

data point murders
track meaning
dangerous racial conversations

called consejo ciudadano
para la seguridad
publica y la justicia

tracks only in facts
but doesn’t list those figures
interviews with radical racial politics

conversation as questions
of 100,000 or more in uniform
in murder a mexican questions

uniform in its murder
rate while the murder
organization questions of

100,000 or more and communities
protest against excessive resulting
more dangerous in the worst neighborhood

in the worst neighborhood in the case
the crime number of large us cities
in syria or target areas of fact

 

TWO

november after dead detroit and
new orleans st louis baltimore detroit
and new orleans for a number of large

us cities of course the fact in syria
target of terrorists it’s hard to compare the
most dangerous in international experience

into an advantage the broader context
crime rate while most whites were murdered
by continued people which is not at all

for conservatives like trump was a political one
meant to redirect a weakness his lack of interview
populations higher in some us cities

ferguson isn’t baghdad
dangerous but doesn’t
include assaults and rapes during

most dangerous cities of course
the crime numbers reason within
the list of terrorists it’s hard to compare

trump’s tongue for other reasons
within the worse serious he continued
there are four Americas out of 75

trump’s tongue for other things
that are among the most reported
bombings more and consider the former

the city itself is alive
baghdad isn’t particularly
american in fact for a number of reasons

just steps back from the city
maintains relevance in association
prompting a reply of Never!

 


Source:

An essay from Amiri Baraka’s “Bushwacked!”

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He wasn’t a perfect man, but he was radical, prescient and sage. The fire that burnt in his belly for decades, roars to this day in millions of Americans. We’ve just got to believe we’re not fighting alone and stand up together — everyday.

 

Please share this with your favorite radical activist.