Today I got shot. It Must Be Oct. 22

Today was the day. We - thousands of us - got it on downtown for reals. We got

right in the pig's face...and, predictably, he got right in ours. I myself took a

shower in plastic rounds when I raced up on a pile of pigs arresting one of my

brothers. Par for the course at a mass protest against police brutality and crimes

against humanity. 5,000 or so people in downtown LA all gathered and focused

on one issue in our community: bringing the uncontrollable LAPD face to face

with reality: No justice, no peace.

So we disturbed the peace. We marched, we shouted, we went right to Parker

center - a notorious den of torture and injustice. Families began addressing the

pigs on a first person basis and shouting their loss and pain over children

gunned down for no reason. Right about that time the cops started shooting.

Horses. Teargas. Rubber "non lethal bullets". The works. It all came pouring out:

the exact kind of behavior that takes place when people disagree with the Los

Angeles Police Department. I saw young kids who had been hit in the eye; in

the face...there was smoke and blood and debris flying through the air for a few

tense moments...Its only 5:45 right now. Its probably gotten worse.

When we had taken enough pain, we regrouped for safety. The lot of us made a

decision to leave sometime around 5. We had made our point. We took our

beatings for our brothers and sisters who had taken bullets. Fair enough. But

damned if we let the pigs off the hook in this round: Today was an orchestrated

riot. For certain non violent right up until the point when the police started

shooting at us like a group of teen jack-offs (who probably tortured animals with

their BB guns when they were kids. We all know the type.)

What did we accomplish? We're still alive. We're everywhere. Tomorrow we'll

blend right in. And we'll continue. The people in the street today were not about

fucking around - and they were out there for more than just a recitation of well

known police atrocities. They were out there calling for revolution. A complete

change in the way power is distributed in our world. I'll tell you something else

that happened; it's a little less cerebral, but it still feels good:

Take a squad car on any given day. Walk up to the ogres inside and call them

pigs and tell them what you really think of how it felt to get beat down at the age

of 14 by a bunch of grown men. Tell them their time is up. Tell them its

revolution time and that someday soon they'll stand trial for their participation in

concentration camp enforcement. Tell them just what you think. Exercise your

punk-ass 1st amendment. Try it. I double-dog dare you. You know you'd get the

living shit beat out of you and you'll probably end up missing. Well, fair friends

and enemies, today we got to do just that. Strength in numbers you see. We -

and there were thousands of us - got to tell them just what we thought about

them and their system of oppression. We got to flip them off and look them dead

in the eye and tell them that when the revolution comes, their chorizo is cooked.

Fuck em. They're getting exactly what they deserve: a huge fuzzy "fuck you"

from the community. From Black people, Mexika people, Asian people and

white people. They were bombarded by invisible weapons of spirit and sheer

will in retaliation for years of systematic extortion and abuse. Oh yeah, and

murder. The names and faces of an entire generation - enough to fill a

graduating class auditorium - were everywhere.

Their individual candles were easily blown out. But today there was a fire. And a

fire grows when you blow on it.

revengeoverandout