[News] The Results Are In - An Open Letter from Protestors On The Grand Jury Decision

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*http://www.scribd.com/doc/248115932/The-Results-Are-in-Open-Letter-11-24-14*

*The Results Are In*

**

*An Open Letter from Protestors On The Grand Jury Decision (11.24.14)*

In Ferguson, a wound bleeds. For 108 days, we have been in a state of 
prolonged and protracted grief. In that time, we have found community 
with one another, bonding together as family around the simple notion 
that our love for our community compels us to fight for our community. 
We have had no choice but to cling together in hope, faith, love, and 
indomitable determination to capture that ever-escaping reality of 
justice. After 108 days, that bleeding wound has been reopened, salt 
poured in, insult added to the deepest of injury. On August 9th, we 
found ourselves pushed into unknown territory, learning day by day, 
minute by minute, to lead and support a movement bigger than ourselves, 
the most important of our lifetime. We were indeed unprepared to begin 
with, and even in our maturation through these 108 days, we find 
ourselves reinjured, continually heartbroken, and robbed of even the 
remote possibility of judicial resolution. A life has been violently 
taken before it could barely begin. In this moment, we know, beyond any 
doubt, that no one will be held accountable within the confines of a 
system to which we were taught to pledge allegiance. The very hands with 
which we pledged that allegiance were not enough to save Mike in 
surrender. Once again, in our community, in our country, that pledge has 
returned to us void.

For 108 days, we have continuously been admonished that we should "let 
the system work," and wait to see what the results are. The results are in.

And we still don't have justice.

This fight for the dignity of our people, for the importance of our 
lives, for the protection of our children, is one that did not begin 
Michael's murder and will not end with this announcement. The 'system' 
you have told us to rely on has kept us on the margins of society. This 
system has housed us in her worst homes, educated our children in her 
worst schools, locked up our men at disproportionate rates and shamed 
our women for receiving the support they need to be our mothers. This 
system you have admonished us to believe in has consistently, 
unfailingly, and unabashedly let us down and kicked us out, time and 
time again.

This same system in which you've told us to trust - this same system 
meant to serve and protect citizens - has once again killed two more of 
our unarmed brothers: Walking up a staircase and shot down in cold 
blood, we fight for Akai Gurley; Playing with a toy after police had 
been warned that he held a bb gun and not a real gun at only twelve 
years old, we fight for Tamir Rice.

So you will likely ask yourself, now that the announcement has been 
made, why we will still take to the streets? Why we will still raise our 
voices to protect our community? Why will still cry tears of heartbreak 
and sing songs of determination? We will continue to struggle because 
without struggle, there is no progress. We will continue to disrupt 
life, because without disruption we fear for our lives.

We will continue because Assata reminds us daily that "it is our duty to 
fight for freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support one 
another. We have nothing to lose but our chains."

Those chains have bound us-all of us- up for too long. And do not be 
mistaken- if one of us is bound, we all are. We are, altogether, bound 
up in a system that continues to treat some men better than others. A 
system that preserves some and disregards others. A system that protects 
the rights of some and does not guard the rights of all. And until this 
system is dismantled, until the status quo that deems us less valuable 
than others is no longer acceptable or profitable, we will struggle. We 
will fight. We will protest. Grief, even in its most righteous state, 
cannot last forever. No community can sustain itself this way. So we 
still continue to stand for progress, and stand alongside anyone who 
will make a personal investment in ending our grief and will take a 
personal stake in achieving justice. We march on with purpose. The work 
continues. This is not a moment but a movement. The movement lives.

This letter was written and signed by numerous protestors and 
supporters, too many to list. Permission is granted in advance for 
reproduction by all outlets.

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