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The Mission Statement:

There are many different angles of this crime found below. Please look at the below video.










If the video doesn't load please visit this other feminist blog webpage that has a link to the video found by clicking here.

There is another video featuring Oscar Grant shot by police along with statements by his family and friends who spoke on behalf of his girlfriend and his 4 year old daughter and a scene by scene description of the events by a news announcer.






Dear friends,

Please circulate the below letter. It is 997 words long (if you take out the web address for the and I have made it copyleft so that anyone may publish it.



J'ACCUSSE. I Accuse.

An Open Letter to the World Regarding the Worldwide Police Killings of Unarmed People:

During moments when writing this letter, I cried, then wiped my eyes and I pulled my self together to try to sound civilized... civilized.. about the police officers shooting and killing Oscar Grant, a completely unarmed, handcuffed Black man who was down on the ground while other police officers held him down...and the entire atrocity was captured in a video tape that I just saw It is now found here: http://aworldbeyondcapitalism.org/onlinevideo.htm or here: http://peacecommunities.org/onlinevideo.htm

After much thought, I then realized what I would do. So first, I did a little research. For those unaware, J'accuse ("I accuse") was one of the most famous open letters in history written about the Dreyfus Affair. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Jewish background who was wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's island. Two years later, in 1896, the real criminal was identified: French Army Major Esterhazy. The Open Letter was published in a newspaper on January 13, 1898 by the influential writer Émile Zola. Most of the work of exposing the errors in Dreyfus's conviction was done by Dreyfus's brother Mathieu, a Jewish journalist and anarchist Bernard Lazare and two others who included a French army officer and the Vice president of the French Senate. It is worth noting the writers community, anarchist community, members of the military and members of the Senate all worked together to find justice in the Dreyfus Affair.

The letter was addressed to the President of France and accused the government of antisemitism. The ramifications of the open letter prompted legislation such as a 1905 law separating church and state. I am not an influential writer like Émile Zola. I am a disabled, financially disadvantaged, Black feminist living on the West coast who happily writes with lots of typos and a blatant disregard for the grammatical rules of the Colonized English language.

In Portland, Oregon, three unarmed African-Americans were killed by Police within 25 months; Hammick in 2002, Kendra James in 2003 and James Perez shortly afterwards. James Philip Chasse, Jr. was not African-American, yet another unarmed person who was literally beaten (not shot) to death and killed by Portland Police officers in September 2006. Long ago, I researched every aspect of the Amadou Bailo Diallo killing, in which an unarmed Black man was killed in a barrage of 41 bullets fired by Police. But I told myself it couldn't get worse. After all, the police said it looked like Diallo drew a gun, but it turned out he pulled out his wallet to show them the Photo ID because they requested to see it even as their guns were drawn. Whenever police harass me with racial profiling and ask me for ID, I move slowly, carefully and remember Diallo.
< http://www.dsame.com/remember.pdf >

In November 2006 Sean Bell, an unarmed New Yorker was killed just hours before his wedding. Its not just an American issue of social class. In December 2008, two Greek policemen had a verbal argument with a small group of teenagers near the center of Athens. They had a verbal argument. During the argument, one of the cops shot 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. The victim later died.

The crisis is not confined to social class. Bobby Tolan was a reserve outfielder during his time with the Cardinals, with whom he won the World Series in 1967... and batted second behind Pete Rose in the Reds lineup. Bobby Tolan has a son names Robert (Robbie) Tolan who plays professional baseball in the Washington Nationals. On December 31, 2008, Robbie was shot by a Bellaire, Texas policeman. Robbie was unarmed and driving his own vehicle. The bullet lodged in Robbie's liver; perhaps ending his professional baseball career. According to Tolan's uncle, "Her son was on his back at the time, and he raised up and asked, 'What are you doing to my mom?' and the officer shot him -- while he was on the ground." Tolan's uncle, Eddie Tolan, was a sprinter who won two Gold Medals in the 1932 Summer Olympics.

I am writing openly because I (representing no organization) encourage an international non-violent writing movement beginning immediately called “J'ACCUSSE. I accuse.” You can participate in this event from anywhere and all that you do is tell someone how you feel about any unarmed person being shot by police anywhere. You can circulate my letter, which is copyleft, or shorten it, or you can write your own open letter... even if the entire open letter is only four words:"J'ACCUSSE. I Accuse". Write your thoughts in a letter and share it with at least one person. It has made a difference to me just writing this open letter and opening my heart and sharing this with you now even as tears pour down my face. I haven't cried this hard in over 10 years and typically admitting to crying would feel like a weakness but today it feels like a strength.

I was born in Philadelphia and I know there is crime but the police have tasers, pepper-spray, rubber bullets, dogs, riot gear, batons and other kinds of unethical weapons and some are against the Geneva Convention so why must they carry guns? Even if you had to write "J'ACCUSSE (I accuse)" with handwriting in crayon and post it in one place it will make a difference because you will let yourself and others know that you will not remain silent about police killing unarmed people anywhere worldwide and you will let people know that the system of armed police in our communities must end.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968)

It is time to start working on a new way of life for people worldwide.

J'ACCUSSE. I Accuse.

I love you all,

Love for the people,
-T. Love