Cornel West Calls for April 14 Shut Down in Response to Wave of Police Killings of Unarmed People

Jet Magazine: Cornel West Sparks #ShutDownA14 Movement

CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—April 10, 2015. During the extraordinary EMERGENCY program held Monday in New York, the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew shook with the passionate determination to put a STOP to the killing of unarmed black and Latino people.

Cornel West spoke with fury seldom heard, scathing against those in power and all who stand aside when the business as usual of police killing unarmed people goes on, even before video showed the most recent police killing of unarmed Walter Scott Saturday in South Carolina.

Dr. West joined Carl Dix and the families of six unarmed people killed by police; Arturo O’Farrill; Cindy Sheehan; Alice Walker and Eve Ensler in calling on people to walk out of school and work on Tuesday April 14.

Cornel West: “For over seven years young Black and Brown women and men have been shot down by the police every 28 hours. We’ve got a Black president, Black attorney general, Black cabinet secretary of homeland security. They’re fundamental aim is to ensure the citizens are secure and safe [44:30] in America, but we haven’t had one federal prosecution of a policeman for killing all of those folks. Something’s wrong. Something’s deeply wrong.”

Carl Dix: “On April 14, we’re going to revive the spirit of Ferguson, that spirit of refusing to suffer the brutality of the system in silence. And we’re going to TAKE IT HIGHER. We have to get back out into the streets to declare that we’re not backing down, we’re not going away.

Alice Walker: “When you go out on April 14th, you will see that you are creating – as you have done before, and all of your ancestors and older people have done – you are creating a community of resistance.. This is the essence of what we need to have now.”

Arturo O’Farrill: “There is nothing more important than stopping the murder of unarmed citizens…I will lend my voice to say that on the 14th you must walk out; walk out of your business, walk out of your classroom, walk out of your apartment, walk out of your complacency, walk out of all you think you know and take heart in the real world. Walk out of the gray world and walk into the world of the sun and stand with the people of the sun.”

Eve Ensler: “On April 14 I will walk out and stand up with #ShutDownA14 to say with all my heart that the murder of black and brown people by the police MUST stop.”