Why #ShutItDown? Anti-system 1/4 sheet flyer for passing out by contributor

Monday Dec 15th, 2014 5:19 AM

A doublesided quarter-sheet we produced for mass distribution during demos, to drivers stuck behind blockades, etc. anywhere in the Bay or beyond.

Why #ShutItDown?

•For MIKE BROWN, ERIC GARNER and all those murdered at the hands of the state.

•For ALL OF US who live under the boot of the state and its guard dogs every day.

•For self-determined, multi-racial, uncontrollable struggle against police and the world which requires them.



The police and justice system aren’t “out of line” when they murder black people and dodge indictment or conviction. This country was founded on the backs of black people who were forcibly removed from their homes, stripped of their humanity and reduced to their labor power. Since then, ordinary folks and militants alike have fought hard and won changes in their conditions– but while the men and women in charge have changed, the framework remains the same. When the police harass and murder black people today, they are simply acting out their roles within this framework – the same way each of us do every day when we go to work, do our christmas shop- ping, and cook dinner for our families – keeping it all running smoothly. We’re all playing roles in the theatre of our lives.



But we can call CUT! on this production, at any moment. We can look around at the nightmare our reality, this play, has become. When we shut down traffic, commerce and infrastructure, we create a moment outside of our daily comings-and-goings, one in which we can all contemplate what we’re doing, together. We can meet each other as humans, begin to breathe together, to determine what we want our lives to look like: A world where some people aren’t legitimized in their use of violence and deadly force against some others. A world where we don’t have to sell our precious time in order to provide for ourselves and our loved ones. A world where we have the power to determine the course of things.



This isn’t just about certain police officers who have done something wrong; this isn’t just about a grand jury who decides that it’s ok for a police officers and vigilantes to murder young black men; this is about calling into question a system in which these questions are even considered worth asking.