R.I.P. CARLOS LAMADRID: BORDER/POLICE STATE TERROR MUST END – Speech

R.I.P. CARLOS LAMADRID: BORDER/POLICE STATE TERROR MUST END – Speech

April 8, 2011

http://www.antifronteras.com

Tucson, AZ – Today I speak this—with the help of Malcolm X’s take on police brutality. I usually write my speeches in Spanish. But this time I want the echo of my rage to be heard and wound the ears of those deaf people sitting inside this federal building behind us.

We want an immediate end to the police brutality and terrorist acts perpetrated against our community. Yes, a complete end to the police brutality and terrorist acts that our people are confronted with every single day, every single week, every single month, every single year across the southwest and beyond.

Carlos Lamadrid, of Douglas, Arizona, was shot not by the KKK, not by the Minutemen, not by the Tea Party. He was shot 3 times through the back by a government-paid Border Patrol agent. Carlos was 19 years old.  Today the government government assassin is free, while our brother is buried, and his family today is in mourning.

Carlos is only the latest case in a long list of murders by border patrol agents. It’s not the exception, it’s the rule:

Francisco Javier Dominguez, shot execution style as he was going to his knees and surrendering when an agent fired. There were two federal trials resulting in hung juries. The jury was all white and today the government assassin is free, while our brother is buried, and his family still in mourning.

Sergio Adrian Hernández, jóven de 15 años asesinado por la patrulla fronteriza with a bullet to the head on Mexican territory in june 2010. Today the government assassin is free, while our brother is buried and his family still in mourning.

Ramses Barrón Torres, a 17-years-old youth was killed January of this year, shot by border patrol in the back of the right arm, with the bullet continuing into his chest cavity, puncturing a lung, and lodging in the left side of his ribcage. The government assassin is free, while our brother is buried and his family still in mourning.

We don’t ever forget. You don’t kill our brothers. You don’t shoot one of us and then grin in our faces. You don’t shoot one of us and then shake our hands and think we forget. You don’t shoot one of us and then ask us to vote for your one party-system. No! we never forget, we will never forget.

Someone will pay… Somewhere somehow someone will pay.

People today got the audacity to say this country is based on the principles of democracy, equality and justice.

Nah! This country is based on nothing but hypocrisy… this country is based on nothing but the right of policemen and politicians to mutilate and shoot down brown people.

This is the brutality we are talking about; this is the crime that we are talking about.

And the mainstream media is right:

We got violent abusers on a rampage.

We got cold-blooded killers on a rampage.

We got criminals on a rampage;

But it ain’t undocumented people, it ain’t our families and communities. And it ain’t our youth.

It’s them: this government, these laws, this police state terror is on the lose. Outright U.S. government-sponsored assassins on the loose. And we gotta stop them.

We won’t get justice in the courts.  People of color can’t get justice in the court system of amerika. The only way u get justice is in the street, the only way u get justice is on the sidewalk, the only way u get justice is when u make justice for urself. We will never get justice in their court system.

We want peace! we want justice! we want respect! we want to carry ourselves with dignity!

But we don’t want to walk around in a police state, giving people the right to think that they can take our life and that’s all that’s gonna happen from it.

So I’m telling u, don’t u ever expect justice from amerika. Don’t u ever expect a just immigration reform from this system. Don’t u ever expect liberation and freedom and democracy from this system.

This country was built on bloodshed, and it continues to give us bloodshed.

This country was built on war and violence, and it continues to give us war and violence.

So today we are here to condemn state violence.

These border policies of profit and control and genocide have intentionally killed over 153 people in Arizona last year alone. This quiet genocide, that goes unnoticed and uninterrupted, will only intensify.

Mientras exista migra, mientras exista ICE, border patrol, mientras existan fronteras, NUNCA habra paz.

We demand an immediate end to the existence of ICE, border patrol, police and borders!

Para concluir: I send the Lamadrid family my deepest condolences. Rest in power Carlos Lamadrid. Tú no has muerto en vano porque nos das la fuerza para seguir luchando por un mundo donde una muerte como la tuya nunca jamás sucederá. May your spirit always be with us as a reminder of why we continue to fight for the complete destruction of this neo-apartheid system.

But more importantly, may ur spirit send us the strength to live in dignity and possess the strength, courage, and undying determination required to reach a beautiful world full of peace, love, justice and equality.

We will never forget you. But rest assured, somewhere somehow, justice will be served.

Nosotros cobraremos justicia, y la justicia será cumplida—de eso nos encargaremos.

Que descanses Carlos, en el gran panteón de héroes y mártires.

Gracias. My deepest apologies for not moving fast enough…