ACTION for Kiki

Kimani 'Kiki' Gray, 16,  was shot and killed by the NYPD on Saturday.

In response to the shooting and killing of 16-year-old Kimani ‘KiKi’ Gray by the New York Police Department (NYPD);
protests took place in East Flatbush, Brooklyn for the fourth consecutive  night on Thursday. 

Unlike the evening before, none of the protesters were arrested. Everything remained peaceful.

According to police sources, two plainclothes officers approached Kimani shortly after leaving a party on Saturday night because he was acting suspiciously and was fidgeting with his waistband. When the officers identified themselves, Kimani pointed a .38 caliber revolver. Then the cops drew their guns and shot Kimani seven times, four times in the back. Eleven shots were fired in total.

One community leader that I spoke to last night said they believe the story they were told by Kimani’s friends. According to Kimani’s friends, they were hanging out near the site of the party when the two officers approached Kimani and began to assault him. That is when Kimani began running. Next came the shooting by the NYPD.

As a resident of East Flatbush and as a Black woman who knows countless young men around the age of Kimani, I don’t want to see this happen again.  

Last night I attended an action plan meeting that was organized by Councilman Jumaane Williams, Jose LaSalle of the Cop Watch Patrol Unit, Community Activist Fatima and local clergy. Pastor Verold Matthew of the New Horizon Gospel Ministries located on 3818 Church Avenue opened the doors of his church to hold the meeting.

Although the meeting started off emotionally charged as people expressed their outrage with this shooting as well as other unjustified shootings by the police or people shared their own horror stories with the NYPD; a lot of solid ideas were discussed. Some of them included:

·         Eliminating stop and frisk. In turn writing down the badge name and number of police officers when they are in the process of a stop and frisk or an act of overt aggression against a community member.

·         Indictment for the cops that shot Kimani Gray. (The cops were Black and Hispanic)

·         Holding rogue police officers accountable. Ensure that every NYPD officer is operating within the justifiable limits of the code of conduct.

·         Advocate for more resources (monetary and/or educational) to be redirected  into East Flatbush.

·         Creating a community center for youth in East Flatbush. ( Excluding the activities of local churches in East Flatbush for their young people or the Boys and Girls club on Bedford Avenue,  there is no central community center that offers free activities for school aged children.)

·         Sensitivity training for NYPD officers and educational classes for our youth particularly our young men so they know how to interact peacefully with the NYPD. (That was my idea.)

·         How do we engage and attract community members to be more involved?

The only thing left to do now is to ACT. As Kenny Carter of FAITH (Fathers Alive in The Hood) said “They’re counting on us to lose momentum. We need to see this till the end.”

*****Also, there will be a meeting on Monday, March 18 at 7 p.m for "Kiki and Shantel" held by The Shantel Davis Committee for Justice and Beyond with the purpose "to build a movement &  fight back against a system of racist terror." Last summer 23-year-old Shantel was shot and killed in East Flatbush by a NYPD officer after being approached for driving erratically. The location for the meeting is 3910 Church Ave. (Cupcake It Up) between E. 39th & E. 40th Streets in Brooklyn.*****

I see Black people and Christians too in the OWS Protest…Part 2

As I told you in Part 1 of this post,I went down to the OWS Movement after church. During my train ride to the Wall Street area, I also reflected on my Christian faith and realized that these protests can very much be considered Christ focused. You see I believe Jesus Christ’s whole existence was based on fairness and empowering the oppressed. “Hmmhhh, where are the Christians in this movement?” I thought.

Before I joined the meeting held by the People of Color Working Group (POC), I saw a sign that said “Jesus is with the 99%” moving down Cedar Street while I was standing on Broadway. I began to race through the crowd to find this person holding the “Jesus” sign. Thankfully, I bumped into Rev. Jennifer Butler. She is a Presbyterian minister and Executive Director of Faith in Public Life. Rev. Butler helped organize a group of 70 people to participate in the Wall Street protests on Sunday.


I told her that I was happy to see fellow Christians protesting and asked her why she thought it was important to be there. Rev. Butler said “This society has made Wall Street an idol. We are putting wealth before the needs of the poor. We have to get our values straight.”

Then I asked why should Christians care about the protest?

“Whatever your faith is; we know that we can’t build a society where the wealth is concentrated. My Christian brothers and sisters need to wake up. We need to see that this is a moral crisis. Everything Jesus stood for justifies why were marching today. ”

As I left Rev. Butler, her group was singing the words: Don’t Let Wall Street blow it out. I’m gonna let it shine. Don’t Let Wall Street blow it out. I’m gonna let it shine. Let it Shine. Let It Shine. Let it Shine.” To the music of “This little light of mine.” By this point, they group had gathered around a gold calf that said false idol.

The golden calf has a biblical reference from the time the Israelites were living in the desert. They were frustrated that Jesus was taking so long to bring them to the Promised Land, so they began to worship a golden calf made from their jewelry.

The impact of the OWS movement is still unknown but I hope that all Americans can return to the Promised Land. Personally that means a county where the growth of the middle class is not severely hindered by the outsourcing of jobs. A country where young people have an economic ladder to climb. A country where the gap between the rich and poor is not so vast.A country where people don’t have to choose between medication and food.

Once upon a time, those were the guiding principles of America and that is how it should remain.