Wed, September 16:
Nationwide Gatherings to Indict Trump for Inciting and Defending Murders by Fascist Mobs.
Commemorate the Fallen. Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime!
Calvin Horton: “Two Types of Justice in America” 5/27/20
Calvin Horton, a 43-year old Black man and the father of seven children, was killed by a white pawn shop owner who shot into a crowd in Minneapolis on the evening of May 27th, 2020. Horton died from shotgun wounds to the chest and upper extremities during the protests that broke out near East Lake Street and Blooming Avenue in Minneapolis after the video of Floyd’s May 25th murder went viral online. His family notes that he was shot in the back.
“We seem to be reminded over and over again that there are two types of justice in America, one for black America and one for white America,” said attorney Ben Crump, who represented Horton’s family.
“His life matters to all of his children, each and every one of them, his entire family. So we’re here to declare that Calvin Horton’s life matters,” Crump said, before leading people in a chant of “Calvin Horton’s life matters.”
“We’re absolutely heartbroken,” Horton’s daughter, Cadaezhah Horton, 20, said. “And we’re left to feel as if we’re the ones in prison. We want justice for my dad, and we aren’t going to stop until we see it.”
“The only thing I want is justice,” said Horton’s mother, Mae Roberts. “Nothing is being done for my son.”
Horton’s killer was not charged with murder.
James Scurlock: “All Because He Decided to Protest Against Racism” 5/30/2020
James Scurlock, a 22 year-old Black man was shot to death by a white bar owner during anti-racist protests in in Omaha, Nebraska on the evening of May 30, 2020. Scurlock died while trying to restrain the white bar owner, who had pulled a gun and fired in response to the presence of crowds outside his establishment. Authorities refused to charge the bar owner for murder.
“Last night I lost a son, my wife lost a son, my kids lost a brother,” Scurlock’s father told reporters. “His daughter lost a father. All because he decided to protest against racism. “
Dorian Murrel: “His Child Will Never Meet Him” 5/31/2020
Dorian Murrel, an 18-year-old Black man, was shot to death by a white man (Tyler Newby) during a George Floyd protest in the early morning of June 1st. “He was just an awesome young man,” Murrel’s mother told reporters last August. “He was into sports, he was happy, he had a beautiful smile, and he knew how to make everybody in the room laugh,” Mathis said. “He has a child on the way. His child will never meet him…I want justice to be served, and I want it to be done the right way. I don’t want violence.
Jorge Gomez: “Tell Your Son’s Story” 6/1/2020
Jorge Gomez, 25, was shot dead by four police officers during a George Floyd protest in Las Vegas, June 1. Police claimed Gomez raised a gun at them. Gomez was killed while running and had previously been knocked to the ground with impact munitions.
Shortly before his murder, Gomez went up protesters to hug a woman who was telling the story of how her son had been killed by police four years earlier. Gomez hugged the woman, telling her, “I’m sorry about your loss. Tell your son’s story.”
David McAtee: A “Beloved” Restaurant Owner Defending His Business and Family 6/1/2020
David McAtee, owned and operated YaYa’s BBQ Shack, a popular barbeque restaurant in Louisville’s predominantly Black West End. A “beloved fixture” in his community, he “had a reputation for generosity, including serving food at no cost in his restaurant to police officers and members of his community who were struggling financially. Having de-escalated potentially violent situations on multiple occasions, he was also known as a calming presence in his neighborhood.” He took the name after becoming a Rastafarian ten years ago.
McAtee was fatally shot in the chest by a soldier in a Kentucky National Guard unit deployed to impose a 9 p.m. curfew ordered in response to racist police killings of Floyd and Louisville’s Breonna Taylor. Along with Louisville Metropolitan Police Department, the National Guard was trying to break up a social gathering in the parking lot of Dino’s Food Mart, across the street from McAtee’s restaurant.
McAtee was killed because he resorted to armed self-defense after the Louisville police shot munitions into his restaurant, nearly hitting his young niece in the head. Subsequent investigation determined, “the pepper ball shots” that Louisville police rang into YaYas BBQ Shack were not distinguishable from other ammunition.
McAtee was killed for legally resisting an unwarranted assault on his property and family.
No charges have been filed against his killer or the Louisville police officers who assaulted his restaurant and its patrons with internationally banned criminal munitions.
Italia Marie Kelly: “She Was Trying to Protest Peacefully” 5/31/2020
Italia Marie Kelly, a 21-year old Black woman, was fatally gunned down by a young white man, Parker Merlin-Belz, after attending a Floyd protest at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Davenport, Iowa on June 1st. “She was here trying to protest peacefully,” her mother said. “This needs to stop…It needs to stop now before another mother has to grief like I do, and cry over her baby gone. It’s gotta stop,” she said in tears. Kelly said her oldest daughter “died of the kind of senseless violence she protested…We need to stop the racism in the city. We need to stop the black and white issue. That’s why she was here, trying to get the message across and it ended her life.”
Sean Monterossa: “Shot Down in Cold Blood” 6/2/2020
Sean Monterrosa, a 22-year old man of Argentinian ancestry, was fatally shot in the back of his head with a rifle by a white police officer in the early morning of June 2 in Vallejo, California. Monterrosa, who was kneeling at the time he was shot, was carrying a tool that an officer mistook for a gun. Monterrosa’s family has filed suit. “Here,” the family’s attorney said, “is a 22-year-old kid who is now dead who appeared to be surrendering and he is shot down in cold blood.”
Less than an hour before Monterrosa was murdered by Vajello detective Jarret Tonn, he texted his sister a petition demanding justice for George Floyd. Tonn has a long record of excessive force.
“Over the last decade,” Wikipedia reports, “Vallejo police have shot 32 people, 18 of whom were killed, in which time no officer has been fired for their role in a shooting. As of May 2019, the department had the highest per capita rate of police shootings in Northern California. Vallejo police killed people at a per capita rate over four times as high as neighboring city a city with a similar population and high violent crime rate.”
Robert Forbes: Killed on His Knees 6/3/2020
On June 3, Robert Forbes, a 55 year-old Black man and racial justice protester was hit by a car driven by a heavily tattooed middle-aged white man in Bakersfield, California. Forbes died three days later. No charges were filed against the driver.
“When we got to Oak and California Streets, everybody was marching,” an eyewitness reported. Forbes “went to the sidewalk and got on his knees. Next thing you know, we all hear a car, and we all look, it’s a car with its lights off that hits him.”
Two online petitions demand the driver’s arrest. The driver denies any intent to harm Forbes, but witnesses interviewed by police say he increased his speed before the collision. Some of Moore’s tattoos are associated with white supremacist groups.
Tyler Gerth: “A Vocal Supporter of the Black Lives Matter Movement” 6/28/2020
In late June 27-year old Tyler Gerth was shot to death by a demented lunatic while favorably documenting a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Louisville. Gerth was a passionate white ally of the anti-racist struggle. The killer shot into a large crowd, injuring another protester before being disabled with return fire. The Louisville Courier Journal reported that “Gerth had become a vocal supporter of the ongoing protests against racism and police brutality and, his family said, a strong supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.”
“In everything Tyler did to fight for the outcast, for those at the margins of society, those facing injustice and inequality,” the minister who presided over his July 3rd funeral said, “he did it not for himself, but for others.”
“Tyler Gerth,” his family said in a statement, “was a beloved son, cherished little brother, adored uncle to seven nieces and nephews and a trusted friend. We are devastated that his life was taken was from us far too soon. Tyler was incredibly kind, tender hearted and generous, holding deep convictions and faith. It was this sense of justice that drove Tyler to be part of the peaceful demonstrations advocating for the destruction of the systemic racism within our society’s systems.
Summer Taylor: ‘Standing Up for Anyone Who Needed to be Stood Up For” 7/4/2020
Summer Taylor,24, was killed by a speeding car on protest-closed U.S Interstate Highway I-5 on July 4 . Taylor was a strong white ally of the Black Lives movement. Taylor and another victim of the automobile assault, Diaz Love, were described at a July 7th vigil as young women who “drawn to the protests because they believed that Black lives matter and that it was important to do everything in their power to support Black lives and fight for them.”
“They were always the first ones to call people out for being sexist, racist — standing up for queer and trans people, basically anyone who needed to be stood up for, they were the ones there that were so vocal,” a friend told the New York Times.
Writing from her hospital bed, Diaz Love reported that “my Facebook is filled with death threats.”
Garret Foster: “He Fought Against Injustice” 7/25/2020
Garret Foster, 28, was shot to death at a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Austin, Texas on the evening of Saturday, July 25th. His killer was active US Army Sargent Daniel Perry. Foster was legally carrying an assault weapon, an expression of his determination to provided armed defense for anti-racist protesters who face regular threats of lethal violence from fascist terrorists in Austin. Perry intentionally and aggressively drove his vehicle into the protest crowd, nearly running over a number of marchers.
Sergeant Perry claims he came across the protest by accident while working as a ride share driver, and that he only opened fire in “self-defense” after Foster allegedly pointed his AK-47 at Perry. There are reasons beyond Perry’s aggressive driving into the middle of a protest crowd to doubt this defense. In June, when the fascist president Donald Trump tweeted that “protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes” protesting in Oklahoma would face “a much different scene” than protesters in New York or Minneapolis, Perry responded from a subsequently deleted Twitter account with the username “@knivesfromtrigu.” “Send them to Texas,” the sergeant tweeted, “and we will show them why we say don’t mess with Texas.”
In a Go Fund Me set up to help defray funeral expenses, a Foster family friend wrote this: “Garrett Foster was murdered last night July 25th while attending a peaceful protest in with his disabled fiancée in her wheelchair. An unknown vehicle barreled into the crowd and this evil person shot and killed Garrett, while he was trying to protect his fiancée. A great person was taken away from his fiancée, his mother, father, siblings and a host of loving family members. He fought against injustice, served in the military and was fiercely protective of his fiancée.”
Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum: A Presidentially Triggered Teen Fascist’s Double Murder 8/25/2020
Joseph (“JoJo”) Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, were murdered in cold blood by the 17-year old white teen fascist Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin in the early morning of Tuesday, August 25th. Huber was a well-known skateboarder around Kenosha. His girlfriend said at a memorial, “He was one of the most amazing people. He had so much love in his heart for this city … he took down an armed gunman with nothing but his f——— skateboard, and he took that f——— bullet.” In a park where he liked to skate, chalk notes read #SkateForHuber and called him a hero. JoJo Rosenbaum left behind a fiance and a two-year old daughter. Listen to the words of Clyde McLemore, co-founder Lake County BLM, who wrote about Huber and Rosenbaum on Facebook: “It’s really sad that 2 white guys who’s been at my side for the last 2 days protesting and protecting me has been shot and killed. I knew this guy and he had my back. When I heard about the shooting, I figure I didn’t know them or maybe they was looters. No No No, this guy was a resident of Kenosha and just seeking justice for black people of Kenosha.”
Michael Forest Reinoehl: A State-Sanctioned Fascist Execution 9/3/2020
Eight days ago, a Federal Fugitive Task Force murdered Michael Forest Reinoehl, suspected of killing a Patriot Prayer-affiliated white-supremacist in Portland, Oregon. The police state execution of Reinoehl was meant to send a political message: defending Black lives and fighting back against fascist thugs is punishable by death. Reinoehl was marked for assassination because he used legally protected armed force to prevent the fascist Arron “Jay” Danielson from murdering one of Reinoehl’s Black comrades.
Danielson was a longtime fascist street-fighter who had already spent much of the evening on which he died inflicting violence on anti-racist and social justice protesters. Prior to his death, Danielson was armed with a can of bear mace, a retractable metal baton and a hand-gun in a holster on his hip. His confrontation with Reinoehl occurred as pro-Trump militia “drove pickup trucks through downtown Portland and shot paintballs and pepper spray and engaged in fistfights with anti-police violence protesters.”
Heather Heyer: Her Death Was to be a Rallying Cry for Justice 8/12/2017
Killed by white supremacist James Alex Fields during the “Unite the Right” counterprotests in Charlottesville. She was a paralegal with a passion for justice. Her last Facebook post read, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” Her mother, Susan Bro, said she wanted her daughter’s sacrifice to become a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion. 19 others were injured in that vehicular attack.
Ricky John Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche: Killed for Defending Two Teenaged Girls from Anti-Muslim harrassment 5/26/2017
On a train in Portland, when a Trump supporter started threatening two teenaged Muslim girls with racist, Islamaphobic hatred, three men stepped up to protect them. Best and Namkai-Meche died from stab wounds and Micah Fletcher survived. These men were heroes, not asking “What will happen to me if I stand up?” but asking “What will happen to these young women if I don’t?” Ricky John Best was 53 years old, a father of four and an army veteran. His family said standing up for strangers was “in his character.” Namkai-Meche was a 23-year old recent college graduate. As he was dying he said, “Tell them, I want everybody to know. I want everybody on the train to know, I love them.”