Look Who it Was Random video

So, About That Police Attack on Freddie Gray... What's Next?

4,567 views · Published 23 April 2015 · 27:14 · Indexed 3 October 2026

Channel: Sensei Aishitemasu · 2015 · People & Blogs

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*** So, CLEARLY my computer is on it's last legs :-/ I am saving up for a new one, but FYI, I have also enabled fan funding on my main page. #NoPressure ***

Hi everyone, and Happy Hump Day! You're almost there. 

This video is going to be about a certain sentiment that I have seen swirling around the interwebs since news broke of the death of Freddie Gray, the latest in a long line of unarmed Black civilians killed by police. The 25-year-old Baltimore, MD native was chased and arrested by six bicycle cops after allegedly 'making eye contact' with them (because this is a crime now??? Ok), and he *mysteriously* suffered a spine injury wherein 80% of his vertebrae was severed while in their custody. The police claim they have 'no idea' how the injuries were sustained, despite the fact that he entered into their police van conscious and somehow left it in a coma, and although he held on for seven days in a hospital, he died from his injuries this past Sunday. 

Freddie Gray is just another name in a long line of unarmed Black people that have been killed in the U.S. by police. Cell phone footage shows him conscious, but limp and unresponsive as he was loaded into the police van, and many feel like this will be another case where police able to take a paid vacation for killing a Black citizen then return to the force after being found not guilty- if there is even an indictment at all. Many are feeling the sting of months of protest through direct action as well as civil disobedience, and are beginning to ask: What next?

IMO, the time has come for economic protest. 

The Black community makes up a whopping $1.1 trillion of the U.S. Economy (the total GDP is currently $17 trillion), and also comprise an additional 30% consumer base than ANY other racial demographic group. If we were to pull our resources from the American economy, not only would the United States be fiscally crippled- and forced to take legislative action- , we would also have the seed money to invest heavily into our own communities. Precedents like the Montgomery Bus Boycott prove that group economics works in forcing legislation: after the Black community, which comprised nearly two-thirds of the bus riders, boycotted the Montgomery Bus Company for a year, the company was nearly bankrupted and the government forced to rule bus segregation unconstitutional. 

Investing money into our communities also places power back into our own hands by creating jobs within the Black community. Self-sustaining neighborhoods with Black-owned grocery stores, laundromats, or other utilities and essential needs enable us to ensure money circulates within the Black community, instead of leaves it. Another option is also to create our own neighborhood watch patrols to lower crime as well as observe the police presence. 

Group economics works. We have the power. 

Thanks for watching. 

Links: 

'Freddie Gray in Baltimore: Another City, Another Death in the Public Eye:'
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/us/another-mans-death-another-round-of-questions-for-the-police-in-baltimore.html

'Baltimore Officers Suspended Over Death of Freddie Gray Are Identified:'
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/us/baltimore-police-officers-suspended-in-freddie-gray-inquiry-are-identified.html

'City of Baltimore suspends six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray:'
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/21/1379180/-City-of-Baltimore-suspends-six-officers-involved-in-the-death-of-Freddie-Gray#

'African-American’s Buying Power Projected to be $1.1 Trillion By 2015:'
http://www.blackenterprise.com/small-business/african-american-buying-power-projected-trillions/

'Black Spending Power To hit 1T By 2015, But Black Wealth Is Dropping:'
http://politic365.com/2013/05/30/black-spending-power-to-hit-1t-by-2015-but-black-wealth-is-dropping/

Economy of the United States (Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States

Gross domestic product (Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product

Montgomery Bus Boycott (Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Bus_Boycott

Dublin Lock-Out [Strike](Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_Lock-out

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