Pastor: "It is a tragedy that as a clergyperson I need a tear gas mask more than I need a collar"

[kpete]

REV. OSAGYEFO SEKOU: Yeah. Well, it is rather surreal to have spent the last six weeks as a scholar-in-residence at the Martin Luther King papers at Stanford and to get on a plane to fly home and to see the economic realities still at work some 50 years later, thinking about King responding to the Watts riots and the anger that he encountered when he went there by young people who were simply unconsolable when another young black man was shot down like a dog by a policing agency. And so, all of that added a bit of surrealness.

I was part of a group of local clergy. A lot of this work is led by local clergy, local organizations, like the Organization of Black Struggle. And so, we’ve been supporting, trying to calm young folks down, keep them out of harm’s way. I mean, it is a tragedy that as a clergyperson I need a tear gas mask more than I need a collar to be able to do the work that I feel called to do. And so, we’ve been attempting to kind of defuse the situation, de-escalate the young people’s anger, not because their anger is not righteous, that their indignation is righteous indignation, but we’re trying to protect them from the police. And so, in one of those instances—we’re attempting to do that. But let us be clear that we are engaging in work that should be not necessary in a democracy. We should not have to spend our time trying to protect children from police in their own community. And so, we’ve been engaging in that work. But the young people are unconsolable. Their hearts are broken. They’re in a tremendous amount of pain. A number of them we hear over and over again: "I’m ready to die because I don’t have anything to live for." And so, we’re attempting to engage that in such a way that we protect them, that they might be able to live and to be able to fight another day.

And lastly, I want to say that one of the things people can do nationally is, if you are coming here—and we need more boots on the ground—please contact local organizations, particularly the Organization of Black Struggle or the PICO Network and their local organizers here, to be able to be plugged into supporting the work that needs to be done on the ground. If you’re coming—at the risk of repeating myself, if you’re coming from out of town, please contact the Organization of Black Struggle and other local organizations so you can get your directives from them.

And that we’re asking the media to continue to do your job and to tell your truth and to be able to bear witness to as the Fourth Estate. You must hold accountable police agency and government officials.



MORE:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/19/pastor_in_ferguson_police_crackdown_i

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.