Quanice Hayes Tribute at City Council

Today Donna Hayes, the grieving grandmother of Quanice Hayes, the unarmed teenager killed by Portland Police February 9, 2017, held a tribute to her grandson in the chambers of the Portland City Council.  Quanice's three young siblings, one of whom sat right in front of me, were present throughout the two hours of speeches and testimonies. I was honored to be one of those invited to speak. This is much of what I said:

I come to the mayor and city council to fight for those most vulnerable to abuse by police: our black, brown, and Native children. 

There is terror in Portland. The terror comes to us in a black uniform that looks like something a robot would wear in a science fiction movie. The terror wears massive black boots, shin pads, knee pads, bullet proof vests, face shields, and helmets. It carries tasers, pepper spray, flash-bang grenades, guns, tear gas, and truncheons aimed at the fragile skulls of unarmed, undefended protesters and their children. 

We have a madman in the white house and a planet going up in flames, full of violence and hatred. We need our unborn children to save the world with love and wisdom, but we have failed them. Every one of our dead children is a horrible, unforgivable failure. 

Here is my recommendation: strip the Portland Police of the military equipment, guns, tasers, riot gear, riot vans, tear gas, pepper spray, and flash bang grenades they use on us when we protest the deaths of our children. We are not an invading army. We are the grieving families of murdered children. We are justifiably angry, unarmed people demanding justice from a government that owes it to us. We put our bodies and our voices on the line because we have no weapons. You meet us with militarized police. 

I ask that you, our mayor and our commissioners, instruct the police not to terrorize our black children and our anarchist children. If you cannot control the police, then give the bullet-proof vests and shin-guards, the helmets and shields to our children. Because our children need protection. 

If you allow the police to threaten our children and cause them fear, if you menace our children, stalk our children, and harass our children, you plant seeds of violence. When you kill our children, their blood and our grief is on your hands to the end of days.