A protestor at NYC’s historic march to end Stop & Frisk (Photo by Paradise Gray)

On my way to participate in Verdict Day, the 2 year anniversary of the guilty verdict for  Johannes Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant in Oakland, CA, I received a call from my good friend Rosa Clemente about a new report about to be released by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM). This eye opening report entitled, No More Trayvons, revealed that 110 Black people have been killed by police in 2012, an estimated 1 every 40 hours.

Verdict Day,  sponsored by The Oscar Grant Foundation, featured 10 mothers who lost their sons to police killings, including a powerful keynote by Rev. Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant. The pain and hurt of these families is heartbreaking. The knowledge that this is a epidemic and a police murder will happen again, very soon, demands action.

A few months ago I began to work on a song that tied in all of the killings by police and vigilantes in 2012. Due to the nature of the song I was not sure if I should release it. I didn’t want to throw gas on the fire, but a wise man told me that, “time dictates the agenda”. After the recent killings of 13 year old Darius Simmons in Milwaukee and Trevion Davis in Atlanta, I knew the time had arrived to release the song.

On Tuesday, July 10th Davey D will be doing a special broadcast on 94.1 FM KPFA at 8am PST.  This broadcast will include members of MXGM, as well as, family members who lost loved ones to police violence. There will also be information on upcoming actions to take place around police violence. He will also be premiering my new song, “Do We Need to Start a Riot?”.