VFP Endorses the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation
Veterans For Peace is glad to endorse the October 22 National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation.
VFP sees this effort as consistent with our interest in building a more just and democratic society in which alternatives to violence will be created at all levels - from the federal level where U.S. foreign policy relies on violence, to the local level where too often that example is copied.
Since our members are all too familiar with the violence of warfare and weaponry, our Statement of Purpose calls us "to abolish war as an instrument of national policy." If that is the case then we must also reject the violence of the baton, the taser and the whole new generation of what is misleadingly called "non-lethal" weaponry.
VFP's interest in the escalation of violence and repression here at home is not just theoretical. As our members increasingly use picket lines and demonstrations to speak out against wars abroad, we are seeing and feeling first-hand the violence and dehumanization visited on our fellow citizens who do nothing more than demand peace with justice, or sometimes do nothing more than simply walk down the street.
Peaceful means to solve problems are available now, but we seldom use them. Instead, we choose what appear to be easier and more direct. We try to kill our way to "victory" abroad and criminalize a generation at home. We are ignoring the whirlwind of violence we will reap.