Peace, Dignity, and Liberty

Speech delivered in Downtown New Haven on May 7, 2021 at a “Cops off Campus” Rally to demand the abolition of the Yale Police Department

Peace to you all, friends. My name is Dave Cruz-Bustamante, I am a community organizer and a New Haven resident, and I am here to fight.

Peace, dignity, and liberty. The fundamentals to a healthy and bountiful life and community. This is not a fight between good and evil, but a fight for what’s right. Yale has no conscious, they police our neighborhoods and they steal from workers and New Haven residents. The worst part of it all is that they do not care. They don’t even bother to hide it or show their face. Yet, we say the same thing at every rally:

• New Haven enters into a deficit while Yale prospers.
• Yale invests in companies that undermine the stability of our climate and the Global South.
• Yale Police harasses and even kills residents without any accountability
• Yale gives New Haven little bones to keep us distracted.

In essence, New Haven, like so many cities across this vast nation, is defined by the haves and the have-notes. With Yale being the haves and New Haven residents and workers being the have-nots.

One thing’s for sure, we are not and will never beg our oppressors for mercy, we will never compromise with the establishment for dignity, for the establishment is the reason why thousands of children weep without their mothers and fathers. The establishment is the reason why indigenous people continue to be robbed. The establishment is the reason why our schoolchildren have no books and pencils. The establishment is the reason why black and brown children do not live long enough to change the wrold. The establishment is the reason for why there is no food on the table and no roof over the heads of thousands in the richest land of the world. We will not achieve peace, dignity, or liberty by being meek. Because while New Haven continues to be occupied by the New Haven Police Department, Hamden Police Department, and the Yale Police Department, while the bones of the unsheltered shiver in the cold, dreadful night, and while children go to sleep with rumbling stomachs, the establishment talks about whether or not we are deserving of freedom.

But friends, do not despair, can’t you see? There is a world we will win. A world where black and brown children live and breath. A world of peace and harmony. A world where no one goes to sleep hungry, unsheltered, or ignored. A world that achieves the needs of all. The system trembles at every step we make together. The system has and continues to lock us up and hose us down, and yet, we prevail, we march, and we yell. It all starts here. Yale is the direct source of many of New Haven’s hardships, but the struggle that takes place here will also be the source of our liberation. And it all starts wuth the abolition of the Yale Police Department. We are not criminals, we are not undeserving, we are not dirty and dangerous.

Listen closely and remember that your labor is valuable. Remember that the worker speaking into the megaphone in the park has more power than the guns and artillery of the highest office of the land. Recognize that if we really had no power, we would not have federal agencies, corrupt legislators, and local military spying, policing, and incarcerating us for every word that we dare speak and for every limb that we move.

Strike, demonstrate, yell, boycott, fight, and disobey. For we will only achieve liberty through disobedience.

Get cops off campus and keep cops out of New Haven. Let us not cower in fear, for we have a world to win. A world of peace, dignity, and liberty.