This Thursday is the Trans Day of Remembrance when, at the Indianapolis Liberation Center, the community will gather to remember our fallen trans comrades and recommit ourselves to the liberation of all people. To explain the origins and significance of the annual commemoration, local activist Brooke joins the show.
This week’s Naptown Breakdown covers a wide range of topics, from Todd Rokita’s lawsuit against the Indianapolis Public School system for its policies that he claims disrupt ICE’s ability to terrorize and kidnap our young people, to the racist murder of Maria Florinda Rios Perez. Perez was shot and killed after she and her husband–with whom she ran her cleaning business–accidentally tried entering the wrong house. The homeowner–whose name the police have not yet released–shot her through the front door. The assailant has hired “gun rights” attorney Guy Redford, although no charges have yet been filed.
Next, Brooke joins the show in advance of the 26th Trans Day of Remembrance. Brooke, who has engaged in the struggle to remove the cops from the Indy Pride celebration, educates us on the history of the commemoration and the connection between this memorial event and the struggle to remove the cops out of pride. As Leslie Feinberg said:
“Genuine bonds of solidarity can be forged between people who respect each other’s differences and are willing to fight their enemy together. We are the class that does the work of the world, and can revolutionize it. We can win true liberation”
Finally, this week’s Circle City Shout Out goes to our dear comrade from Detroit, Leon Benson. Benson spent almost 25 years falsely imprisoned–10 of them in solitary confinement, considered a human rights abuse by the international community–for the August 8, 1998 murder of Kasey Schoen in downtown Indianapolis. When he was 47-years-old, he walked out of the notorious Pendleton prison in early March 2023 as a free man, exonerated on all charges.
Exactly one year later, Benson returned to Indianapolis for the first “Common Unity” celebration and book release held at the Liberation Center. This year, the second “Common Unity 2.0” press conference and concert. After a press conference where Benson and the victim’s sister, Kolleen Bunch, spoke for the first time about their joint lawsuit against the IMPD officers who framed him, the Athenaeum was filled with the sounds of El Bently 448 (Benson’s stage name), Foosie, Mr. Ward 317, and others. Benson continues to inspire us day in and day out, and you can hear his mantra at the beginning of every episode of Naptown People’s Radio: “The Truth Never Dies!”
Show Notes:
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