What I Planned to Say If Roy Oliver was acquitted in the Murder of Jordan Edwards. // Burn it Down

Fellow activists and I planned for major responses if Balch Springs Police Officer Roy Oliver had been acquitted in the murder of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.  For many days, I worked on what I wanted to say at the rally we were planning.  Truthfully, we planned for an acquittal.  This is Texas.  Yesterday, we got the surprise of our lives.  Roy Oliver was found guilty of murder.  Today, Oliver was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Though I planned to just throw this speech/sermon away, I didn’t.

We gather on this horrific evening because we don’t know what else to do but gather…maybe we even seek some level of salvation in our gathering.  We’re an angry people…and have every right to be. Don’t let anybody tell you to calm down.  God is disgusted by the calm down crowd and so am I.  Now is the time to allow your anger to proceed to rage.  Jordan Edwards is worth our rage.  Tonight is not the night to be calm.  To those who keep on saying that they are afraid of what could happen tonight…I say “great!”  They need to feel what all of us feel.  They need to feel what it feels like to live under the stress that you can be the victim of violence at any given moment. “Let them be afraid!” By the grace of God, we are not afraid.  Our rage gives us the energy that we need to carry out the will of God.  Though Roy Oliver is the face of this case, all of this is about more than him.  He is simply a representation.  He speaks to all that is wrong with policing.  Why in the fuck did he have an assault rifle?  Why in the fuck do any of them have assault rifles? What in the fuck?  What in the fuck?  Oh God, give us the rage.

Throughout the scriptures, fire is spoken of as a purifying device.  Jesus came to burn up all that would hold us back.  Fire is salvation.  Tonight, we have gathered because we want change and we want it now.  I beseech thee oh God to send us your fire.  Let us take your fire into our hands and go to work!  Let us burn down injustice!  Let us burn down hate!  Let us burn down inequality!  Give us fire oh God!  Tonight is the night that we go to work.  May the flames guide us all.  Let us remember that fire can change the world.  So, tonight I invite you to burn it down. In the name of Jordan Edwards and the many more that are less known, let’s burn down everything that stands between justice and us.  God is with us.  Light the fire in your soul and let’s go.

Amen.