TODAY - Wed Aug 23 - 5:30 PM EST
African Burial Ground Monument
290 Broadway, New York, NY
Vigil and Rally for Kiwi Herring
According to news and social media reports, a transgender woman by the name of Kiwi Herring was murdered by two police officers in St. Louis, MO on the morning of August 22, 2017. The transgender woman had a dispute with her neighbor that resulted in the police being called to the location. Subsequently, two police officers fired their weapons and killed the transgender woman.
Violence against transgender people has been all too common in the United States. Such violence has been perpetrated by President Trump and has now trickled down to trigger happy street police. When the intersectionality of being a transgender woman and a woman of color mix, many transgender women have no choice but to be fearful of their very existence as a human in the US. Through the unjust actions of the St. Louis police, we now have no reason to believe that our lives matter to the very people that have been sworn under oath to protect us as humans.
We are demanding that the violence against transgender people and especially transgender women of color come to an immediate end. Our demands extend to holding President Trump accountable to acknowledging and apologizing for fueling the violence against transgender people. Finally, we demand apologies from the St. Louis Police Department and the police officers that murdered Kiwi Herring.
We invite our sisters and brothers in the transgender community as well as our allies, politicians, and members of the press to join us for a rally at 5:30 PM today. We will meet outside on the North East corner of 290 Broadway and at 6:00 PM we will walk a half block to the African Burial Ground National Monument where we will hold a short vigil and rally.