You cant stop the Rock! Hip Hop Claims Victory in The South Bronx!

On Saturday, July 28th 2007 the South Bronx community celebrated its victory over the NYPD at The Jardin la Roca/The Rock Garden. At about 4:30 pm, the NYPD issued the amplified sound permit to the organizers and the show at The Rock went on! It was a victory for the Hip Hop
community in the South Bronx, it was a victory for youth and for community residents. The NYPD had no choice but to give the sound permit. This is an example of what communtiy organizing can
accomplish. This time, they messed with the wrong peeps. How many folks get constantly harrassed by the police and because they don't know their rights, it goes unnoticed? This was a clear example of the Hip Hop Police and their attempts to further criminalize Hip Hop
youth. Our sruggle this week exposed their sloppiness and lack of interest in the communities they oppress and harrass. Their lame attempts at shutting us down did not hold up! They knew they were
wrong and made a last minute attempt to fix their mess. The people showed up at the garden anyways. With or without sound, the show was going down! Hip hop was gonna occur, the way it should occur. Free and in the community for all to enjoy! And what better location, than the South Bronx? The birthplace of the culture the NYPD is heavily policing, the site of heavy gentrification, the new location for a planned prison?

For last month's Freedom Festival, the sound permit was given by the 40th precinct, yet this month when organizers from Jardin la Roca applied, they were given the typical bureaucratic runaround. After days of attempts, the 40th precinct concluded that The Rock Garden was actually in the 42nd precinct. Even though, they issued a permit just last month! So without holding themselves accountable, the 42nd precinct denied the permit on the grounds that we were too late to
apply and that we needed a NY Parks permit. It turns out that as a garden we don't need parks permits and that the reason we were late, was because the wrong precinct was giving us permits just last month! So this is where the real reason they didn't want us to rock comes
out! The NYPD has a growing Hip Hop Police and for Hip Hop shows they are assigning Special Hip Hop Police Task Forces. We took it to the media on Friday, July 27h and exposed their nonsense. They wanted to shut down a free hip hop show for the community, with free food and
wonderful organizing! Why? They had no legitimate reason and they were exposed. Hip Hop won on Saturday. Hip Hop rocked at The Rock! Big Ups to all performers that came through! Foundation Movement! Rebel Diaz, Rephstar, Waco Division, S.E.L.F.from Lotus Tribe, HiCoup,
Delaceiba and Debajo del Agua from Colorado ( thanks for the guitars and drums during the cyphers!) Jonathan from 160th and Hektic ATF from the South Bronx also! Anthony Morales! To Movimiento La Pena del Bronx, Legalize Victor Toro! YMPJ for bringing the youth! Community in Unity! This month's Freedom Festival was dedicated to Free the SF 8! Thanks to former Black Panther party member Ashanti Alston for the uplifting intro to the show!