Riverside Church hosted a forum entitled “The Fight Against Police Violence” on Saturday, featuring family members of those lost to police violence sharing stories about their lives and demanding an end to the bloodshed. The International Socialist Organization, Campaign to End the New Jim Crow and Mothers Resist Racist Policing sponsored the speak-out.

Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., whose father was killed at home by White Plains police officers responding to the activation of his medical pendent last November, described the treatment he received upon reaching the hospital and demanding answers.

“One of the nurses told me, ‘You’re not going to get anything talking to us like that,’” Chamberlain said from behind a podium. “So I turned around at that point–yeah, I did raise my voice–and I asked, ‘What did you say?’ And then a police officer walks up on me and his exact words were ‘Shut the F up.’ He said, ‘I’ll lock you up right now.’

“So I walked outside. When I walked outside, they followed me. So now I felt threatened. So I turned back around and as I started to walk back toward them, my cousin ran and she said, ‘Please don’t go–they’ll kill you too.’ I told her at that point I didn’t care, they’d ju st killed my father.”

Even though the officer who shot and left her son bleeding to death in October 2004 was convicted on second-degree murder charges, Danette Chavis didn’t stop. An anti-police brutality activist, Chavis has petitioned U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to take action on the issue. She says her son’s death pales in comparison to conduct from officers nationwide.

“It’s more important if people understand what police departments across the United States are doing to arrest people, harass people, falsely incarcerate people,” Chavis said. “Authorities that are in charge are doing literally nothing about it. Everything that’s being done against people is being done in the name of preventing crime. But while they’re so-called preventing crime, they’re committing crime themselves.”

“My son was full of laughter. He loved to play basketball. He was a comedian. He loved to dance. He was just so full of joy,” reminisced Laverne Dobbinson, whose son was chased and run over by an NYPD cruiser in April. The Brooklyn district attorney is currently investigating the death. “I live in the projects and you get into little fights outside, but this fight is totally different for me. This is brand-new for me. I will fight to the end to see my son get justice.”

Making sure their son’s name doesn’t escape people’s minds, Ramarley Graham’s parents continued speaking out for him.

“Ramarley was a fun-loving child. Ramarley would take off his shirt off his back and give it to you,” said Constance Malcolm, his mother. “He would help people who needed money, go shopping for them–whatever they need. You needed to just go across the street, Ramarley would help, because that’s the kind of kid we raised him to be.”

After sharing a humorous story about Graham taking a special girl to school, his father, Franclot Graham, revealed they had plans to surprise him only 10 days after he was killed.

“I said, ‘You know what? How would you like to go to Jamaica?’ He said, ‘That’s good.’ Later that day, I called his mom and I said, ‘We are going to renew his passport, buy him a plane ticket and send him to Jamaica.’ We were going to give him a surprise party Feb. 12.”

After the family members spoke, the floor was opened to audience members to share their own stories of police mistreatment. One of them was Newburgh activist Omari Shakur, who spoke about another case in the upstate town gaining attention: Michael Lembhard, shot dead by officers who claimed he ran at them with a knife on March 7.

“This young man was shot 15 times,” said Shakur, who lost his own son to a police shooting in 2006. “Eight times in the back. Eleven of the shots were downward shots.”

“These are the new Ku Klux Klan in our neighborhood. They come in our community and they feel like we’re all criminals. But one of the reasons they’re doing this is because we’re not saying nothing and we’re not responding.”