Emancipate NC Organizer Dedan Waicuri
In a nation that still decorates its foundations with chains, shackles, and badges, the story of La’Dainian and La’Darion Fuller is more than just a headline or a celebration. It is a living testament to the ongoing struggle between state violence and Black resistance—a modern-day chapter in the long, bloody saga of rebellion against an empire that criminalizes our breath, our movement, and even our childhood.
At just fifteen years old, La’Dainian Fuller—like too many Black children before him—was robbed of his youth, his freedom, and his safety, not by strangers, but by those clothed in the uniform of public service. He was charged as an adult, accused of attempted murder, and thrown into the unforgiving grip of the so-called “justice” system for one simple, revolutionary act: defending his twin brother, La’Darion, from an officer’s brutality.
Let’s be clear: this is not a story about crime. It is a story about survival.
When the Fuller twins were brutalized by police, they were not offered protection. They were not given the benefit of the doubt. They were denied the right to go home, denied the dignity of being treated as children, and denied access to their guardians in the most terrifying moment of their young lives. These are not just procedural errors—these are acts of state-sanctioned terror designed to disempower and disorient, to break the spirit of resistance before it can take root.
But the system underestimated them.
These young brothers did not fold. They resisted. They protected one another the way so many of our people have had to do for centuries when the state came knocking with chains, batons, or bullets. Their courage echoes the defiance of Harriet Tubman, who led us out of bondage. It echoes the fury of the Attica rebels, the youth of Soweto, the Panthers patrolling the streets. And now, it echoes in Gastonia, North Carolina—where La’Dainian, now off probation, is being celebrated by his community as the survivor and freedom fighter he is.
We cannot overstate the significance of this moment. In a state that has long profited from Black suffering—whether through plantation slavery, chain gangs, or the prison-industrial complex—these boys stood up and said no. No to abuse. No to silence. No to the lie that the police exist to protect us. And for that, they will go down in the history books of North Carolina—not as criminals, but as resisters.
Because this is the truth: the Fuller twins did what too many are afraid to do. They fought back. And they won—not just in the legal sense, but in the moral, historical, and revolutionary sense. Their survival and vindication are victories for every child told their life doesn’t matter, for every Black family torn apart by the state, for every youth taught that obedience is the only way to live.
We celebrate La’Dainian and La’Darion not just for what they endured, but for what they represent—a new generation of revolutionaries born not in comfort, but in conflict. Their story is a call to all of us to build a world where children do not have to fight off public servants to protect their lives. Until that world exists, we remember: resistance is not a crime. Survival is not a sin. And self-defense is not up for debate.