Gloria Richardson leading organizers against National Guard repression in 1963
I'm still waiting for someone to give me an example of this nation mourning its enemies. Over the last 20 years they have killed literary millions of Afghanis, Iraqis, Sudanese, Somalians, and Libyans. They have directly aided and abetted the murder of thousands of Palestinians. Their state sanctioned security guards - known as police - have killed thousands of Africans and Indigenous people. Yet, out of those millions of victims I just mentioned, most people in this society couldn't name two or three of them because this nation hasn't taken one second to mourn their deaths. It certainly isn't telling you that you should respect them as people. In fact, they are working hard constantly to destroy the character of these people because doing this is the way they dehumanize them which is how they get you to easily avoid spending one minute thinking about any of these victims. That's why you have spent billions supporting the murders of all these people yet most cannot intelligently name any useful knowledge about them as a people because most folks just don't care. And, they don't care because we have been programmed with the message that these people are the enemy and by being the enemy that means they are against your interests. Therefore, they must be destroyed in order of you to survive and prosper as human beings. The problem is those people are not your enemies and their interests are not only not opposed with your interests, but what you need actually lines up with what they need quite nicely.
On the other hand, our enemies as African people are not our enemies because of a propaganda campaign to convince us they are. Our enemies are such because they put in work to destroy us as a people. Police Departments are the enemies of African people. They are not in existence to serve and protect us. You have to be brain dead to believe that lie. Police Departments were formed as patrols to prevent us from escaping slave plantations in the South and to prevent us from roving in White neighborhoods in the North. Almost 200 years later, these "departments" basically serve the same function e.g. keep us down. Keep us out. Keep us under control. This is the reason they shoot us immediately. This is the reason they kill us and then immediately start justifying it. This is the reason they never acknowledge they were wrong. And, this is the reason more than a small percentage of people follow their course of action after their oppression of us and support them 100%.
So, stop saying they should serve us. Stop saying they are "our" police. Stop saying and acting like when they disrespect us that is some sort of deviation from how they are supposed to behave. Don't you get it? This is always how they have behaved and no demands are ever going to get them to change because they are in existence to control you. That makes police your enemy! These are undeniable facts. So, don't talk to me about mourning them when they are killed. In this country alone, because they brutalize us everywhere, they killed in the thousands last year. On the other side, there were 36 police killed and not all of them were killed by other people. Some of them were killed in car accidents, etc., so the number is actually less than that. So, clearly they are our enemy and they are the threat. Yet, when a handful of them are killed, we are expected to mourn and respect them. Many of our African activists are pressured to speak out against the police shootings in Dallas, yet no police are pressured to speak out against the ongoing and consistent murder of African and Indigenous people? Now, I'm even reading that Black Lives Matter activists in various cities are delivering cards and flowers to police departments? Are you serious? How many police are going into African and Indigenous neighborhoods and mourning the shooting of young unarmed people by police? And for those short witted who really think there is something called "African on African crime" we will reserve the right to write something later about the roles police play in instigating and perpetuating violence within inner cities (because the drug and prostitution trades are profitable for police in many ways).
Look, I realize many people are really challenged when it comes to intelligence so I'll state the obvious. This is not an endorsement of snipping at police. I say that not because I am trying to duck under the concept of waging a serious fight against police agencies. The whole point here is I'm concerned about their feelings about as much as I've seen them have concerns for my feelings. Besides I've stated as loudly and clearly as is humanly possible that I believe in organization. Someone getting upset and deciding to shoot five indiscriminate police isn't organization and it doesn't do anything to help the work that we need to do. The propaganda of the capitalist system is so strong that this action in Dallas has created a sympathy for police that has taken the spotlight off of the consistent trauma police agencies cause for African and Indigenous communities. We cannot be seriously focused on organizing against our enemies if we are busy delivering flowers to them. So, Dallas doesn't help us at all. We need people in the streets, but we must evolve to getting that to an organized state. Its great to close the Bay Bridge. A quarter of a million people drive over it everyday. Its a major artery for transport of products and its the main entrance and exit to and from the city of San Francisco, but wouldn't it be something if we could close it for more than just a few hours? Wouldn't it be something if we could organize thousands of activists to take shifts so we could close it for weeks? And, for you people who still believe the capitalist system can be reformed, wouldn't doing that place you in a strong position to force the people you think you need to talk with to have to listen to you? They can only afford to have the Bay Bridge down for a very short period of time, but that period of time needs to be much longer than these spontaneous actions are able to do it now with no organization. So, with more organization, we need to be in the streets, but we also need a strong political education offensive so that we can understand what type of society we want to build when we win. If we don't do that work, how do you know you will be any better than the people you are fighting right now? History has proven that you won't be unless you seriously plan and prepare for something different. Something that doesn't place money over people. That takes an overhaul against the capitalist mis-education we have now that has us believing our enemies deserve our respect, patience, and understanding despite our clear evidence that those very same enemies never demonstrate those characteristics when dealing with their enemies. Based on the capitalist narrative, we are not even supposed to be enemies of the police, yet they still never even display those characteristics to us so clearly that capitalist narrative is flawed.
Don't expect any flowers coming from this direction. There will be no cards and no mourning. None of that until I see them offer us the same respect. My father taught me that basic lesson from day one. Treat people the way they treat you. That way, you train them how to treat you properly and you learn how to respect the people who earn it. If the police state wants us to mourn its losses, then stop behaving like a police state. We have demonstrated as well as anyone else in this society that we have a great capacity to spread humanity. In fact, we have civilized this backward country. But, that doesn't mean that we can't eventually learn new lessons. If you want us to mourn your police, then tell them to stop brutalizing us. Its as simple as that, but it will never be resolved that easily. You see, the thesis here is that police can never be anything except our enemy because of where they are positioned as the armed wing of the capitalist system. Even if someone enters a police department as a well balanced and fair person, the requirements of that job e.g. control and repression of the communities with the most potential to challenge the capitalist system - bingo - Africans and Indigenous - will have to change that person if they hope to survive in that position. Especially if they want to advance in that position. So, when we organize and change ourselves we can begin to stand up and demand our dignity, instead of pleading to be accepted into a society that doesn't respect us. When we organize and make that strong stand, I believe some of those who are police will wake up like we are waking up, and join us. Its naive to think they all will though, but that's the nature of war. In order to win, you have to recognize that the enemy exists and who the enemy is. Its the same enemy today that it was 200 years ago. There's no surprises and no amount of propaganda should so easily confuse us. Its the capitalists and those they employ to protect their interests.
On the other hand, our enemies as African people are not our enemies because of a propaganda campaign to convince us they are. Our enemies are such because they put in work to destroy us as a people. Police Departments are the enemies of African people. They are not in existence to serve and protect us. You have to be brain dead to believe that lie. Police Departments were formed as patrols to prevent us from escaping slave plantations in the South and to prevent us from roving in White neighborhoods in the North. Almost 200 years later, these "departments" basically serve the same function e.g. keep us down. Keep us out. Keep us under control. This is the reason they shoot us immediately. This is the reason they kill us and then immediately start justifying it. This is the reason they never acknowledge they were wrong. And, this is the reason more than a small percentage of people follow their course of action after their oppression of us and support them 100%.
So, stop saying they should serve us. Stop saying they are "our" police. Stop saying and acting like when they disrespect us that is some sort of deviation from how they are supposed to behave. Don't you get it? This is always how they have behaved and no demands are ever going to get them to change because they are in existence to control you. That makes police your enemy! These are undeniable facts. So, don't talk to me about mourning them when they are killed. In this country alone, because they brutalize us everywhere, they killed in the thousands last year. On the other side, there were 36 police killed and not all of them were killed by other people. Some of them were killed in car accidents, etc., so the number is actually less than that. So, clearly they are our enemy and they are the threat. Yet, when a handful of them are killed, we are expected to mourn and respect them. Many of our African activists are pressured to speak out against the police shootings in Dallas, yet no police are pressured to speak out against the ongoing and consistent murder of African and Indigenous people? Now, I'm even reading that Black Lives Matter activists in various cities are delivering cards and flowers to police departments? Are you serious? How many police are going into African and Indigenous neighborhoods and mourning the shooting of young unarmed people by police? And for those short witted who really think there is something called "African on African crime" we will reserve the right to write something later about the roles police play in instigating and perpetuating violence within inner cities (because the drug and prostitution trades are profitable for police in many ways).
Look, I realize many people are really challenged when it comes to intelligence so I'll state the obvious. This is not an endorsement of snipping at police. I say that not because I am trying to duck under the concept of waging a serious fight against police agencies. The whole point here is I'm concerned about their feelings about as much as I've seen them have concerns for my feelings. Besides I've stated as loudly and clearly as is humanly possible that I believe in organization. Someone getting upset and deciding to shoot five indiscriminate police isn't organization and it doesn't do anything to help the work that we need to do. The propaganda of the capitalist system is so strong that this action in Dallas has created a sympathy for police that has taken the spotlight off of the consistent trauma police agencies cause for African and Indigenous communities. We cannot be seriously focused on organizing against our enemies if we are busy delivering flowers to them. So, Dallas doesn't help us at all. We need people in the streets, but we must evolve to getting that to an organized state. Its great to close the Bay Bridge. A quarter of a million people drive over it everyday. Its a major artery for transport of products and its the main entrance and exit to and from the city of San Francisco, but wouldn't it be something if we could close it for more than just a few hours? Wouldn't it be something if we could organize thousands of activists to take shifts so we could close it for weeks? And, for you people who still believe the capitalist system can be reformed, wouldn't doing that place you in a strong position to force the people you think you need to talk with to have to listen to you? They can only afford to have the Bay Bridge down for a very short period of time, but that period of time needs to be much longer than these spontaneous actions are able to do it now with no organization. So, with more organization, we need to be in the streets, but we also need a strong political education offensive so that we can understand what type of society we want to build when we win. If we don't do that work, how do you know you will be any better than the people you are fighting right now? History has proven that you won't be unless you seriously plan and prepare for something different. Something that doesn't place money over people. That takes an overhaul against the capitalist mis-education we have now that has us believing our enemies deserve our respect, patience, and understanding despite our clear evidence that those very same enemies never demonstrate those characteristics when dealing with their enemies. Based on the capitalist narrative, we are not even supposed to be enemies of the police, yet they still never even display those characteristics to us so clearly that capitalist narrative is flawed.
Don't expect any flowers coming from this direction. There will be no cards and no mourning. None of that until I see them offer us the same respect. My father taught me that basic lesson from day one. Treat people the way they treat you. That way, you train them how to treat you properly and you learn how to respect the people who earn it. If the police state wants us to mourn its losses, then stop behaving like a police state. We have demonstrated as well as anyone else in this society that we have a great capacity to spread humanity. In fact, we have civilized this backward country. But, that doesn't mean that we can't eventually learn new lessons. If you want us to mourn your police, then tell them to stop brutalizing us. Its as simple as that, but it will never be resolved that easily. You see, the thesis here is that police can never be anything except our enemy because of where they are positioned as the armed wing of the capitalist system. Even if someone enters a police department as a well balanced and fair person, the requirements of that job e.g. control and repression of the communities with the most potential to challenge the capitalist system - bingo - Africans and Indigenous - will have to change that person if they hope to survive in that position. Especially if they want to advance in that position. So, when we organize and change ourselves we can begin to stand up and demand our dignity, instead of pleading to be accepted into a society that doesn't respect us. When we organize and make that strong stand, I believe some of those who are police will wake up like we are waking up, and join us. Its naive to think they all will though, but that's the nature of war. In order to win, you have to recognize that the enemy exists and who the enemy is. Its the same enemy today that it was 200 years ago. There's no surprises and no amount of propaganda should so easily confuse us. Its the capitalists and those they employ to protect their interests.
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