I've been the victim of crime many times in my life. As a result, I've called the police a few times, but only to create police reports so I could file insurance claims to get replaced what was stolen from me. I've never called the police to come to my aide or the aide of anyone connected to me. I've never called them to intervene or investigate any issues. I have worked with people to investigate numerous crimes against humanity and I have been involved in a number of situations, more than I can recall off hand, where the community has been able to resolve the issue without involving the police. So, you are not going to be able to convince me that police serve a practical purpose.
I know they don't matter because I know they were never created to serve and protect people that look like me. The concept of police departments evolved from the former slave catcher terrorist patrols in the South and the City Watch patrols in the North. Both were designed to control, restrict, and direct the movement of African people. That's why you cannot find a single police department anywhere if you look before 1863 when slavery was eliminated. The departments were created from those terrorist posses that used violence and trauma to intimidate and force Africans back to the plantation. These animals were hired to do this because the industry people were afraid the plantation business would be destroyed as African people left the south in droves to escape that environment. All of this is depicted quite nicely in the 1972 film "Buck and the Preacher" staring Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Ruby Dee. Thus, Chuck D's classic reference of "overseeer to officer." In fact, the much discussed Second Amendment was finalized in large part due to this slavery question. The wording of that amendment was focused on insuring these terrorist posses had the legal right to remain armed. So, don't talk to us about protecting gun rights and police protecting communities because we know none of this applies to African people. That's why African gun rights are never upheld by racist groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA - see the Mulford Act from 1967 in California which was designed to disarm the Black Panther Party after they marched into the state Capitol in Sacramento with guns in May of 1967. This measure was fully supported by the NRA).
So, it's clear that police were never created to serve and protect African people. If you throw in the fact that capitalism is built and maintained on the backs of Africa's human and material resources, then it's clear that the real role of police is to repress the African masses in order to insure the oppression of African people and this is true everywhere in the world. This repression is essential for the maintenance of capitalism and therefore, is permitted to continue unabated. The repression is necessary because the unique position of African people as the basis of this system's continued operation objectively places us as the most likely enemies of the capitalist system. This is the reason why we are the only people who have historically "burned this country from plantations to cities" as Kwame Ture correctly pointed out. You can apply Kwame's logic to Europe, Australia, etc. The role of police is to stop us from resisting. Stop us from organizing and overturning this backward system. The role of police is to protect the interest of the corporate rulers. That's why if there is a dispute between banks and residents of houses, the police always take the side of the banks. It's why police shoot African people down without due process and why there is widespread support for them in doing so. It's why police respond to legitimate cries of pain for African suffering with an arrogant and a-historical response of "police matter."
Since slavery, police have always been the security guards for the super-rich. That's their job and the sooner we understand that, the sooner we can solve the problem of police terrorism. We will never solve it as long as we are holding onto this fantasy perspective that the police must be held accountable to serve us with justice and respect. That will never happen because the interests the police represent is diametrically opposed to the human interests of the masses of African humanity.
We don't need them anyway. We can solve our own problems. We can do so by coming together as community to collectively address the issues that plague us. We have enough people who are trained as therapists and counselors. We sacrificed and made it possible for them to pursue those skills because we knew we needed it. So, why are we continuing to let those folks work for our enemies while our people gain very little benefit from their crafts? We should be organizing those folks to service the drug, alcohol, and other addiction needs of our people. We should organize those with self defense skills to train our communities on how to protect ourselves from predators. And we should engage in mass political education in our communities to spread the message that we are the gatekeepers of the health and safety of our people. This is the reason we carry out the free breakfast program in N. Portland. Because we see it as a beginning stage of building that sort of self determination in our communities in a socialist manner. We call upon true revolutionaries to create similar problems everywhere. If our people can glimpse what a liberated zone looks like where they live, then we can understand the necessity for our national homeland - Africa - to be a liberated zone because whatever we can accomplish locally is simply a snapshot at what's possible for us once Africa is free. This is the work needed. Let's start doing it so we can eliminate the capacity for these armed terrorists known as police to continue to patrol and oppress among our people.
I know they don't matter because I know they were never created to serve and protect people that look like me. The concept of police departments evolved from the former slave catcher terrorist patrols in the South and the City Watch patrols in the North. Both were designed to control, restrict, and direct the movement of African people. That's why you cannot find a single police department anywhere if you look before 1863 when slavery was eliminated. The departments were created from those terrorist posses that used violence and trauma to intimidate and force Africans back to the plantation. These animals were hired to do this because the industry people were afraid the plantation business would be destroyed as African people left the south in droves to escape that environment. All of this is depicted quite nicely in the 1972 film "Buck and the Preacher" staring Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Ruby Dee. Thus, Chuck D's classic reference of "overseeer to officer." In fact, the much discussed Second Amendment was finalized in large part due to this slavery question. The wording of that amendment was focused on insuring these terrorist posses had the legal right to remain armed. So, don't talk to us about protecting gun rights and police protecting communities because we know none of this applies to African people. That's why African gun rights are never upheld by racist groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA - see the Mulford Act from 1967 in California which was designed to disarm the Black Panther Party after they marched into the state Capitol in Sacramento with guns in May of 1967. This measure was fully supported by the NRA).
So, it's clear that police were never created to serve and protect African people. If you throw in the fact that capitalism is built and maintained on the backs of Africa's human and material resources, then it's clear that the real role of police is to repress the African masses in order to insure the oppression of African people and this is true everywhere in the world. This repression is essential for the maintenance of capitalism and therefore, is permitted to continue unabated. The repression is necessary because the unique position of African people as the basis of this system's continued operation objectively places us as the most likely enemies of the capitalist system. This is the reason why we are the only people who have historically "burned this country from plantations to cities" as Kwame Ture correctly pointed out. You can apply Kwame's logic to Europe, Australia, etc. The role of police is to stop us from resisting. Stop us from organizing and overturning this backward system. The role of police is to protect the interest of the corporate rulers. That's why if there is a dispute between banks and residents of houses, the police always take the side of the banks. It's why police shoot African people down without due process and why there is widespread support for them in doing so. It's why police respond to legitimate cries of pain for African suffering with an arrogant and a-historical response of "police matter."
Since slavery, police have always been the security guards for the super-rich. That's their job and the sooner we understand that, the sooner we can solve the problem of police terrorism. We will never solve it as long as we are holding onto this fantasy perspective that the police must be held accountable to serve us with justice and respect. That will never happen because the interests the police represent is diametrically opposed to the human interests of the masses of African humanity.
We don't need them anyway. We can solve our own problems. We can do so by coming together as community to collectively address the issues that plague us. We have enough people who are trained as therapists and counselors. We sacrificed and made it possible for them to pursue those skills because we knew we needed it. So, why are we continuing to let those folks work for our enemies while our people gain very little benefit from their crafts? We should be organizing those folks to service the drug, alcohol, and other addiction needs of our people. We should organize those with self defense skills to train our communities on how to protect ourselves from predators. And we should engage in mass political education in our communities to spread the message that we are the gatekeepers of the health and safety of our people. This is the reason we carry out the free breakfast program in N. Portland. Because we see it as a beginning stage of building that sort of self determination in our communities in a socialist manner. We call upon true revolutionaries to create similar problems everywhere. If our people can glimpse what a liberated zone looks like where they live, then we can understand the necessity for our national homeland - Africa - to be a liberated zone because whatever we can accomplish locally is simply a snapshot at what's possible for us once Africa is free. This is the work needed. Let's start doing it so we can eliminate the capacity for these armed terrorists known as police to continue to patrol and oppress among our people.
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