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Protest against Police Violence
by
Matt Pillischer | 01.26.2007
Dozens of angry Philadelphians chanted and gave speeches outside the 19th District Police Station. They carried signs mourning the fatal police-shooting victims from last year, 20 in total, and urged for radical action: “These cops in here are murderers, they’re killers.”  District 19 Protest 1 Philadelphia – Jan 20th Who was there to “protect and serve” Bryan Jones? With fireworks still popping from new year’s celebrations, the notorious Philadelphia police set off to do one of the things they do best: kill young black men. 20-year-old Bryan Jones was shot dead on the morning on January 1st. He was unarmed and reportedly running from the scene of gunfire. With three deaths in as many weeks into the new year, 2007 looks like it has potential to beat 2006’s record for murders by the Philadelphia police. But not if concerned citizens and activists have anything to do with it. Dozens of angry Philadelphians chanted and gave speeches outside the 19th District Police Station. They carried signs mourning the fatal police-shooting victims from last year, 20 in total, and urged for radical action: “These cops in here are murderers, they’re killers.” A cop peaked out the window and laughed at the speaker, a friend of Bryan Jones. He continued into the bullhorn, staring at the cop: “In the words of NWA: Fuck the police! They killed Bryan Jones- unarmed. This is their history, back since the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, 80s, 90s. This is what they represent.” Lead by Kamau Becktemba, a member of the Uhuru Movement (the organization that called the protest), the crowd chanted, “Killer pigs got to go, we will fight them blow for blow!” The second victim of the Philadelphia police this year is said to have been mentally ill, holding a knife, and was fatally shot while surrounded by police. The third, killed January 20, was just 16 years old. While police commissioner Sylvester Johnson is quick to point the finger for heightened police attacks at a “more violent street culture,” he fails to comprehend what fuels the violence. And while thousands of young, poor people of color are conscripted into military service and ordered to carry out horrific violence on countless Iraqi civilians, while the police department carries out a terrorizing campaign on people of color in this city, the beginning and the end of the problem for prominent Philadelphia politicians is the street culture. The response from commissioner Johnson is not surprising given the role of the police: to protect the class of rulers from the class of oppressed workers, and to serve the rich by any means necessary to keep them in power. With mayoral elections approaching, the politicians are sure to spin this in whatever direction they can to let the people know they will be the ones to fix the problem. But their phony solutions will not be reparations to the families of the shooting victims, the solutions will not be jobs and economic development in the black communities of Philadelphia. The solutions will not be improved and equal education for black children, or guaranteed, quality health care. The solution will not be decent housing. In short, the solutions will punish the victims, failing to address the root problem of poverty and oppression. The only way to fix the root problem, the only way to fight police brutality and systematic racism, is through ordinary people organizing. The protest Saturday was a promising beginning. With the killing of unarmed Sean Bell by the NYPD, and the huge protests across New York city, the issue can easily be connected city to city and state to state. The last time murders by cops reached these numbers in Philadelphia (in the 70s), the tension exploded into street riots which eventually forced the department to keep their trigger-happy officers in check. Today another riot might be imminent. At some point, we may have to go ‘blow for blow’ with the cops. For now, people who wake up to the fact that cops will never protect oppressed people from those in power should get organized into strong coalitions that can fight police brutality and aim to stop it. |
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Comments
Writer of article
Submitted by Matt Pillischer (not verified) on Mon, 01/22/2007 - 1:04amto get involved with organizing with the International Socialist Organization, please email. also check out our newspaper website. thanks
Wow
Submitted by Questioner (not verified) on Fri, 01/26/2007 - 3:52pmWhat a massive turnout.
Philadelphia police are part of a...
Submitted by Kristy Schneider (not verified) on Wed, 01/31/2007 - 4:09pmcolonial, occupying army, not “Racist”!
As members of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, we were honored to be able to participate in the powerful January 20th protest led by the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement demanding justice for Bryan Jones and all of the hundreds of other African people that have been brutally murdered by the Philadelphia killer police.
We have to raise some serious differences with Matt Pillischer’s reporting of the protest.
The demonstration was organized and led by Kamau Becktemba, leader of the Philadelphia Branch of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM). Matt arrogantly states that this protest was “a promising beginning”. However, Kamau Becktemba and the Uhuru Movement are very well known for having been on the frontlines leading the African community struggle to stop the brutal, murderous police attacks against the African community for the past 15 years! It was the Uhuru Movement-led massive protests in the late 1990s that led to a serious reduction in the police killings of African people for many years.
The African working class-led Uhuru Movement understands that the police are carrying out the public policy of police containment of the African community; they are not “racist”. The police are on the frontlines of a counterinsurgency war to crush the just resistance of African people who have always organized against slavery, colonial terror and all the conditions they face in this country and around the world – from crushing poverty, the government drug economy, massive imprisonment & colonial schools etc.
The struggle to end police terror is part of a world-wide movement of the African working class, organizing to take back all their stolen resources, their land and culture and to end the relationship of slave and slave-master for ever – in fact to liberate and unify Africa!
The call was made at the protest for members of the white community to stand in unity with African people’s right to liberation, justice and reparations, and to end our hundreds of years old relationship to African people as part of the oppressor nation. We are being called on to break from being the benefactors of the prison and drug economies that bring billions of dollars a year to the white economy; to stop being the gentrifiers, the prison guards, the ones who call African people violent while we live on their stolen resources and labor!
Yet Pillischer ignores this call completely, reiterating the tired old white left position that the police killings of young African men in Philly are part of an attack on all “workers”. White kids are NOT getting gunned down by police, whether “workers” or rich. White kids are NOT being sentenced to life in prison for tiny amounts of drugs, or even doing any time at all for the most part. We have to wake up and hear the call from African, Arab, Mexican and indigenous people: join in unity under the leadership of colonized people to end U.S. imperialist terror and domination, and actively support their right to self-determination and liberation!
Come out and participate in the Uhuru Solidarity Movement work. Come to weekly meetings, studies and forums at the Uhuru Solidarity Center, 3733 Lancaster Ave on Thursdays at 7:30pm. Come to the March 17th Philadelphia session of the International Tribunal on Reparations for African People, an African revolutionary court established by the Uhuru Movement in 1982. Take a principled stand in solidarity with the right of African people to freedom and independence!
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