Every 40 hours Police in the US Kill a Black Person

[Patrick Bateman]

Explosive Report from MXGM Reveals: Every 40 hours Police in the US Kill a Black Person

This past weekend at Everett & Jones restaurant in Jack London Square, there was a gathering of more than 10 mothers and members of their family who have all lost sons, daughters and husbands to police violence over the past 2 years…It was sobering, powerful and healing. It was also shocking to see so many families and hear story after story of how they lost loved ones to police terror. We heard from the mothers of Kenneth Harding, Derick Jones, Derrick Gaines, Rahiem Brown Jr, James Rivera and Oscar Grant..all gunned down by police.

The families came together for the second anniversary of Oscar Grant Verdict Day.. This was the day that a jury in Los Angeles, handed down their controversial decision about Johannes Mehserle, the killer cop who shot an unarmed handcuffed Oscar Grant in the back at point-blank range in front of hundreds of BART subway riders in Oakland, Ca on New Years morning 2009. Millions of people all over the world saw the shocking video and just knew that Mehersle would go to jail for a long time over his egregious actions.

On July 8th 2010, the LA jury came back with a verdict of involuntary manslaughter which left thousands of people who had gathered in downtown Oakland stunned. Adding insult to injury, the Grant verdict was overshadowed by another ‘controversial decision’ being made that day-What basketball team NBA star Lebron James would choose. Many in the national media gave their time and attention to James and the NBA while folks in Oakland and the Bay Area were left pondering the injustice that was served before them after 18 long months of organizing and jumping over legal hurdle after legal hurdle.

Many that day walked away thinking that while the verdict was unjust that hopefully police got the message and would change their ways. There would be more caution and concern exercised by police departments, not just in Oakland, but all over the country. This weekends gathering was proof that if anything the Grant verdict emboldened police to act with reckless abandon.

Instead of a decline in police violence we seen a marked increase. Since the Grant verdict day, we’ve seen an outrageous 680 thousand people stopped and frisked in New York with over 90% of those stops being Black and Brown men with less than 5% resulting in any weapons recovered. Stop and Frisk led to the shooting death of unarmed Ramarley Graham We’ve seen police shoot a motorist Hernendez L Dowdy in Memphis, Tn after someone falsely accused him of car jacking. We’ve seen police in Pasadena shoot 19-year-old Kendrec McDade falsely accused of stealing a computer. We seen an officer in Chicago shoot an innocent bystander named Rekia Boyd after he mistakenly thought the man standing next to her had a gun.. We seen police in White Plains New York shoot unarmed army vet, a senior citizen named Kenneth Chamberlain Sr.. who accidently set off his medical alert pendant. The officer at the center of the killing has a sordid history of brutality and racism. .. We seen Oakland police shoot high school senior Alan Bluford in the back and then lie about the self-inflicted wound the officer suffered. He shot himself and blamed Bluford. OPD has still refused to officially identify the officer.

We could go on for days citing story after story along with the fact that in many cities all over the United States police brutality incidents and police killing civilians are on the rise..For example, in Los Angeles which was supposed to have drastically reformed their police department, we seen a huge increase in police shootings. The department tried to blame it on citizens attacking them more. That assertion has since been disputed.Whats crazy about LA is that police pushed to get the city council to support a law that will keep officers records sealed from the public.

The bottom line is this.. Police are out of control and when it comes to Black people they are even more so..Today the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement released a Report on Extrajudicial Killings …Its pretty detailed and extensive.. It shows that since Jan 1 2012 , they have documented 110 Black people being killed. That amounts to one Black person being killed by police every 40 hours.. Since the shooting death of Trayvon Martin police and shot and killed over 80 Black people..This is outrageous and unacceptable..

Here’s the official press release and links to the report..

“Report on Extrajudicial Killings of 110 Black People since January 1st, 2012.”

Every 40 hours in the United States one Black woman, man or child is killed by police, and by a smaller number of security guards and self-appointed vigilantes. These are the startling findings of a new Report on Extrajudicial Killings of Black People released July 9, 2012.

What motivated the round-the-clock research for this new Report? More than two years ago, on New Year’s Eve, police killed two innocent men: Oscar Grant in Oakland, Adolph Grimes in New Orleans and shot Robert Tolan in a Houston suburb. Based on research started in 2009 after those murders, we learned there were a lot more killings that had not yet been uncovered. Then, after Trayvon’s murder, there was a huge public outcry and a few headlines about more killings. More grieving families and more calls for investigation. Further research became urgent and it demonstrated that Trayvon’s death was not an isolated tragedy. Between January 1, 2012 and June 30, 2012, at least 110 Black people were killed by police and their “deputies”.

“Any one of these people killed could have been my son or your husband or daughter”, says Arlene Eisen, member of the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee and co-author of the Report.

Rosa Clemente of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement elaborates, “Nowhere is a Black woman or man safe from racial profiling, invasive policing, constant surveillance, and overriding suspicion. All Black people – regardless of education, class, occupation, behavior or dress – are subject to the whims of the police in this epidemic of state initiated or condoned violence.”

The Report, produced by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and the “No More Trayvon Martins” campaign, is part of a larger effort. Kali Akuno, MXGM member and report co-author explained, “The Report shows how people of African descent remain subjected to institutionalized racist policies and procedures that arbitrarily stop, frisk, arrest, brutalize and even execute Black people. The killing will continue despite calls for investigations and lawsuits. We urge people to read this Report and join us in demanding that the Obama administration implement a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice to stop these killings and other human rights violations being committed by the government”.

To read the report visit http://www.mxgm.org. For information on the petition visit http://www.ushrnetwork.org/content/webfo...-petition.


http://hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com/2...ck-person/

[shakur420]

I'd be interested to see a comparison between police killings in poor neighborhoods/areas vs wealthy or middle class. I just read a statistic the other day that was fucked. Something like white kids/people having 3 times the amount of drug related visits to the emergency room than blacks. That's some fucked up shit when you look at where drug enforcement is usually targeted. Still would've liked to see an economic breakdown of that one too.

[YaelTheGreat]

Anyway you can try to find that statistic Shak? Would really like it so I could shut some of my family down.

[shakur420]

Just looking quickly. I came across this, which I can't read cause it's on JSTOR, you gotta have a membership/subscription. But the first page page, which you can preview, gives you the thesis and rough conclusion. I guess they're talking about something called "conflict theories", which might have something to do with a class analysis of social situations?

Quote:"Conflict theorists assume that force or its threat is the fundamental element that holds unequal societies together. Because conflict theorists also hold that the state's monopoly of violence is controlled by those who benefit from inequality, it follows that the control agents of the state should be more likely to use extreme force when economic inequality is most pronounced. This hypothesis was tested with data on the number of killings committed by policemen in the American states. After controlling for six additional explanations, we found that the police were most likely to use deadly force in the most unequal states. The amount of violent crimes and riots and the percentage change in population also predicted these lethal events. But the major implication of our findings is that a hypothesis derived from conflict theory does predict that amount of police-caused homicides..."

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/80...1118962111

As far as what I've come across before on the issue, Joseph Stiglitz is a great source. He used to be VP and chief economist at the World Bank, he's a professor at Columbia, he's won the Nobel prize in economics and he was an adviser to Clinton (and Obama, I think). There's no better, centrist source than that, lol. He says pretty openly that economic inequality has major effects, including on things like crime and shit.

Now, none of these are studies where you can get actual statistics from, say specific to the correlation of police brutality/killings and poverty, but it's a good starting point to question people's claims. Really? Police are more aggressive and kill more people in black areas because, well, because they're black? Blacks are more prone to violence and crime, etc., etc.? Why then, does a former World Bank economist and Nobel prize winner, one of the most respected and serious economists in the world today, say that inequality and poverty have major effects on crime and shit?

Quote:"...Urban violence is prevalent in many places. Why? You think people prefer lives of crime rather than gainful employment? The fact is young men don't, can't find jobs, and without jobs, they turn to crime.

In the United States we found that when we got our unemployment rate down, in the '90s, it had an enormous impact on our crime rate. And when you get the unemployment rate up, which was an intrinsic part of the policies that were pushed in these [Latin American] countries, this social stress was inevitable. The implication, of course, is that societies in which there is a high level of violence are not going to be attractive for investment. So in the end it turns out not even to be good economic policy..."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheight...glitz.html

Good interview, by the way, on things like "free" markets and stuff. And how they don't exist...

HAHAHAHAHA, sorry, just had to throw that one in there...


There's also this report from the UN that I came across, from like a year ago. It's crazy, apparently it's not just our imagination that economic factors affect people's situations and their susceptibility to abuse, corruption, etc. It's called "The Penalization of Poverty", and it's all about how the poor are targeted for being poor, no doubt, police presence and brutality are higher in these cases.

Quote:"...Penalization measures respond to discriminatory stereotypes that assume that persons living in poverty are lazy, irresponsible, indifferent to their children’s health and education, dishonest, undeserving and even criminal. Persons living in poverty are often portrayed as authors of their own misfortune, who can remedy their situation by simply “trying harder”. These prejudices and stereotypes are often reinforced by biased and sensationalist media reports that particularly target those living in poverty who are victims of multiple forms of discrimination, such as single mothers, ethnic minorities, indigenous people and migrants. Such attitudes are so deeply entrenched that they inform public policies and prevent policymakers from addressing the systemic factors that prevent persons living in poverty from overcoming their situation.

...As a consequence of the discrimination and stigma that they suffer, persons living in poverty often develop fear of and even hostility towards public authorities, and have little confidence in the institutions that should assist them. Too often, they are treated with disrespect or condescension by policymakers, civil servants, social workers, law enforcement officials, teachers and health-care providers, who may fail to recognize and support the efforts that persons living in poverty are making to improve their lives...

...In every country, developed or developing, historical social divisions and power structures ensure that the poorest and most excluded are at a constant disadvantage in their relations with State authorities. Asymmetries of power mean that persons living in poverty are unable to claim rights or protest their violation. They may face obstacles in communicating with authorities owing to illiteracy, lack of information or language barriers, a situation which is particularly acute for migrants, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities. As a result, they are less likely to know and understand their rights and entitlements or to report infringements and abuses....

...A significant obstacle in breaking this cycle of penalization and poverty is the inability of persons living in poverty to access legal assistance, as they are unable to afford private legal representation and legal aid is often unavailable or inadequate. Without access to competent, comprehensive legal assistance, the poorest and most excluded are further disadvantaged in their dealings with authorities, not only when they are facing criminal charges, but also with respect to administrative procedures such as child protection cases, benefit fraud matters or eviction and immigration proceedings...

...When persons living in poverty do not have access to legal representation or advice, particularly in circumstances where they are unfamiliar with complex legal language, they are more likely to receive and accept unfair or unequal treatment. There is a higher likelihood that they will be detrimentally affected by corruption or asked to pay bribes, will be detained for longer periods of time and, if facing trial, will be convicted. Even when legal assistance is available, discrimination and linguistic barriers are powerful obstacles in the way of those seeking access to justice and redress...

...Children who live or work on the street are particularly vulnerable to penalization measures. Street children lead lives defined by abuse, violence and fear, but because they are stigmatized as criminal or illegitimate they have little recourse to help or redress. Children on the street are exploited, trafficked, forced to perform hazardous work and recruited by armed forces and armed groups, and do not seek the assistance of authorities for fear of further penalization or abuse. In many cases children living in poverty are not registered at birth and as such cannot access basic services including primary education. With nowhere else to turn, they must undertake activities such as street vending, begging or panhandling in order to survive.30 When these actions are made illegal, they are further forced into dangerous and abusive situations...

...Because law enforcement officials often use “poverty”, “homelessness” or “disadvantage” as an indicator of criminality, persons living in poverty come into contact with the criminal justice system with a disproportionately high frequency. They also encounter considerable obstacles manoeuvring within or exiting the system. As a result, disproportionately high numbers of the poorest and most excluded are arrested, detained and imprisoned...

...Poverty is a complex, multifaceted condition, which is only exacerbated and perpetuated by measures that directly or indirectly punish, segregate, control and undermine the autonomy of persons living in poverty. Such measures greatly impair the ability of persons living in poverty to enjoy a wide range of human rights and freedoms, deepening and prolonging the cycle of poverty and exclusion...

...Often, States invoke grounds of public safety, health or security in an attempt to justify the restriction of human rights through penalization measures. However, human rights law establishes strict requirements for the imposition of limitations on individual rights. Any restriction on the enjoyment of human rights by those living in poverty must comply with several safeguards, including requirements that they be legally established, non-discriminatory and proportionate, and have a legitimate aim. The burden falls upon States to prove that a limitation imposed upon the enjoyment of rights by those living in poverty is in conformity with international human rights law...

...Measures that result in the penalization of those living in poverty do nothing to tackle the root causes of poverty and social exclusion. They serve only to entrench further the multiple deprivations faced by those living in poverty and create barriers to poverty reduction and social inclusion. Consequently, they greatly undermine the ability of States to comply with their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights

http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Po...66.265.pdf

Will keep looking for more stuff, hopefully I can find some actual studies or something, but this is a good start.