VIDEO: $71 Million for More Cops; Not A Dime for Jobs and Healthcare
Operation Relentless Pursuit is a Department of Justice initiative to combat crime through a “surge in federal resources.” We talked with Brandon Walker of the Ujima People’s Progress Party about what’s really needed to combat crime and empower neighborhoods in places like Baltimore, one of the seven cities targeted by the plan.
The police are the overseers of the modern-day enslavement plantation, the foot soldiers on the front-line of White supremacy who see Black and Latinx people, especially Black youth, as the only real threat and danger to their social order – what sociologists have called “social dynamite.” It’s more than racism – its White DOMINATION and SOCIAL CONTROL of Blacks.
These modern day slave patrols were created to protect and serve the status quo and uphold White supremacy domination.
It must be understood, as Christopher Booker (2000) explains, that Black folks existence was criminalized in the early stages of the American colonial experience; starting with physical movement. Freedom of movement throughout towns during slavery was mostly associated with the male gender role. Among the enslaved, Black males were the more likely to leave their plantations than females due to their greater likelihood of being hired out to work by their masters. To police them, slave holding states enacted laws, like South Carolina’s Act for the Better Ordering of Slaves. Such laws required that slaves who were off their plantations to carry a pass or ticket permitting their movement in public spaces. Otherwise, they would be subject to whipping, torture, and mutilation. In early colonial America, serving on policing units called slave patrols, was considered an obligation for 18—45-year-old White males. Ultimately, in most places, these units were replaced by formalized police forces (Booker, 2000). Black males and nowadays even Black females continue to struggle with freedom of movement. This historical context is fundamental to understanding present day patterns of police and White vigilantes interaction with Black people. What’s more, abuse of Blacks had to be justified so that policing forces could allay their occasional concerns about the impropriety of their actions.
Remember the essential idea that motivates White supremacy is social control and dominance.
So understand that the system is operating exactly how it was intended to do. It was created and fomented to oppress us. The system was not designed for us, it was built on top of us. Our destruction is built into it, but our liberation can be built from its downfall.
Thank you for your summation. The role of the police in the capitalist state must be understood so African workers can be better prepared for the type of struggles and solutions we must implement to push back this capitalist/racist state!