 The violence perpetrated on Afrikan communities by U.S. police forces continues to intensify. High profile cases such as those of Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo and most recently Timothy Stansbury and Sean Bell highlight the hundreds of cases of deaths, beatings and harassment terrorizing Afrikan communities in the United States. Abner Louima was sodomized with a plunger by members of the New York City Police Department in 1997. Amadou Diallo was shot 41 times in 1999. NYPD’s justification for this was their having mistaken his wallet for a gun. Seventeen year old Timothy Stansbury was murdered in 2004 and Sean Bell was murdered in 2006 in a hail of 51 bullets on the eve of his wedding.
Shootings
of unarmed youth are a direct result of the militarization of Black
communities. Presently there is an unprecedented
number of officers
occupying, patrolling and harassing the citizens of these
neighborhoods. In the boroughs of New York City, police harassment
has been institutionalized with a mandate of "quality
of life" operations.
This gives the police license to sweep
the streets, ticket and
arrest often innocent individuals under the blanket of "zero
tolerance" enforcement. Though increasing New York City revenues,
it does nothing to combat the root
causes of
crime: economic
inequity, minimal access to resources and institutionalized
racism/oppression.
Black
August Hip Hop Project's 2007 theme of Free
Your Hood
highlights MXGM's campaign against police brutality, the People's
Self Defense Campaign (PSDC).
PSDC exists to reduce the incidence of police violence and other
human rights violations through monitoring of the police and
observing and documenting occurrences of violence. PSDC provides the
community with tools for self-protection through educating,
organizing and supporting survivors/victims of police brutality. PSDC
recognizes the right of all people to live
free of oppression and
human rights violations,
as well as the community's right to control the policing of its own
communities.
PSDC
SHORT TERM GOALS:
- Community
control of policing in
our communities - The community must control and operate any
institution that holds the power of life and death over it.
- End
to militarized
anti-crime programs and tasks forces.
- An
independent prosecutor
for police brutality cases in New York City - District Attorneys
collaborate with the police on a daily basis. The two rely
heavily on each other to indict, prosecute, and try cases. We
believe that they function as one institution and that a local DA
prosecuting constitutes a conflict
of interest.
- Independent
investigation into
past police killings.
- Justice
for Sean Bell, Trent
Benefield, and Joseph Guzman and all victims of police brutality.
The NYPD's murder of Sean Bell and attempted murders of Benefield
and Guzman are not isolated or random events. They epitomize
the consistent targeting of communities of color by the police and
the lack of accountability for police misconduct and abuse.
- The
firing of New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
and Chief Anthony J. Izzo. Also, make Police Commissioner an
elected position.
For
more information on People's
Self Defense Campaign
or other programs of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, contact us at
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,
718.254.8800 or please log on to www.mxgm.org
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