United National Antiwar Coalition
Statement in Support of Baltimore Protests
In the United States every Black man, woman
and child risks becoming the victim of an extra judicial killing. Because the
government does not record these inconvenient facts, activists are left to
determine that police kill at least 1,000 people every year. While chattel
slavery ended 150 years ago, the U.S. still has a very active slave patrol
system and it is carried out by police officers around the country. When they
injure and kill they do so with impunity.
The medical examiner in Baltimore, Maryland
ruled Freddie Gray’s death in police custody a homicide. The filing of charges
against six officers by the State Attorney is a necessary step but by no means
assures justice in this case or a change in regard to a deep and systemic
problem.
The system of mass incarceration began to take
shape as a direct reaction to the liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
It results not just in imprisonment but police brutality and murder and not
just in Baltimore but across the country.
The death toll from police violence went
unnoticed until people rose up as they did in Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore,
New York and in countless other cities. The inspiration from the people of
Ferguson led to thousands of protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.
However that movement has yet to lead to the successful prosecution in a case
of police brutality.
The United National Antiwar Coalition supports
the right to protest against police murder. Calls for non-violence cannot be
used as a smoke screen to silence the right to demand redress. People in the
U.S. are encouraged to support uprisings around the world if they are
sanctioned by our government, yet are told to condemn any protest taking place
in their own country. There will be no end to police violence if there is not a
loud and unified cry for justice. That cry is only heard when thousands of
people march in the streets.
The Obama justice department has declined to
pursue federal prosecution in the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John
Crawford or any of the hundreds of other cases of Black homicide at the hands
of police. While the president claimed a previously unknown right to
assassinate American citizens, and did so, the justice department also claims
that the legal bar is “too high” to bring police to justice when they
assassinate at will.
The mass movement spawned in Ferguson and now
taking shape in Baltimore must be clear in its demands. The federal government
must prosecute killer police and every community, particularly those of color
which are disproportionately victimized, must have direct control of their
local police departments.
Politicians can no longer be allowed to hide
behind useless “police/community relations” gimmicks which provide no
protection from police brutality. Black faces in high places as mayors,
district attorneys and police chiefs are also not a means of ending the
criminalization of Black life. Reform is just another word for inaction and for
maintenance of the status quo which grants the right to kill without fear of
punishment. Any call for yet another panel or blue ribbon commission is useless
if it does not also discuss community control, and with it the right to hire,
fire and if need be prosecute local law enforcement.
The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
stands with the people of Ferguson, Baltimore, Chicago,
Staten Island, North Charleston and every other locale where a Black person has
been killed by police.
Black lives matter!
End mass incarceration!
Community control of police!
Prosecute police brutality!
5/3/15
