The Nov. 25 police shootings of three unarmed young African-American men in Queens, N.Y., continue to evoke deep-seated feelings of righteous anger and distrust towards the New York Police Department and the city administration.
 Charles Barron speaks to the media Dec. 4 on rampant police brutality in NYC. Viola Plummer is to his left. WW photo: Monica Moorehead |
Several undercover police officers emptied 50 bullets into a moving car at 4 a.m., resulting in the death of 23-year-old Sean Bell and the wounding of two of his friends: Joseph Guzman, shot 11 times, and Trent Benefield, shot three times. The three men were leaving a bachelor party for Bell, who was scheduled to be married later that same day, when they were confronted by plain-clothes police.
Guzman and Benefield were reportedly handcuffed to their hospital beds before they were operated on for their wounds.
These tragic shootings are the latest in a long list of deadly police shootings of Black, Latin@ and Asian people in New York over several decades. Similar to many other urban areas, the police in this city are viewed as a repressive, occupying force that follows up racial profiling with terror, especially in the working-class communities of color.
Police who carry out acts of brutality against people of color are very seldom brought up on felony charges, much less indicted. District attorneys put enormous pressure on grand juries to find some excuse to let the police off the hook.
Since the police are central to the criminal justice system, the laws are written to protect them and not the people victimized by them. In the case of the Nov. 25 shootings, the police involved have been put on administrative leave but are still on the payroll.
Black activists call for citywide protest
On Dec. 4, leaders of the Brooklyn-based December 12 Movement along with City Councilperson Charles Barron held a press conference at One Police Plaza, the headquarters of the NYPD. The main purpose of this event was to announce the first in a series of protests to “Resist Fascism and the Rise of the American Police State,” to be held Dec. 6 at One Police Plaza.
Attorney Roger Wareham from D12 stated that the protest had been planned for a month in response to increased complaints of police abuse. He characterized Bell’s death as an “execution.” The protest will demand the firing of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Assistant Police Chief Anthony J. Izzo, head of the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau.
Councilperson Barron spoke on how the city is running out of chances to stop an angry explosion of Black people, who are fed up with police brutality. Barron recalled the many Black people who have been killed by the cops but never received any kind of justice—that is, no police were sent to jail—including Eleanor Bumpurs, Malcolm Ferguson, Timothy Stansbury Jr., Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond.
Barron answered critics who stated that the shootings of Bell, Guzman and Benefield were not racially motivated because two of the cops involved were also Black. “The victims’ having Black skin makes the shootings racist. Race is alive and well in New York City,” he said.
He went on to say that just because certain Black people hold high positions, like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas or former NYPD Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward, doesn’t mean that institutionalized racism is over. Barron called for all grand juries that focus on police killings to be made public.
Viola Plummer, a leader of D12 and a former political prisoner, stated, “Unless the people take over the reins of power on a federal, state and local level, the fascistic nature of the state will not abate.” She also talked about how the so-called war on terror was just another excuse to target Muslims, Arabs and South Asians along with Black, Latin@, poor and working people.
Police repression and economic crisis
The Nov. 25 shootings not only impacted the lives of Bell, Guzman and Benefield and their families and friends but the larger Black community throughout every borough in New York.
Gentrification is deepening in Harlem and Brooklyn, driving out the poor to make room for the wealthy and affluent; unemployment and underemployment are intensifying poverty and despair, especially for young people, with the unemployment rate for young Black men in New York close to 50 percent; students of color are dropping out of school at astronomical rates while the police treat them like criminals; hospitals and clinics are closing their doors, especially in the poorest areas. It is no coincidence that police brutality and occupation have become even more omnipresent.
These deplorable conditions are part of the overall assault on workers’ rights, including low wages, disappearing pensions, little to no health care, speed-ups, layoffs, the demonizing of immigrant workers and much more.
The police exist as an armed force separate and apart from the people to keep order on behalf of the wealthy owners of industry, banking and commerce. Maintaining “order” means using all kinds of repressive measures to keep the masses down and divided.
Poverty, racism and suffering have sown the seeds of rebellion, as history has shown. The police and the class interests they protect fear the rebellions that are sure to come—whether they are in the oppressed communities or during a strike. This makes it even more important for working people and progressive movements to come out in solidarity with the oppressed communities to fight against police brutality wherever it rears its ugly head.
E-mail: mmoorehead@workers.org
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