police brutality statement

Brutality at the Hands of the Police in Philadelphia and More...

Black People have undeniably been brutalized in their own communities in Philadelphia at the hands of police officers acting in a criminal manner.  There have been books written about the MOVE confrontations, for example, [I will list some of them at the end of this article], and ALL of us who are Black and older remember how the police actually stripped the Black Panthers in Philadelphia to humiliate, embarrass and dehumanize them right in front of the cameras for the Daily News.  If you go back into the archives of the Philadelphia Daily News you can probably still find the pictures.  But there have been individual cases of out and out police brutality in more recent years as well.  I remember going to a rally right in North Philadelphia for a Black male youth who was murdered in cold blood by police officers in Philadelphia....

There is a deep feeling in me, at the same time, that wants to bring some balance, fairness and equality to this issue.  Many Black people and Black Grass-Roots political activists have made police brutality a Hot Button issue to rally support for not only that issue but other issues as well.  I totally understand this and understand the frustrations of the Black activists whose job it is to bring together the community for a particular seminar or teach-in, but find a community asleep and unwilling to come out because ``the game is on,'' or ``we ain't serving no food'' or ``that's dem radicals--I don't necessarily agree with those radical views of theirs.''  I don't like to be blunt, but we need to do more listening to WURD and Michael Coard and listen Up when He has Pam Africa or Ramona Africa on talking about Mumia Abu Jamal. [I have only followed the Mumia case in a light manner because I feel He should be retried--not set free. Amnesty International also feels this Way...  I feel it is when He is re-tried that, it will release to public information the totally rotten core of our political system and how it needs to be dramatically overhauled.  If Mumia is freed this Will NOT happen.  At the same time, I do agree that it is a political travesty and a sorry state of affairs that He is still in jail.]

I have some thoughts to share that are more in line with some other thinking that is also widely held in the Black community about the Philadelphia police.  I feel, for example, that the Three officers who have had murals depicting them placed on the Wall at Broad and Compost [not far from Broad and Olney] in North Philadelphia because they were killed, I feel this is a shame and something We as Black people should NOT feel proud of.  I haven't done the research, but some of those officers were killed by Black people.  But it doesn't only matter that they were killed by Black people who may or may not have been found guilty.  They are humans and as such their lives should NOT have been taken, just like the lives of ALL of the victims of crime in our community should not have been taken, or those among us who are beaten, raped, robbed, or otherwise criminalized, should NOT have been so victimized either.

That Wall has an impact on me.  It haunts me when I pass by and I have two friends who live near there so I'm near there sometimes to visit them. There are a host of issues that come to mind here.  First of ALL: there are just too many hand guns in our community.  Interestingly our so-called Black President only took up the issue of hand guns--if I'm not mistaken—as he lobbied Congress after the fatal incident of mostly White little children at Sandy Hook Connecticut being injured. We need a lot of help in getting those hand guns off the street.  But there are other systemic problems that I don't think were even addressed by the President and some others concerning the inner city crime that is taking place in our neighborhoods across the country. Not at least by the President in the manner he should be talking about it.  Jobs are a real and present deterrent to criminal behavior.  It has been scientifically proven that if the Brother down the street has a good job at a good wage, He is less likely to rob His Brothers and Sisters who live up the street and around the Way. Mo Later....