Driving while Black is not a crime!
On July 10, Sandra Bland drove through Waller County, Texas, a hotbed for police cruelty and the KKK. An officer pulled her over for allegedly failing to signal. According to police, Bland assaulted the officer, although an eyewitness states the exact opposite. The dashcam video shows the officer out of control, threatening to “light you up” with his taser and causing her to scream in pain. Bland wound up in a jail cell, and died several days later. Police claim it was suicide. Family and friends and the mass, know better. Sandra Bland was a Black activist in Chicago, she had frequent contact with racist injustice, and had gained recognition as an outspoken member of the Black Lives Matter movement.
On July 19, Samuel Dubose was driving in Cincinnati, Ohio when he was pulled over by university police for a missing front license plate. Tensing claimed that Dubose dragged him and he was forced to defend himself but Tensing’s own bodycam footage reveals an outright execution as Dubose was shot in the head at close range.
State terror must end!
The deaths of Sandra Bland in Texas and of Samuel Dubose in Ohio are two of the latest examples of state terror exercised against unarmed and innocent Black people. Minor infractions have been used as an excuse to harass and terrorize the Black community dating back to the post-Reconstruction era. Black people have seen time and again that police custody, even during the short duration of a traffic stop, can mean a death sentence. The criminalization of an entire community has led to law enforcement justification for a genocidal campaign to silence Black people and especially the youth. This is yet another expression of white supremacist terror that has been engrained into the institutions of the entire criminal justice system.
ANSWER stands in opposition to all police killings and demands that all people be treated fairly in the eyes of the law. This is a simple civil right that was supposed to have been won long ago. However, we still find ourselves confronting racial terror because these laws on the books mean little to the fascists on the ground who retain their racist beliefs and many of their practices, although under different names.
March at Ground Zero of fight against gentrification
On July 31 the people of Sacramento gathered at McClatchy Park in the historic Oak Park district famous for being the site of an intense shootout between the police and Black Panthers decades ago. As the area currently faces intense gentrification, the police presence has taken a different face. Unlike the other historically African American neighborhoods in Sacramento, because of the influx of young, often white, professionals and students, there has been an effort by the city to present Oak Park as “under control” in order to attract further investment.
In reality, there are not fewer police, but they are less visible. As we rallied and heard speeches from community members, off in the distance in any direction could be seen undercover cop cars. These would remain visible as the people took to the street and marched up 35th St to Broadway where the speakout was held.
All in attendance agreed that the time had come for a change both in Sacramento and throughout the nation. Police brutality has reached such a point that it can no longer be ignored, and small fixes will not do the job.
