Some say the real issue in Ferguson isn't race, but the
militarization of the police. It is very much a matter of race, as well as the
expanding militarization of the domestic police force promoted by government
policy since 2001.
Just as majority-Black Detroit is a bellwether of broader
attacks on the U.S. working class, majority-Black Ferguson represents a
nationwide wake-up call of things to come, in cities and towns of all races and
nationalities. However, it is no accident that the rulers of a racist society
will test their weapons and policies on those most oppressed – people of color
and the poor, most often one and the same.
Police killings of unarmed civilians are nothing new, and
usually, if the victim is an African-American youth, there is no uproar – it is
business as usual. In 2012, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement released a study
revealing that every 28 hours a Black person in this country is the victim of
murder by police, security guards or vigilantes. USA Today reported last week
(based on FBI data) that two black people a week were killed by white police
from 2005 to 2012 and nearly one in five were under 21.
What is new is that the militarization of the domestic
police force, flying under the radar for decades, particularly since the “War on
Terror” was unleashed in 2001, was exposed to the world in the aftermath of the
brutal slaying of Ferguson teenager Michael Brown. Under the guise of “fighting
terrorism,” we now have a domestic police force that looks, thinks, and acts
more like an invading and occupying military than a community-based force to
protect the public.
The June ACLU report, entitled “War Comes Home: The
Excessive Militarization of American Policing,” documents this alarming trend.
The report summarized: “excessive militarism in policing, particularly through
the use of paramilitary policing teams, escalates the risk of violence,
threatens individual liberties, and unfairly impacts people of
color.”
This trend of militarization of the domestic police has
been deliberatively promoted by Homeland Security by giving away and selling
huge quantities of surplus weaponry to police forces in municipalities large and
small, regardless of “crime-fighting” justification. Towns that could not dream
of funding purchases of armored vehicles now have high tech military equipment,
and this ownership then encourages their use. As a result, we are seeing SWAT
teams indistinguishable from combat military units being used in routine drug
raids, sometimes resulting in the deaths of bystanders.
Images of armored vehicles, explosions and tear gas, and
police in riot gear with assault rifles, normal in U.S. wars abroad, are now
brought home. The artificial distinction between police and army is being
broken down and we are seeing what has been true all along: both serve the
interests of the corporate ruling elite as opposed to the people they ostensibly
are there to help. Further, the wars both abroad and at home make the war
industries and intelligence corporations very rich.
Initially justified for use in the “War on Drugs,” then the
border wars, and of course, to defend against “terrorism,” today we see the
overriding label of ‘Homeland Security” used as the backdrop for attacks on
Occupy encampments, demonstrators at the Democratic and Republican war parties’
national conventions, and expressions of outrage and horror when racist police
brutalize and murder defenseless people of color, as in Ferguson today. At the
same time, journalists of the so-called “free press” are also endangered and
stifled.
Wars abroad are fought over domination and energy
resources, while the war at home is used to quell dissent. This has been a
developing trend. Always available for use in communities of color, coordinated,
multi-city, military-style strategies and tactics were used to suppress the
Occupy Wall Street movement. U.S. surveillance drones, once (supposedly) used
exclusively overseas, are now showing up in U.S. cities. The widespread domestic
spying by the NSA was perfected by the military operating in Iraq. Barbaric
conditions in the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons are mirrored in the
practices of long-term solitary confinement and even outright torture employed
in many U.S. prisons, particularly the Super-Max and “Communications Management
Units.” There is no sacred firewall between domestic and foreign policy, and the
people of the United States, particularly the poor and oppressed, are
increasingly being treated as a hostile force to be controlled. The War on
Terror has come home to roost.
Just as the government prepares for possible war scenarios
overseas, it prepares for domestic unrest here at home. Washington is acutely
aware that one out of every seven people in this country now lives in poverty,
with the percentage much higher in Black and other communities of color. Youth
of all races are in despair over their economic futures and are increasingly
demanding change. Organized labor is again showing signs of militancy,
particularly those unions seeking to organize the most oppressed workers. The
Occupy movement popularized the understanding that a mere 1 percent of the
population controls so much wealth that it is also able to control the political
process. The anger over these underlying economic and social conditions can
explode into rebellion when sparked by blatant police abuse such as the public
execution of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
Whether aimed at spontaneous community rebellions or
organized protests, the development of a militarized police force is not simply
the result of the availability of some surplus military equipment. It is part of
a very conscious plan to control, repress and destroy an awakening working-class
consciousness, particularly among people of color.
Ferguson has also shown a spotlight on other connections
between domestic and foreign policy, in particular the parallels between
occupied Palestinians and the beleaguered population of Ferguson. Crowd- control
weapons used in both places are “made in the USA” and U.S. police personnel from
Ferguson and elsewhere receive “counter-terrorism” training in Israel. Gazans
have sent messages of solidarity to Ferguson, as well as practical advice on
defense against teargas and military might. One Palestinian sent a photo of
himself holding a sign that read, “The Palestinian people know what it means to
be shot while unarmed because of your ethnicity.” Protesters in Ferguson
reciprocated by carrying signs likening themselves to Gazans under siege and
chanting “Gaza Strip.”
Ongoing resistance is also a shared commonality. In an
August 20th column in Black Agenda Report, Glen Ford writes, “The
brave and besieged people of Ferguson, Missouri, have already caused serious
complications for the U.S. National Security State. By virtue of simply standing
their ground in their own small city, the demonstrators have forced the local,
county and state police to show their true, thoroughly militarized
colors."
What can be done? Marches and rallies around the country
must continue and demand an end to police militarization and the legalized human
rights abuses against millions of citizens.
There are groups
organizing to send people to Ferguson to show solidarity. Black Life Matters
(blacklifematters.org)
is organizing buses of Black supporters to go to Ferguson for actions scheduled
over Labor Day weekend. They are asking white allies and others who are not
able to travel to Ferguson to hold solidarity actions in their communities on
Sunday, August 31. Email blacklifematters@gmail.com for more
information.
Stand with the people of Ferguson to
demand:
Cops, state troopers and National Guard out of
Ferguson!
No to racist murders! Justice for Michael
Brown!
End police militarization!
8/23/14
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