A Black Man is Killed in the U.S. Every 28 Hours by Police
Credit: www.occupy.com
Police officers, security guards, or self-appointed
vigilantes extrajudicially killed at least 313 African-Americans
in 2012, according to a recent study. This means a black person was killed by a
security officer every 28 hours. The report notes that it's possible that the
real number could be much higher.
The report, entitled "Operation Ghetto Storm," was
conducted by the Malcolm X
Grassroots Movement, an antiracist grassroots activist organization. The
organization has chapters in Atlanta, Detroit, Fort Worth-Dallas,
Jackson, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland, and Washington, D.C. It has a history of
organizing campaigns against police brutality and state repression in black and
brown communities. Their study's sources included police and media reports
along with other publicly available information. Last year, the organization
published a similar study showing that a black person is killed
by security forces every 36 hours. However, this study did not tell the whole
story, as it only looked at shootings from January to June 2012. Their latest
study is an update of this.
Credit: www.occupy.com
These killings come on top of other forms of oppression
black people face. Mass incarceration of nonwhites is one of them. While African-Americans
constitute 13.1% of the nation's
population, they make up nearly 40% of the prison population. Even though
African-Americans use or sell drugs about the same rate as whites, they are 2.8
to 5.5 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than whites. Black offenders
also receive longer sentences compared to whites. Most
offenders are in prison for nonviolent drug offenses.
"Operation Ghetto Storm" explains why such
killings occur so often. Current practices of institutional racism have roots
in the enslavement of black Africans, whose labor was exploited to build the
American capitalist economy, and the genocide of Native Americans. The report
points out that in order to maintain the systems of racism, colonialism, and
capitalist exploitation, the United States maintains a network of
"repressive enforcement structures." These structures include the
police, FBI, Homeland Security, CIA, Secret Service, prisons, and private
security companies, along with mass surveillance and mass incarceration.
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is not the only group
challenging police violence against African-Americans. The Stop Mass
Incarceration Network has been challenging the policy of
stop-and-frisk in New York City, in which police officers randomly stop and
search individuals for weapons or contraband. African-American and Latino men
are disproportionately stopped and harassed by police officers. Most of those
stopped (close to 90%) are innocent, according
to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Stop Mass Incarceration also organizes
against the War on Drugs and inhumane treatment of prisoners. Read more >>
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