To Proclaim Loudly

 

I don't know if there has ever been a time comparable to this one, where we are seeing people for who and what they really are. There's nowhere to hide anymore. You're either with God or you're with the devil and his legions. You either support children being stripped naked, having their hands tied behind their back, and executed or you don't. There's no middle ground. And whatever side a person is on has become abundantly clear to everyone around them. The masks are off.  --Mike Stone

To Proclaim Loudly

by C.A. Matthews

As the weeks turn into months, and the genocide in Gaza continues unabated, you really start to wonder: “Is it worth it? Is it worth protesting to a (mostly) uncaring audience that ethnic cleansing is wrong? Is it worth doing march after march after protest after protest after informational meeting after informational meeting when you’re essentially reaching the same folks (who were already pro-Palestinian) time and time again?”

It’s draining, and it’s frustrating, but what is the alternative? To give up? To stop caring about the plight of two million souls who are enduring the worse that humanity has to offer? And this isn’t the only place on Earth where people are being indiscriminately killed because of… Well, simply put, greed and prejudice. The Congo, Sudan, and Haiti come to mind. You can see the “why” of how Westerners can forget about the suffering of darker-skinned peoples. It’s not like the Western nations have never been racist against non-whites, but now the West has adopted the racism of Zionism as well. How open-minded of them!

Giving up on saving the lives of others will not save our lives, in case you’re leaning that way. If we stop caring for others, we will eventually stop caring for ourselves and our loved ones. You can’t just turn off the tap of compassion for one part of humanity and expect love to flow to the rest. It doesn’t work that way. Ask an addict. When you use chemicals to kill the pain and stop feeling those uncomfortable emotions, it doesn’t just stop the negative feelings. It shuts down all your feelings. And how can you love others when you’re not even loving yourself through the abuse of substances or engaging in destructive habits? Answer: You can’t.

The United States of Israel is one such addict.

The US has become addicted to greed itself. We hoard others’ natural resources such as land, fossil fuels, copper, cobalt, platinum, uranium… The list goes on ad infinitum. Our powers-that-be have perfected the use of racism and fear of others in their quest to steal others’ natural resources. They promote racism and fear of others in their divide and conquer tactics within our country. With all of us at each others’ throats, we will never have enough energy to go after those who are truly our enemies, the capitalists and their minions.

You don’t have enough to eat? It’s those people down the block or the country across the globe from yours who are “stealing your food.” Go fight them for it, but forget all about blaming the rich and powerful who control food distribution. Forget who are manufacturing the false narrative that your fellow workers are at fault. Somehow it’s never the fault of the wealthy who own everything. Remember you should never tax the “job creators” and make them pay their fair share of taxes… Trust the Trickle Down Theory implicitly! It will eventually trickle down some wealth to you and yours in perhaps three to four hundred years.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t expect to live that long.

The bottom line is we can’t give up. We can’t give up on the Palestinians, the Congolese, the Sudanese, the Haitians...or ourselves. To give up on any part of humanity is to give up on the whole of humanity.

To give up on humanity is to give up on any chance we have of turning the climate crisis around. It’s to give up on seeing your children or grandchildren grow up to take the reins away from the greedy and prejudiced powers-that-be who are currently screwing us and the planet over.

So, what can we do on days when all we can think about doing is throwing in the towel? On days when all we want to do is to stop caring so much about others because it hurts? On days when we could just walk away from this struggle called life and not miss it? There’s only one thing we can do: We have to give ourselves new marching orders.

We take it to the streets again. And again. Because...

We keep proclaiming the truth of what’s happening—loudly. We keep marching in protest parades even when threatened with mace, rubber bullets, tear gas or a night in jail. We keep sharing the truth of things even when others refuse to listen and shun us or shame us. We don’t need their approval, after all. Our consciences approve of us and our actions. And these stone-hearted fools really do need to hear us.

They really do understand there is a genocide happening in Gaza, but they’re afraid of us knowing that they do. They’re scared of acknowledging their part in perpetuating the official narrative that there is no genocide. They have become slaves of the corrupt system. In their fear they’ve locked themselves into the cycle of Zionist lies thinking they'll stay safe, not realizing that losing their souls is a prison worse than hell itself.

Poor pitiful things! This is where the “proclaim loudly” part comes in handy.

We simply don’t shut up. We don’t shut down. We keep repeating the reality of our messed up world over and over again because these sell-outs to the Zionist lie are both stupid and stubborn. But we can act pig-headed, too. With so many innocent lives at stake, why should we waste precious time playing their silly “Shut up, you’re hurting our feelings” game?

Saving lives, the planet, and our souls comes well before anyone-who-is-okay-with-babies’-faces-being-blown-off-by-US-provided-bombs’ “feelings”. These narcissists need a wake up call to reality, not our coddling. Let me put it bluntly: F*** the feelings of all greedy zionarcissists! It time for you to grow up and think of the welfare of others, you self-centered morons!

It's freeing when you give yourself permission to keep marching with heads and flags held high. And no, not the flags of the military-industrial complex lackeys, better known as the US and its NATO allies. We fly the flags of truth, liberty, revolution, freedom and peace for all humankind. Wave those flags proudly and raise a fist and shout loudly!
 

Let’s keep encouraging one another as the days drag along and it seems like there’s no end in sight to the bombing, shooting, starving, and suffering of innocents. It is our duty. We are their witnesses. We are their bringers of hope. We may even be their bringers of salvation in time. And we’d want them to do the same for us when our time of suffering comes.

Power to the people!

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Chris Hedges: Israel’s Willing Executioners
https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/13/chris-hedges-israels-willing-executioners/

Please Stop Saying Israel Is an “Ally” of the United States — It Is Not.  https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/please-stop-saying-israel-is-an-ally

Israel Orders Evacuation in Rafah, Hours After Raiding Al Jazeera Offices https://truthout.org/articles/israel-orders-evacuation-in-rafah-hours-after-raiding-al-jazeera-offices/

Police Brutality “Made in Israel” https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/police-brutality-made-in-israel

US Army Officer Resigns Over ‘Unqualified’ Support for Israeli Slaughter in Gaza  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/13/us-army- officer-resigns-over-unqualified-support-for-israeli-slaughter-in-gaza/

Jewish Biden Appointee Resigns from Interior Department Over Gaza Slaughter https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/16/jewish-biden-appointee-resigns-from-interior-department-over-gaza-slaughter/

The Genocide Case Against Israel Before the World Court Just Got Much Stronger https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/the-genocide-case-against-israel

Report: Israel Has Bombed Known Aid Worker Sites in Gaza at Least 8 Times  https://truthout.org/articles/report-israel-has-bombed-known-aid-worker-sites-in-gaza-at-least-8-times/

Biden’s Shifting ‘Red Line’ Allows Israel To Keep Getting Away With Murder https://popularresistance.org/bidens-shifting-red-line-allows-israel-to-keep-getting-away-with-murder/

Biden won't turn his back on Israel because he is just as fanatical as Netanyahu https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/biden-wont-turn-his-back-on-israel

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity https://www.nationofchange.org/2024/05/20/icc-prosecutor-seeks-arrest-warrants-for-netanyahu-and-hamas-leaders-for-war-crimes-and-crimes-against-humanity/

'Dark Times' As Renowned Israeli Historian Ilan Pappé Detained, Interrogated By FBI https://www.commondreams.org/news/ilan-pappe  https://mark192.substack.com/p/alert-dark-times-as-renowned-israeli

The Nakba: All you need to know explained in five maps and charts https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-nakba-ethnic-cleansing-explained-five-maps-charts

UCLA attackers exposed: meet the violent Zionist agitators LA police haven’t arrested https://thegrayzone.com/2024/05/13/ucla-attackers-exposed/

13% of 2020 Swing State Biden Voters Won’t Be in 2024 Because of Gaza: Polls https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/14/13-of-2020-swing-state-biden-voters-wont-be-in-2024-because-of-gaza-polls/

Booing of Israeli Singer Covered up by Eurovision https://rumble.com/v4uywkb-eurovision.html

The US Empire Deliberately Stokes Hatred And Violence In The Middle East https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-empire-deliberately-stokes

Orf vs. The Memory Hole: When Israel Bombed AP's Gaza Office https://censorednews.substack.com/p/orf-vs-the-memory-hole-when-israel 

 

Assange Wins Right to Appeal on 1st Amendment Issue https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/20/assange-wins-right-to-appeal-on-1a-issue/ 

 

Why You'll Never Achieve The American Dream https://youtu.be/vu7IJ-HDIos?si=zzYvS4vHxhy5C7Qk

 

“Unprecedented” – CO2 Rising 10 Times Faster Than Any Time in Recorded History https://scitechdaily.com/unprecedented-co2-rising-10-times-faster-than-any-time-in-recorded-history/ 

 

For those who think Biden is "soft" on immigration:  

"...The Biden Administration seeks to engage in the type of politically-motivated action that the Refugee Convention and 1980 Refugee Act sought to eliminate. For the above reasons, such action would violate the intent of Congress, our treaty obligations, and over two centuries of U.S. case law." Proposed Asylum Bar Regs Are At Odds With International Law (And Why That Matters)  https://www.jeffreyschase.com/blog/2024/5/16/proposed-asylum-bar-regs-at-odds-with-international-law-and-why-that-matters

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Why Are We Repeating History?

Why Are We Repeating History?  

by C. A. Matthews 

 

Happy Black History Month!

Last year, we spent several weeks in the month of February discussing various topics that are of particular interest to African-Americans—reparations, critical race theory, and what it must be like to be considered only 3/5 of a human being (according to the US Constitution). We were still reeling from the deaths of George Floyd and many others. The Afghan War was winding down about that same time, but the upcoming proxy war in Ukraine was winding up. I held out still some hope the war hawk rhetoric would die down and the Minsk Agreements would keep things peaceful.

One year later, we find ourselves in a world of déjà vu. Critical race theory is under violent attack by right-wing pundits, reparations are still seen as an impossible (or at least a far-off) goal, and the police are killing an average of three ordinary Americans every day, many of them persons of color. (See last week’s blog about some of the latest police caused deaths, Targets On Our Backs.) Hundred of thousands have been left homeless or slaughtered in grueling, needless warfare in Ukraine thanks to a determined lack of diplomacy and billions of dollars of American military-industrial complex weaponry.

The rich got richer. The poor and POC got shot at and beaten up by thugs wearing cop uniforms. Endless warfare for control of fossil fuels continues. The more things change... 

It is said, “History repeats itself,” but that statement isn’t an imperative. We don’t have to keep repeating ourselves, especially when the event is destructive and immoral. So much of American history is just that—destructive and immoral. I don’t pull punches anymore. There’s no use lying about the filthy propaganda US government officials spew forth from their mouths like volcanoes full of molten shit. There’s no use lying about our blood-soaked history of killing our own and others across the globe simply for the sake of lining the pockets of capitalists who desire ever more blood money.

We don’t need militarized police forces or killer cops—we need social services and Medicare for All. We don’t need to pretend any longer we’re doing anything except money laundering for Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrup Grumman, Boeing, etc., in a provoked proxy war in Ukraine to knock out Russia’s economy. And we certainly don’t need to pretend that we’re not gunning for another chance at starting World War III by antagonizing China this week over a lost weather balloon.

We’ve been here before. Déjà vu. History repeats itself. Things don’t change for the better for the vast majority of human beings.

I read a couple of articles this past week that opened my eyes and made me think of how history and the present are intertwined. The first article ran in the New Yorker online in July 2020. The Invention of the Police tells the story of what we understand as “police” from ancient times to the present day. We learn how the American system of policing is based upon military practices. The article is well worth the few minutes it takes to read (or listen to) to see how the destructive, immoral patterns we witness in our world today have their roots in a history not worth repeating. 

My argument in Targets On Our Backs about how the police in the US are based on the slave patrols is further buttressed with some interesting facts:

In eighteenth-century New York, a person held as a slave could not gather in a group of more than three; could not ride a horse; could not hold a funeral at night; could not be out an hour after sunset without a lantern; and could not sell “Indian corn, peaches, or any other fruit” in any street or market in the city. Stop and frisk, stop and whip, shoot to kill.

Then there were the slave patrols. Armed Spanish bands called hermandades had hunted runaways in Cuba beginning in the fifteen-thirties, a practice that was adopted by the English in Barbados a century later. It had a lot in common with England’s posse comitatus, a band of stout men that a county sheriff could summon to chase down an escaped criminal. South Carolina, founded by slave owners from Barbados, authorized its first slave patrol in 1702; Virginia followed in 1726, North Carolina in 1753. Slave patrols married the watch to the militia: serving on patrol was required of all able-bodied men (often, the patrol was mustered from the militia), and patrollers used the hue and cry to call for anyone within hearing distance to join the chase. Neither the watch nor the militia nor the patrols were “police,” who were French, and considered despotic. In North America, the French city of New Orleans was distinctive in having la police: armed City Guards, who wore military-style uniforms and received wages, an urban slave patrol. (…)

It is also often said that modern American urban policing began in 1838, when the Massachusetts legislature authorized the hiring of police officers in Boston. This, too, ignores the role of slavery in the history of the police. In 1829, a Black abolitionist in Boston named David Walker published “An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World,” calling for violent rebellion: “One good black man can put to death six white men.” Walker was found dead within the year, and Boston thereafter had a series of mob attacks against abolitionists, including an attempt to lynch William Lloyd Garrison, the publisher of The Liberator, in 1835. Walker’s words terrified Southern slave owners. The governor of North Carolina wrote to his state’s senators, “I beg you will lay this matter before the police of your town and invite their prompt attention to the necessity of arresting the circulation of the book.” By “police,” he meant slave patrols: in response to Walker’s “Appeal,” North Carolina formed a statewide “patrol committee.” —Jill Lepore, The Invention of the Police

Eye-opening and thought provoking, isn’t it? What we’ve tricked ourselves into believing—that all police officers are the handsome cops on Law and Order or diligent Detective Joe Friday in the TV series Dragnet—is completely false. We do have an excuse. We’ve been taught to believe these lies all our lives through the clever use of novels and television/movie dramas which paint the police in strictly heroic and positive terms. If there’s ever a racist cop or a crooked cop or a super-violent cop portrayed in fiction, they’re almost always seen as the exception, never the rule.

Jill Lepore’s article demonstrates how destructive this “copaganda” (cop propaganda) truly is. When an organization is based upon protecting the property (that is, enslaved persons) and tasked with maintaining the safety of the ruling elites (that is, to prevent slave uprisings), it will always be a corrupt and violent organization. Poor and powerless persons will undoubtedly suffer and die from this organization’s practices. It’s what our true masters—the super-rich oligarchs—demand of their policing agencies.

A corrupt, violent organization must hire and train only those who are willing to do the job they’ve been tasked with, which is to keep us the poor and struggling workers, persons of color, and unwanted immigrants in their proper place, planted firmly beneath the heels of the ruling capitalist elite.

Are you starting to see why history should never be allowed to repeat itself in regards to the police? The time of rounding up “property” in order to keep the capitalist class safe and wealthy is over. At least, it should be.

Even very recent history should never be repeated. This is noted well in Caitlin Johnstone’s article US Surrounds China With War Machinery While Freaking Out About Balloons:

So everyone's losing their minds over a balloon that in all probability would be mostly worthless for spying, even while everyone knows the US spies on China at every possible opportunity. US officials have complained to the press that American spies are having a much harder time conducting operations and recruiting assets in China than they used to because of measures the Chinese government has taken to thwart them, and in 2001 a US spy plane caused a major international incident when it collided with a Chinese military jet on China's coastline, killing the pilot.

The US considers it its sovereign right to spy on any nation it chooses, and the average American tends more or less to see it the same way. This is highlighted in controversies around domestic versus foreign surveillance, for example; Americans were outraged over the Edward Snowden revelations not because spy agencies were conducting surveillance, but because they were conducting surveillance on American citizens. It's just taken as a given that spying on foreigners is fine, so it's a bit silly to react melodramatically when foreigners return the favor.

But, of course, the US is acting melodramatically over a lost weather balloon. They are attempting to provoke the Chinese into a “shoot first” situation, such as they did to Russia in February 2022 when, under the auspices of the NATO, they completely forgot about the Minsk Agreements and armed Ukraine to fight a proxy war. Yet again we are all living under the imminent threat of nuclear war.

We’ve been here before. Déjà vu. History repeats itself. Things don’t change for the better for anybody.

Why are we repeating history like this on a yearly basis? Isn’t the military-industrial complex making enough money from armaments sales? Arms manufacturers' stock prices have skyrocketed on Wall Street. The idea that the US/NATO bloc can take on two nuclear powers at the same time is utterly insane. But here we are again, repeating history, attempting to provoke another super-power, while simultaneously riling up the American public’s emotions with over-the-top propaganda about a lost weather balloon. 

For example, my husband turned on ABC News Friday night. We rarely, if ever, watch mainstream media outlets, and he’d turned off the sound, but I noticed the first story was about the lost weather balloon. I went into the kitchen and a few minutes later I came back and noticed that the same video clip of the weather balloon was still plastered on the screen. I turned on the sound and heard nothing but hysterical “The Chinese are invading!” commentary. I promptly hit the mute button. Five minutes later, the weather balloon was still on the screen and “experts” were all screaming about how this lost weather balloon means war. ABC spent the entirety of its half hour newscast spewing inflammatory nonsense, probably at the behest of the Biden Administration. War propaganda bears repeating, apparently.

All Americans can learn something from celebrating Black History Month. That feeling of “We’ve been here before. Déjà vu. History repeats itself. Things don’t change for the better for the vast majority of human beings,” is real. It proves that our gut feeling is correct. The ruling elite will do whatever it takes to get the results they want. 

If the elite want to keep their enslaved workers from running away, they’ll equip and arm a slave patrol. If they want to corner the LNG market in Europe, make huge profits from selling arms, and destroy Russia’s and possibly China’s economies, they’ll rev up the propaganda machine of the mainstream media (90% of which are owned by just six corporations) to create the necessity for a war in order to do so.  

The US is still the only industrialized country on Earth without a single-payer (Medicare For All) health care system, free education pre-K through college, and a Universal Basic Income because these programs have been deemed unnecessary by our masters. We breath polluted air, drink water full of plastic particles, and eat cheap processed food infused with high fructose corn syrup because its all we can afford. If we should ever act out because of these injustices and protest, the elite's "slave patrols" stand ready to put us back into our place, swiftly and violently, if they deem necessary. 

Whatever the ruling capitalist elite want they will have it. They will have their way, and they won’t lose any sleep over how many are starved, killed, or maimed in the process. You can be sure about that, as history repeats itself.

Happy Black History Month, America. Our sordid history doesn't need to keep repeating itself. Abolitionist David Walker had the right idea for a rebellion, don’t you think? Watch out for those slave patrols.

 

Related Links:

Teach Black History--Don't Ban It https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/04/teach-black-history-dont-ban-it/ 

New Advanced Placement African American Studies Course is Watered Down Version of Itself  https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/03/new-advanced-placement-african-american-studies-course-is-watered-down-version-of-itself/

The Invention of the Police https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police

US Surrounds China with War Machinery While Freaking Out About Balloons  https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/03/caitlin-johnstone-us-surrounds-china-with-war-machinery-while-freaking-out-about-balloons/ 

The Pentagon's Balloon Floats On  https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/05/patrick-lawrence-the-pentagons-balloon-floats-on/ 

Chris Hedges: WikiLeaks Exposed the Extent of US Meddling Abroad and Corruption at Home. Why Have We Forgotten It? https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/04/chris-hedges-wikileaks-exposed-the-extent-of-us-meddling-abroad-and-corruption-at-home-why-have-we-forgotten-it/ 

 

Nuclear War Imminent? https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/03/nuclear-war-imminent/ 

 

More Evidence That The West Sabotaged Peace In Ukraine

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/more-evidence-that-the-west-sabotaged 

 

How the US Instigated the Ukraine Crisis https://popularresistance.org/how-the-us-instigated-the-ukraine-crisis/

 

Uncomfortable Truths: Critical Race Theory https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/02/uncomfortable-truths-critical-race.html

Why Not Reparations? https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/02/why-not-reparations.html

 

What's It Like to Be 3/5 of a Person? https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/02/whats-it-like-to-be-35-of-person.html

 

Targets On Our Backs https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/01/targets-on-our-backs.html

 

Do the Police Have an Obligation to Protect You? https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/do-the-police-have-an-obligation-to-protect-you/

 

Quote of the week:

Ask an empire apologist to show you how China is aggressing against the US and they'll start babbling about TikTok and balloons. --Caitlin Johnstone

 

 

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Targets On Our Backs

Targets On Our Backs

by C. A. Matthews 

 

Five cops brutally beat and killed a young black man named Tyre Nichols in Memphis after a routine traffic stop. A large contingent of police shot and killed a climate activist, Manuel Teran, while he camped in the Weelaunee Forest (a.k.a. “Cop City”) in Atlanta. In Florida, officers handcuffed Jose Ortega Guiterrez, a homeless man not charged with any crime, then took him to an isolated location and beat him until he was unconscious. These recent incidents have made it readily apparent that ordinary Americans are walking around with targets on their backs.

“To protect and serve” is a slogan painted on many cities’ cop cars. But who are the police really “protecting” when they are, in fact, beating and shooting just as many people as the so-called criminals are doing? Who are these cops “serving” when they take an innocent life or destroy their victim's health by beating him into unconsciousness simply for being homeless? 

We’re on a record pace this year for mass shootings already. Did we really have to add to this shameful total, officers?

Don’t worry—there won’t be any cuts in funding or manpower at your local police department anytime soon. In fact, we might actually witness yet another round of increases in police budgets. Mayors and police chiefs will explain their reasoning for these increases in these words, more or less: “We just have to give our officers more weapons, more riot gear, more lethal fire power because… It’s dangerous out there.” 

It sure is. It’s dangerous to be a young black man driving a car. It's dangerous being a homeless person on the street. It’s dangerous to be a climate activist who is expressing his opinion that a forest shouldn’t be chopped down and destroyed for the sake of building a police training center to teach even more killers in uniform to kill even more of us for the sake of… protection and service? 

You would think after the horrible death toll of students and teachers in Ulvade, Texas, not that long ago that most Americans would have caught on to the truth of the matter. Many of us sat horrified as we observed the lack of concern the school police officer displayed while a shooter roamed the halls of the elementary school. We should have known better. That cowardly cop was acting completely in character. 

The police in the United States of America aren’t tasked with protecting you or your loved ones from harm. They’re tasked with protecting the property of the wealthy and powerful. They’re tasked to serve those with wealth and power. Working class kids in small town Texas aren’t all that wealthy or powerful now, are they?

That’s why the police in the US carry guns—and aren’t afraid to use them usually. Their rich masters expect them to keep poor folks away from their expensive material possessions and off their exclusive property. The upper classes expect the working classes to respect their authority and to defer to their taxpayer-provided bodyguards. 

In contrast, police officers in many countries don’t even carry firearms while performing everyday traffic control stops or safety patrols of neighborhoods. It's possible these cops view their citizens as actual human beings worthy of protection and service and not as targets. You never know. 

There's also one big difference that's never mentioned by mainstream media pundits when trying to explain away American police brutality. Police in other countries have never been tasked with returning runaway slaves to their masters, dead or alive, like the officers of the Slave Patrols once did. The US police system is based upon the Slave Patrols and slave catching. It's not based on protecting and serving the public as a whole. American policing is all about protecting and returning property (read: "slaves") to their owners. 

That bit of history might explain why ordinary Americans are often seen as bullseyes and not as human beings. The only human beings who count in the eyes of American law enforcers are those who can afford to keep slaves. Police forces who do a good job protecting the property of the wealthy are usually well-paid for their service, too. This payment goes beyond mere salaries and health benefits. It includes such things as "qualified immunity" or getting away with murder simply because a person is wearing a cop uniform with a shiny badge on his or her chest.

What’s the solution to this dilemma? If the solution to ordinary people shooting each other on a regular basis is to institute some kind of gun control, then the same solution could be applied to the trigger-happy, violent cops. Take away their guns. 

I'm serious. If British "Bobbies" can survive their shifts without a firearm at their side, then why can't American cops?

I mean, who needs an AR-15? Nobody—and I mean nobody. It’s a firearm for killing people as quickly and efficiently as possible. A deer hunter doesn’t need an AR-15. A police officer certainly doesn’t need one. And I’ll go out on a limb here and say even a soldier doesn’t need a weapon that is capable of mowing down hundreds of human beings in a matter of minutes. 

Nobody should have the right to kill or injure anybody with handguns, rifles, semi-automatics, automatics, knives, tasers, batons, or with their bare fists, knees, boots, or whatever object they may have on them at the time. Nobody. 

American taxpayers shouldn't be forced to furnish police forces with military-grade killing machines that could be used against them later. Our communities need more mental health care workers and social workers to go out on calls whenever a person is experiencing a crisis such as homelessness. We need peacemakers to deal with activists/protesters, not trained killers.

We must hire more people who can provide quality mental health care and defuse tense situations between ordinary people. No one has ever been killed by a person carrying a clipboard and speaking in a calm and reassuring manner to all parties. (At least, I hope not.)

Our tax dollars should be poured into fixing our neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and healthcare facilities (and not into the hands of private health insurance corporations who profit from our suffering). We need to spend more on housing those who are homeless and focus our energy into preventing others from becoming homeless because of the greed of landlords. 

We certainly don’t need to keep pouring our money and resources into endless wars to kill even more people overseas. Everybody on Earth deserves to live in peace and relative prosperity. We must learn to act like good neighbors, not bullies. 

We the People need to take the targets off our backs and place them where they belong—on the backs of the sociopathic billionaire capitalists. After all, they’re the ones causing all the trouble. We the People shouldn’t been seen as practice targets by their bodyguards in blue any longer. We must stand up to these injustices and speak out against all levels of government constantly raising police funding and adding lethal weapons to their arsenals. 

If we don't, the next victim of a police killing or beating may be one of your loved ones. Or it could be you. Why take that chance? #DefundThePolice #DemilitarizeThePolice #AbolishThePolice

More insight into the police murder of Tyre Nichols:

From The Class Issues in the Police Killing of Tyre Nichols https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/01/28/ucde-j28.htm

So far this year, at least 79 people have been killed, according to a tracker maintained by the Washington Post. At this pace, roughly three killings a day, 2023 will meet or top the 2022 toll of more than 1,100 people killed by police officers in the US. (…) 

Police violence, like every other social evil under capitalism, is fundamentally a class question. There are more white people killed by police in the US than blacks or Hispanics, although blacks and Hispanics are killed in numbers disproportionate to their percentage of the population. Racism plays a part, but a part secondary to social class. The police are recruited from more backward layers of the population, and police departments are known to be riddled with fascistic and white supremacist elements, including many veterans of US imperialist wars around the world.

What the overwhelming majority of victims of police violence and murder have in common is that they are part of the working class. Racism is itself an ideological and political weapon long employed by the capitalist class to divide the working class, in accordance with the strategy of “divide and rule.”

Racialist politics buttress this ruling class strategy. Memphis is a clear example. The second largest city in Tennessee has a population of 635,000, over 65 percent of which identifies as African-American. Roughly 56 percent of the police likewise identify as African-American, including female police chief Cerelyn Davis. Within four months of being sworn in as police chief on June 14, 2021, Davis created the Scorpion unit, which has become notorious for its brutal and repressive methods.

More insight into the police ambush of the Atlanta Forest Defenders:

From NLG Statement In Solidarity With Atlanta Forest Defenders https://popularresistance.org/nlg-statement-in-solidarity-with-atlanta-forest-defenders/

National Lawyer Guild National joins our Atlanta and University of Georgia Chapters and comrades in mourning the devastating loss of a beloved community member. Tortuguita was a kind, passionate, and caring activist, who coordinated mutual aid and served as a trained medic. The Atlanta Community Press Collective is compiling memories and accounts of their life, and we encourage everyone to honor and remember Tortuguita through the words of those who love them.

As radical movement legal activists, NLG recognizes that this horrific murder and the related arrests are part of a nationwide attack on protesters, land defenders, and marginalized folks, especially Black, Indigenous, and other activists of color. Labeling these demonstrators “domestic terrorists” is a harrowing repetition of No DAPL activist Jessica Reznicek’s terrorist enhancement last year, and both are clear indicators that the people in power view protesters and environmental activists as enemies of the state.

Related Articles:

Five Memphis Cops Arrested and Charged with the Murder of Tyre Nichols https://popularresistance.org/five-memphis-cops-arrested-and-charged-with-the-murder-of-tyre-nichols/ 

Memphis Police Shutter SCORPION Unit, Activists Say That’s Not Enough  https://truthout.org/articles/memphis-police-shutter-scorpion-unit-activists-say-thats-not-enough 

 

Movement to Stop Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ Calls for Support After Police Kill Forest Defender https://scheerpost.com/2023/01/26/movement-to-stop-atlantas-cop-city-calls-for-support-after-police-kill-forest-defender/ 

 

NLG Statement In Solidarity With Atlanta Forest Defenders

 https://popularresistance.org/nlg-statement-in-solidarity-with-atlanta-forest-defenders/

 

The Class Issues in the Police Killing of Tyre Nichols https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/01/28/ucde-j28.htm

Tyre Nichols' brutal killing proves America's addiction to specialized police units has to end (video) https://youtu.be/TrLtpGO8UY0

 

How White Supremacy Murdered Tyre Nichols (video)

https://youtu.be/0CKSh39tT-s  

 

Florida Officers Charged with Battery After Allegedly Beating Homeless Man https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/29/florida-officers-kidnap-assault-homeless-man

 

Hialeah Officer Accused of Kidnapping, Beating Homeless Man Denied Bond  https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/2-hialeah-police-officers-accused-of-kidnapping-and-beating-homeless-man/2959166/

  

With Whom are Many U.S. Police Departments Training? With a Chronic Human Rights Violator – Israel 

https://www.amnestyusa.org/with-whom-are-many-u-s-police-departments-training-with-a-chronic-human-rights-violator-israel

The Crackdown on Cop City Protesters Is So Brutal Because of the Movement’s Success https://theintercept.com/2023/01/27/cop-city-atlanta-forest/

 

Ulvade Police Didn't Move to Save Lives Because that's Not What Police Do  https://www.rsn.org/001/uvalde-police-didnt-move-to-save-lives-because-thats-not-what-police-do.html

 

All Guns Are B*stards https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/05/all-guns-are-bstards.html 

Seen on Twitter:

The police killings of Tyre Nichols and climate activist Manuel Teran are deeply connected. Both derive from the same culture of police brutality in the US that has its origin in slave patrols.

It is a system designed to protect power and terrorize those who challenge it. pic.twitter.com/heqKEY2LJf

— Steven Donziger (@SDonziger) January 28, 2023

Again, the USA police are not here to protect you. They are here to protect the 1% elite FROM you.

— Jory Micah (@jorymicah) January 28, 2023

White politicians like Biden always use terms like “heartbroken” in regards to their feelings on police violence instead of anger or rage. They dont want any structural change. They act as if police killings are a sad inevitibility.

— Joel Margulies (@jmarg25) January 28, 2023

Statistically, at least 3 people will be murdered by an American police officer today.

— 🅹🅾️🅴🆈աrecκ ☭ (@joeywreck) January 30, 2023