HANDS UP! DON'T SHOOT!

It has been nearly 50 years since Dr. Huey P. Newton and Professor Bobby Seale (Emeritus) drafted the 10 Platform and Program. The program spells out a cogent demand for employment, decent healthcare, shelter and other objectives that rob African-Americans of the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." While these and other points were the essence of the program, Seale and Newton chose to demonstrate the point that would carry the most impact with the community: Point#7. Point number 7 demanded an IMMEDIATE end to police brutality and murder of Black people. In order to dramatize this point, they initiated armed police patrols complete with LAW BOOKS and tape recorders. They would drive to the center of police stops and where they saw police detaining and often beating someone, they would jump out, weapons in tow, and recite the requisite law to inform the community of their constitutional rights.  At that time, California law allowed a person to carry a weapon as long as it was not concealed. Conservatives would later change this law under the Mulford Act, which was also known as the "Panther Bill."

Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, Oakland, 1966

Fast forward 50 years later, the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castille, and the shooting of an unarmed behavioral therapist by the Miami Police Department illustrate that Point#7 has remained an un-achievable objective in the black community. Using their criminal records and a kind of mass hypnosis with blatant evidence of misconduct, the police departments have completely obscured the events surrounding the shooting of these men. Media coverage, under the guise of reporting the events, has had the effect of providing different interpretations of the same events. The result is a massive racial divide that increases the hysteria. Whether the coverage is simply exposing the latent bigotry of white society or promoting division, is a question that has yet to be definitively answered. What is conclusive, however, is that all persons were deprived of their 5th and 14th Amendment Rights under the U.S. Constitution. The evidence of which, is that the municipalities where these shootings took place are already beginning, and in some cases, paying the families substantial settlements to prevent a lawsuit. Settlement funds that come from where? That's right! The U.S. Tax-payer. In an ironic kind of poetic justice, the collective society must bear the burden for the hideous stain of racial bigotry through their pocket books. Undoubtedly, many will fail to realize this since it will lead to scape-goating of Black people once again as outlaws and evil doers that are the source of these fiscal woes. It will also cover the graft and corruption of police unions and officials who will use the payment of these settlements to hide their theft.

This system is not sustainable in any real sense for ANYONE. Therefore, a different one must be imposed on the established order. But the question is where? An effective place to start would be the COMMUNITY CONTROLLED Review Boards. These boards would be formed in the community and maintained by retired law enforcement officers in the community. They would control the disciplinary proceedings and the firings in cases such as these. Such review boards would present a direct challenge to the control of unions like the F.O.P. This is a necessity because this is where the true power of the police departments lie. Until that power is decentralized, no practical changes will occur. Secondly, a war chest must be raised to protect the whistle-blowers who film these shootings. Access to attorneys and bail procedures would prevent the repression of these individuals that is as predictable as night-fall. And finally, we must begin to make full us of recall referendums in local offices like Police Chief, City Commissioners, Mayors, County Sheriff and local representatives. 

While these shooting may be a question of race, Point#7 is a question of power. As such, it is the only sure way to stop continued police brutality and wanton murder of innocent people; short of all out war. These strategies under the guise of Point#7 provide a check against entrenched power and thereby, bring meaningful solutions to these problems; since they will require the police to screen officers a bit more carefully before giving them a badge and a gun.  As Marcus Garvey once noted, "the only protection against injustice is power." That power must be brought to bear to stop the ever increasing power of an impending police state and to resuscitate the dying republic. Until next time, this is the RED HORNET signing out.