[“Speaking Truth To Empower”]
Benjamin: “Memo to the mayor, since he may be suffering from clinical amnesia: police abuse and murder Black people, not the other way around. Black people endure levels of abuse and violence from police that no other group is subjected too.”
Photo: YouTube
One of “New York’s finest” Officer Francisco Garcia doing what they do best: brutalize Black people.
As we witnessed recently, unchecked police brutality—on Black citizenry—by NYPD officers continues even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In two current New York cases, over the last week, we’ve seen incidents of the ingrained institutional nature of racism in American policing. In one case, a criminal cop is videotaped beating up an innocent Black man—before engaging in a false arrest. In another, we see a Black man being pounded on sidewalk pavement by police—while one officer threatens an onlooker with an unlawful arrest.
Black Americans cannot continue to be patient and longsuffering while these police goons brutalize and kill us, as politicians and prosecutors do nothing. It’s time to stand up strong not only to violent police but to their enablers in the political and so-called “legal” establishment.
COVID-19 has exposed many aspects of American racism that is killing our people. But we know America criminal’s justice system has always been about criminalizing Black people because its foundations are cemented in bigotry and oppression.
Given this reality, Black people can’t just sit by and expect compromised political leaders to get justice for us. We must get really serious about seizing justice for ourselves. A more united front of solidarity must be established by all Black people in America.
Last Saturday, Donni Wright, a groundskeeper with NYCHA, was the victim of an unprovoked attack by NYPD plainclothes Officer Francisco Garcia. In a viral video, the thuggish Garcia is clearly seen charging Wright, before he proceeds to assault him by slapping, punching, and throwing Wright to the ground. He punches Wright while he is on the ground, before he shoves his knee in Wright’s neck. He then sits on Wright’s arms and head.
Because of the viral nature of the video, we got the same lame “unacceptable” empty rhetoric we always hear from politicians like Mayor Bill de Blasio. Yet, the brutality Black people suffer from crooked cops doesn’t stop. These politicians are aiders-and-abettors of police aggression against Black America.
Imagine, nearly a week after assaulting Wright, this thug cop, Garcia, remains employed in the NYPD. Officer Garcia, reportedly, has at least 7 civil suits against him and has reportedly cost New York City taxpayers more than $200,000. What does this tell us about how police and politicians protect criminal cops who oppress Black people?
In a May 3rd incident, in Cypress Hill, Officer Michael Amello is seen punching 21-year-old Stephon Scott in the face, as he is lying face down on the ground. Amello then proceeds to threaten protesting bystanders with arrest.
Police claim Scott wasn’t social distancing, and that Scott allegedly tried to hop into a police cruiser, and punched an officer in the arm. Thank God these morons aren’t good liars. They continue to undermine their own credibility and expose their habit of lying and falsifying.
Were supposed to believe Scott tried to jump into a police car in this scenario? And punch an officer in the arm?
Officer Amello threatens to arrest one of the bystanders saying, “What are you looking at? do you want to go with your friend?” So, Black people can now be threatened with arrest for looking at police?
One person, witnessing the tyrannical behavior of these terrorist cops, asks on what charge. The reply? “For not wearing a mask.” Yet, one of the brethren of this Klan cop is seen wearing nothing at all. Amello, and the other NYPD thugs, eventually arrest one of the people filming them.
Current Police Commissioner Dermot Shea was as dishonest and disingenuous as he could be in his comments on this incident.
In response to a question, Shea said: “A punch should not be assumed to be excessive force. It should be examined in the totality of the circumstances. A punch is something that we actually train for in the police academy. It is a part of the level of escalation that begins with discussion, begins with de-escalation, and it progresses up from there.”
Did Commissioner Shea see the video for this incident and consider the “totality of the circumstances?” Did he not see Scott receiving punches to the head, by Officer Amello, while he was lying face down, and being held by three officers? Is punching someone in this manner “de-escalation” by NYPD standards?
Apparently, Shea is telling us punching non-resistant Black people while they lay face down is what police are taught at the police academy.
In a typically weak statement, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “I want to remind everyone, it’s a two-way street. Respect goes both ways. People are not ever allowed to use physical force against an NYPD officer, that’s just not something that can happen in this city.”
What the hell is Mayor de Blasio talking about?
Is he saying Black people are treated with respect by the NYPD? Is punching someone while they lay face down the proper respectful conduct for cops? Is threatening Black bystanders with arrest because they’re protesting ruffian behavior by police showing respect? Is this how the NYPD follows its hollow mantra of courtesy, respect, and professionalism?
Mayor de Blasio gives credence to the NYPD narrative that Scott, supposedly, punched an officer in the arm. We’re supposed to believe these serial abusing liars in the NYPD?
After Officer Garcia assaulted Wright, the NYPD said Wright “took a fighting stance.” Somehow, this lie was supposed to justify Garcia charging Wright and assaulting him. The Mayor’s own tweeted statement, then, was at odds with the NYPD statement. But de Blasio acts as if the NYPD narrative on Scott’s assault should be accepted at face value.
Mayor de Blasio also says, “People are not ever allowed to use physical force against an NYPD officer.”
Memo to the mayor, since he may be suffering from clinical amnesia: police abuse and murder Black people, not the other way around. Black people endure levels of abuse and violence from police that no other group in America is subjected too.
Another insinuation we should reject here is this notion Blacks should just always allow criminal cops to unjustly brutalize them beyond perpetuity. That message is offensive.
Here is the truth: Black Americans, in New York and elsewhere, have been non-violent while cops have been brutalizing us and taking our lives. And for decades, politicians, like de Blasio, have only given us empty words and broken promises. In the meantime, Black bloodletting by the violent hands of police continues.
How long do politicians think this will continue before Black people finally get really violently fed up? Do they think younger generations are going to continue to accept the police brutality that has been meted on Black America for centuries?
No white group in America would allow their people to be regularly ritually brutalized and killed, by anyone. The lives of police aren’t more valuable than the lives of the Black people they murder. But we have politicians, including Black ones, telling Black people just to be passive, and presumably, pray they aren’t murdered by some homicidal racist Klan, or “Ghost Skin” cop.
Mayor de Blasio should be addressing the systemic brutality of his NYPD instead of trying to make it seem as if there is somehow blame on both sides between Black America and the racist institution of policing. The NYPD, and police departments across America, violently target Black people because of American racism. Period.
The time has come for Black America to rise up, in a unified manner, and finally stop it.
