NYPD Targeting Blacks

Column on NYPD

 

 

                                                    The NYPD’s War on Blacks

It time for us to admit something: there is a war on Black America and the frontline mercenaries in this war against us are the police. This week’s news about NYPD officers riding around Harlem, on Tuesday, with the head of a severed Black doll on their car antennae should wake us up to that sobering reality.

 

Apparently, in this latest outrage a couple of cops, including a detective, were riding around with the chopped-off head of a Black doll on an unmarked car in Harlem. The cops were seen by several young Black men, who noted the brazenly, bigoted behavior of these officers. To these members of “New York’s Finest” this symbol of hatred, which echoes of the lynching era, was funny. These fascist goons only removed the doll head when a young man attempted to take a picture of their handiwork.

 

Thereafter, someone reached out to Democratic State Sen. Bill Perkins, who was in the neighborhood attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of a new Fifth Avenue restaurant. Perkins confronted the officers. At first, not recognizing that this was a state senator the officers arrogantly attempted to retrieve the doll. However, according to Sen. Perkins, when the cops realized who he was as he asked them “Where is the doll now?” all of a sudden they couldn’t locate it. Sen. Perkins noted that “They wouldn’t open the trunk.” The cops, who were also at the restaurant at some point, initially were seen laughing about the matter; until they realized that many of the restaurant patrons were upset.

 

The NYPD claims this incident was a prank and that some neighborhood kids probably put the severed doll’s head on the police car antennae. The officers claimed they didn’t notice it while they were riding around. “Two cops don’t see the doll’s head on the antennae?” asked Perkins. “That’s incredible. It’s a bald-faced lie. They continue to perpetuate the kind of distrust and the growing gap between the community and police.”

 

 

For generations it has been quite clear that the forces of “Law and Order” have conspired to criminalize the Black community and stockpile Black men in the dungeons of America’s prisons. And when they aren’t devising ways to take our liberty, they are either killing us or threatening to do so. This latest blatant display shows just how little these officers regard Black life.

 

This is yet another déjà vu reoccurrence. Remember the September, 1998 Broad Channel incident? During the Broad Channel Labor Day parade a float entitled “Black to the Future-Broad Channel in 2098” parodied among other things the dragging death of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas. Byrd had been murdered a few months earlier on June 7, 1998 by racists Shawn Allen Berry, Lawrence Russell Brewer and John King.

 

Participants of the float dressed up in Blackface, wore Afros, while eating watermelon and the like in a stereotypically filled display of their disdain for African-Americans. To say this float’s xenophobic, fear-mongering theme was atrocious is an understatement. Yet, the real outrage was the fact that this float was conceived out of the twisted minds of FDNY officials, and members of the NYPD.

 

This incident again makes it clear that Blacks are under attack by the police. Now, some will argue what they always do: that this insult is a harmless joke and isn’t indicative of all of the members of the NYPD. Unfortunately, because of the “Blue Wall of silence,” those “good officers” by their sealed lips function as aiders and abettors of those murderous killer-cops who only perceive Blacks as criminals.

 

Make no mistake about it; there is a straight line between this incident, police brutality and the 50 shot murder of Sean Bell. The NYPD is targeting Blacks. What other conclusion is there to be drawn from the symbolism of the detached doll head? That image should revile us into the action of demanding a new police model for Black and Latino communities, since there is now no accountability.

 

We must force our elected officials—under the promise of bouncing them from office—to commit to the decentralization of this institutionally racist police force and the implementation of a ResidentialRegional Police force where everything from the hiring of the police chief is decided by those with strong ties to the community. Presently, the crime fighting priorities are decided by those who either have no profound understanding of our community, or, those who are too deeply invested in criminalizing our community, for their political gain.

 

I stated that the police are one of the main aggressors in targeting our community. But, we must remember that the police are functionaries for the agenda of the elites. To rid ourselves of this scourge of police prejudice its imperative we exert maximum pressure on this political system which preaches about the virtues of democracy but hardly ever practices it. We must mobilize now for our self-determination. White America won’t solve this problem for us. Isn’t it time to terminate those who wear their hatred for Blacks as a badge of courage?

 

 

 

                                                   EXTRA, EXTRA, EXTRA

Did you hear about 35-yr-old off-duty NYPD Officer Sean Sawyer who was recently exonerated, by a Manhattan grand jury, after he fired into a car killing Jayson Tirado on October, 7, 2007, left the scene and then didn’t report his involvement until nineteen hours later? Sawyer—who wasn’t given a breathalyzer test—claimed that while driving on the FDR, Tirado pulled up to his car and threatened to pull a gun. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office called the shooting justified and stated that Sawyer broke no laws when he left the scene. Tirado was Hispanic.

 

And, did you hear about the death of 21-yr-old Baron Pikes in Louisiana? Pikes died on January 21, after he was Tasered nine times by Louisiana police, while he lay handcuffed on the ground. Pikes, whose cousin is Jena Six victim Mychal Bell, was Black.