Americans are outraged by the police’s lack of concern for human life. The Anaheim shootings of Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo, the Fullerton Police murder of an unarmed homeless man, Kelly Thomas, and the murder of Oscar Grant in Oakland are examples. In Anaheim, police are stepping up their attacks by shooting into crowds of women and children and even unleashing a police dog that could have mangled a baby in a stroller. This was the seventh officer-involved shooting by Anaheim police this year with five being fatal.
The Civil Rights era solution was to hire more Black and Brown police officers, police chiefs, and sheriffs, so today we have plenty of Latino and Black police officers, sheriffs, mayors, not to mention a Black president—so why are these abuses escalating? In fact, the victims are Black, Brown, and White and the perpetrators are also Black, and Brown and White. So, what’s going on cannot be simply explained as racism. We should see the class nature of these attacks. A corporate-controlled government is attacking the people to keep them in line as the economy worsens.
Today’s worldwide economic crisis is forcing governments at every level to maintain control of people who cannot find work, have no healthcare, and are losing their homes. Poverty is growing among all sections of the working class while the rich of all colors get richer.
Under these conditions, police violence and the threat of arrest and imprisonment are directed against anyone, regardless of color, who is a threat to the system. If you’re unemployed and demanding a job, you’re a threat. If you’re demanding health care, you’re a threat. If you want education, or housing, or an end to poverty, or to stop the home foreclosures, you’re a threat. So the real enemy is the system the police protect. While we fight to end police violence we must fight to end the system that created the violence.
