THE MINNEAPOLIS UPRISING POINTS THE WAY!
SPREAD THE FIERY SPIRIT OF MINNEAPOLIS BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!
- Justice For George Floyd!
- Jail Derek Chauvin and All the Cops Involved in the Conspiracy to Murder George Floyd!
- End Racist Coverups by District Attorneys and Grand Juries!
- Jail All Killer Cops: A Badge is Not a License to Kill!
- Defend Protesters from Attacks by Trump, Local, and State Police!
- Trump Must Resign or Be Removed Now!
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The people of Minneapolis have taken the right actions to fight for justice for George Floyd. As fires continue to burn, the words of Martin Luther King come to mind: “Riots are the language of the unheard.” The people of Minneapolis are being loud and clear: the racist police murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin and other police officers involved cannot be treated as business as usual. Yet, in order to win real justice and prevent future racist police murders of Black and Latina/o youth, the method of struggle in Minneapolis must spread to the rest of the nation to prevent the long tried-and-true sham process of justice that has followed after every racist murder by police. In the next couple of weeks, we will see this sham play out and we must reject the efforts of politicians and sellout misleaders alike to shut down the struggle with hypocritical expressions of sympathy and phony militant rhetoric. The new civil rights movement whose spirit is surging in Minneapolis must reject all leaders who are really no more than two-legged fire extinguishers and who oppose any method of struggle that could win. Justice will only be served if we keep the fiery spirit of Minneapolis alive all over the nation until Derek Chauvin and the other collaborators are in jail!
For a movement fighting to win the struggle for justice, there can be no fear of the wisdom of those who choose to take matters into their own hands: the criminal justice system has stubbornly denied justice in virtually every instance in which black and Latina/o youth have been murdered by the police. Regardless of the facts of the situation, regardless of whether the political leadership was Democratic or Republican, and regardless ofthe public magnitude of the scandal, all authorities have strictly applied a universal policy to all racist murders by police: the cops gets away with the murder, the civil rights celebrities keep the peace, perhaps a bit of money is tossed towards the family of the victim, and the black and brown youth remain in peril. No, there should be no fear of the wisdom of those who choose to take matters into their own hands.
In the era of Donald Trump, a bigot who personifies the grossest racist elements of America, whose presidential campaign was endorsed by national police and ICE unions, this is no time to expect justice in the legal or political systems at any level of government. Under Trump’s presidency, his cover-up for white supremacists and aggressive anti-immigrant policies have given a green light to police, ICE officers and white supremacists for racist attacks against minorities in the U.S. The murder of George Floyd comes in the context of a series of racist murders and racist and anti-immigrant attacks by police and white supremacists. From Ahmaud Arbery’s killing by two white supremacists while jogging in Atlanta, to Breonna Taylor killed in her home by police officers in Louisville carrying out a warrant on the wrong home, or Steven Taylor killed in San Leandro inside a Walmart. These and many other racist murders come in the backdrop of an ongoing deathly policy of the Trump administration and every state and local government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmingly killing black, Latina/o and Native American communities who are being denied access to testing and medical treatment. The premature re-opening of the economy across the country is also sure to increase the infections and death toll of minority communities and must be strongly rejected. It is clear that Trump must go by any means necessary and that these racist police murders must stop and can only be stopped by ongoing independent mass militant struggle.
Certain politicians and news media feigning sympathy with Minneapolis protesters are claiming that the militant actions of the people of Minneapolis are the actions of a few outside agitators and extremists. Nothing can be further from the truth. The Minneapolis uprising is a logical and just expression of years of pent-up indignation and rage against the racist harassment and abuse of the Minneapolis police department, courts and entire political establishment.
On May 26, after an alleged “forgery in process” police call, police officers in Minneapolis arrested George Floyd in broad daylight in front of multiple witnesses. Throughout the whole incident caught on video, it was more than clear that George Floyd never resisted and followed police instructions. Unnecessary police reinforcements were called, not to keep a “violent” person or crowd under control, but in fact to make the usual show of force that police departments nationwide are accustomed to in order to terrorize majority-minority communities. The sick show that followed by racist police officer Derek Chauvin, an officer with a history of racist incidents in the past, is hard to watch but underscores the complete necessary and correctness of the response of the people in Minneapolis.
For over ten minutes, Derek Chauvin and other officers pinned George Floyd to the ground and Derek Chauvin pinned his knee and entire body on top of George Floyd’s neck. Chauvin visibly took pleasure in the screams “I can’t breathe” and “he’s killing me” of George Floyd, while people on the sidewalk pleaded to the officers to get off him and to check his pulse. At some point Floyd stopped moving and talking, yet Chauvin remained on top of him for almost 5 minutes until EMT arrived to pick up his motionless body. Video footage of the arrest and subsequent murder has gone viral internationally.
Derek Chauvin and other police officers’ actions cannot be described as anything else other than a racist public execution to terrorize a community. But Minneapolis has shown that we can stand for ourselves and our communities against racist inequality and attacks when we take matters into our own hands. For those who decry the actions of people in Minneapolis, it must be made clear that lives are more important than private property. In only a few days the actions of the black community of Minneapolis and their supporters across the country have done more to protect the lives of black, Latina/o and other minority communities across the nation than any “peaceful” protest or dialogue, or any court or politician in the nation. The danger now is whether our movement can maintain its consistency and independence or we fall into past mistakes of ceding power to attorneys, civil rights misleaders or politicians. In this moment actions speak louder than words.
2020.05.29
