In the context of the backlash that black communities from Oldham to Bradford are facing in the wake of Tory policies on race and immigration from both Blair and Hague, we are pleased to publish murder. this statement from the Black Radical Caucus in the USA. Agreed on April 18, this statement from the National Coordinating Committee graphically catalogues the experience of black people at the hands of the racist police and the demands they are raising in fighting back. T he situation in Cincinnati almost reminds one of advertisements for the 1970s film "Jaws": just when you thought that it was safe to go back into the water.... Just when many neonle thought that it could not get any worse, another blatant it to a halt. examle of police abuse and murders in Cincinnati After well-publicised police abuse and terror nationally, we have now witnessed the murder and burial of Timothy Thomas, terror deployed against yet another Black person executed by the police.
Were Cincinnati more of a major media market, we might have been better prepared for this new atrocity.
anything e se reafirms werc Cincinnat more of a major media market, we may have better emisned the his. tory of police abuse con- of the Canadian border. ducted in that city aminst the Black population.
It was not the murder of York, Los Angeles. . Timothy Thomas that surprised many but the outrand and rebellion on the part of the city's Black population. Clearly Black people in Amadou Diallo, is control. It Cincinnati had had enough.
is not simply a matter of Their fury could no longer racial fear, or even racial be contained and therefore profiling. exploded. Ours is not to Those are all symptoms of address the dynamics of the a much deeper issue. It is rebellion but to affirm that about the control over the the outrage was just and that movements of the Black only by calling attention to population, and thereby the police rampares and lawless- complete frustration of ness will we be able to bring democracy:
The continued reality of some nave said that the police terror facing people of color genera ly. and Black Se torne bechssur people in particular, remains prise because Cincinnati is a legacy from slavery and the Klan country, i.c., very con- absolute control which the servative with a history of overseers had over us. Black people, reminiscent of the limits placed This may be true, but the on us and that we continue to lack terror in the USA more than any rights that the racist state is bound to respect. If Cincinnati proves anyMalcolm X's old adage: the "South" is everything south thing, it is that the struggie apainst police terror cannor Thus, most recently the ter- and should not be handled ror was in Cincinnati, but it exclusively on the local has also happened in New Leve After the funerals are over, The bottom line, whether and the tearful words have in Cincinnati with Timothy been uttered, the situation Thomas, or New York with more often than not returns to the status quo.
Even after rebellions such as in Cincinnati, or in Los nacies in 1996, tnc larxer system generally finds a ucans to excusc away toe police terror and to placate many or its most outspokea critics.
The Black Radical Congress suggests that Cincinnati must be a symbol of why we must fight the police state nationally and Locally! We must demand, as we are advancing in our national petition campaign, a federal statute criminalis. ing police terror. olice terror ensures The assumption of Black that we understand guilt is so pervasive in this system that allowing, by our sticnce or acquiescence, these executions to be unfortunate situations into absurdity.
This is a time for action. We must cry tor moths Thomas. We must grieve with his family and friends. But more than anything eise we must organise. In Cincinnati, the call that we should support nationally has emerged from the Black community: the removal of the City Manager, Police Commissioner and Public Safety Director. There must be accountability for this situation of racist lawlessness, particularly given the demonstrated history of atrocities.
level, in addition •Black community, we must push the demand for criminalising police terror. This issue must oc taisca in cvery Black community newspacity council meetings, on talk radio programs, and in the streets It is not enough for us to Cincinnati carrying out a valiant fight against police terror.
The time to nationalise this issue and to sustain a national campaign has arrived. Enough is enough! • Contact: National CoChair, Bill Fletcher fr., [email protected]