If murder of police is assassination, what is the killing of unarmed Black men but assassination under the color of law! We don't need police in our communities who kill unarmed young Black men and women.
We just attended August Wilson's play King Hedley II, at the Flight Deck Theatre in Oakland, produced and directed by Dr. Ayodele Nzinga. King Hedley's wife seeks an abortion because she refuses to bring a child in this world only to be murdered by another Black person or by the police.
Even more ironic is the play's director, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, who has four sons (three of them in the production) and has told this writer how fearful she is whenever her sons leave the house, fearful they may not return home due to Black on Black homicide or police homicide under the color of law.
Imam Jamil Al Amin (H. Rap Brown) told us long ago violence is as American as cherry pie. Violence in America shall not stop until America ends her trillion dollar global military killing machine that needs permanent war to feed the military/corporate bandits, yes, the one per centers, aka, blood suckers of the poor.
Shannon J. Miles is a tragic figure but his tragic flaw is rooted in American white supremacy. White Supremacy is the supreme American Tragedy due to classic hubris, greed, jealousy and envy.
Officer Darren Goforth died a tragic death and with each passing day, we envision only more murder under the color of law and the response of the oppressed people who will find a way to strike back at those who represent and perpetuate oppression, who think they can literally get away with murder with fake grand juries and district attorneys in league with the police.
The police are not the real enemy but the political/economic institutions that allow them to murder under the color of law. Every slave has the human right to resist the slave master and those who help maintain the slave system, from the slave catchers of yesterday to the police of today.
The police should remove themselves from our communities until they understand their role as peace officers, which they may be constitutionally unable to do since they represent a vicious system of wage slavery and mass incarceration of the unemployed, drug addicted and mentally ill.
The police can and must do better or simply remove themselves from our communities.
As the Black Panther Party said long ago, "You are either part of the problem or part of the solution." On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the BPP, we learned we don't have the power to confront the police, we cannot make war with them because they will bring in all the power of the state military and intelligence agencies to crush us into the dustbin of history. The condition of Oakland, California is partly due to the counter-revolution that the US waged against the Black Panther Party in particular and North American Africans in general. How else can one explain the reactionary culture of Oakland that was devastated by the introduction of Crack cocaine and guns, additionally germ and chemical warfare was utilized to break the back of the Black Liberation Movement, to crush any idea of radical and revolutionary change. Oakland is inundated with intelligence agents, agent provocateurs and snitches in abundance. The police mantra is, "Give up three and you go free!"
Nevertheless, we must resist at every turn because persecution is worse than slaughter, says the Qur'an. In the tradition of the American revolution, Liberty or Death!
--Marvin X
29 August 2015
Man arrested in killing of Houston deputy, faces capital murder charge
(Reuters) - Sheriff's deputies on Saturday arrested a 30-year-old man who will be charged with capital murder in connection with the shooting death of a deputy at a Houston gas station, a killing the sheriff tied to anger against police.
Shannon Miles was picked up for questioning early on Saturday following the Friday night shooting, which was captured on surveillance video, Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman told reporters. He noted that Miles is black and has a history of prior arrests for trespassing and resisting arrest.
Earlier on Saturday, Hickman had linked the shooting of deputy Darren Goforth, who was white, to anti-police rhetoric across the country in the wake of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white officers.
On announcing the charges against Miles later in the day, Hickman said the department assumed that Goforth was "a target because he wore a uniform."
"We have not been able to extract any details regarding a motive at this point," Hickman added. "As far as we know, deputy Goforth had no previous contact with the suspect, and it appears to be clearly unprovoked."
Hickman said a handgun had been recovered and that a ballistics test matched it to bullets recovered from the scene.
Goforth, a 10-year veteran of the force, was pumping gas into his patrol car when the gunman approached from behind and shot him in the back, then shot him more times as he lay on the ground, sheriff's officials said.
The fatal shooting in Houston comes more than eight months after two New York police officers were ambushed and shot to death in Brooklyn by a gunman who had said he wanted to avenge the deaths of black men in confrontations with police.
New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said at the time of the shooting, which followed large-scale protests over deaths of African-Americans at the hands of officers, that police were unfairly subjected to public anger.
Hickman was blunt in his defense of law enforcement in the midst of protests against police by movements such as Black Lives Matter, which has complained of police violence and mass incarceration of blacks.
"We've heard black lives matter; all lives matter. Well cops' lives matter too," Hickman said.
"Our system of justice absolutely requires a law enforcement presence to protect our communities, so at any point where the rhetoric ramps up to the point where calculated cold-blooded assassination of police officers happen(s), this rhetoric has gotten out of control," Hickman added.
Some commentators on social media objected to Hickman's statements.
"When Blacks get legally killed we are constantly told it's not about race. But the sheriff in the DarrenGoforth case IMMEDIATELY invoked race," tweeted African-American author and lecturer Tariq Nasheed.
Shannon Miles was picked up for questioning early on Saturday following the Friday night shooting, which was captured on surveillance video, Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman told reporters. He noted that Miles is black and has a history of prior arrests for trespassing and resisting arrest.
Earlier on Saturday, Hickman had linked the shooting of deputy Darren Goforth, who was white, to anti-police rhetoric across the country in the wake of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white officers.
On announcing the charges against Miles later in the day, Hickman said the department assumed that Goforth was "a target because he wore a uniform."
"We have not been able to extract any details regarding a motive at this point," Hickman added. "As far as we know, deputy Goforth had no previous contact with the suspect, and it appears to be clearly unprovoked."
Hickman said a handgun had been recovered and that a ballistics test matched it to bullets recovered from the scene.
Goforth, a 10-year veteran of the force, was pumping gas into his patrol car when the gunman approached from behind and shot him in the back, then shot him more times as he lay on the ground, sheriff's officials said.
The fatal shooting in Houston comes more than eight months after two New York police officers were ambushed and shot to death in Brooklyn by a gunman who had said he wanted to avenge the deaths of black men in confrontations with police.
New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said at the time of the shooting, which followed large-scale protests over deaths of African-Americans at the hands of officers, that police were unfairly subjected to public anger.
Hickman was blunt in his defense of law enforcement in the midst of protests against police by movements such as Black Lives Matter, which has complained of police violence and mass incarceration of blacks.
"We've heard black lives matter; all lives matter. Well cops' lives matter too," Hickman said.
"Our system of justice absolutely requires a law enforcement presence to protect our communities, so at any point where the rhetoric ramps up to the point where calculated cold-blooded assassination of police officers happen(s), this rhetoric has gotten out of control," Hickman added.
Some commentators on social media objected to Hickman's statements.
"When Blacks get legally killed we are constantly told it's not about race. But the sheriff in the DarrenGoforth case IMMEDIATELY invoked race," tweeted African-American author and lecturer Tariq Nasheed.