Carl Dix and Cornel West / CornelWest.com – 2015-07-12 19:08:36
http://www.cornelwest.com/unacceptable.html
ACTION ALERT: Stop Military-style “Home Invasion” Raids in the USThese Military-style Raids Are Unacceptable and Must Stop!
Carl Dix and Cornel West / CornelWest.com
(July 11, 2015) — The NYPD storming into people’s homes before dawn on June 4th wearing body armor and carrying assault weapons, with battering rams to break down doors while helicopters hovered overhead were the actions of an occupying army and not of an institution that serves the public.
Was putting guns in the faces of small children and grandparents and forcing a young woman to lay on the floor half naked while male officers ransacked her room a display of the Courtesy and Respect New York City officials claim their cops give to the citizenry?
We strongly condemn these raids, and we call on everyone with an ounce of justice in their hearts to join us in condemning them. We must not turn our eyes away from this injustice because it wasn’t our homes that these police marauded into, and we must not leave the people of Harlem alone in resisting this horrible mistreatment. They are our sisters and brothers. We love them, and we must care about what is done to them.
We must also note that these brutal, Gestapo style raids are in keeping with the way the NYPD has historically mistreated people. These raids and Operation Crew-cut overall, just like Stop and Frisk, are rooted in the way that Black and Latino youth have been criminalized in this society, treated like they’re guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive to prove their innocence.
This is illegitimate and unacceptable. It must be stopped. We initiated the civil disobedience campaign to Stop “Stop & Frisk†in 2011 to stop horrors like this, and we will continue and accelerate our efforts to stop it.
To the residents resisting these raids: We pledge to be with you in this fight, always in spirit and physically when we can. And we will take your spirit of resistance into the mobilization for the October Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation.
We call on everyone to join us, both in resisting these raids and in manifesting resistance in October that is powerful enough to change the way millions of people see the way the criminal justice system mistreats so many people.
Comments
Jonathan Howell
2014/8/22 2:40 pm
The Federal Government needs to invest in creating laws that limits the type of force used (via guns, billy clubs etc.)in these types of situations. Giving police the authorization to use UNLIMITED amount of force on civilians based on their judgement is dangerous and has been proven THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Joseph
2014/7/19 10:13 pm
Only a coward would resort to such tactics. Adrenaline junkies are no better than heroin junkies, and a lack of respect for your fellow man, especially a child, will earn you a hard knock from that thing called karma.
Bridget Bolger
2014/7/19 4:32 pm
I live in Chicago and it worries me to think that our City officials are going to invite in a para-military show of arms and force via Eric Holder and the feds use of the National Guards and the military. If such retaliation on the part of our fed government takes place in our poorest communities it will only fuel the police state mentality. Address the root of gang violence:Lack of OPPORTUNITY.
mary batta
2014/7/19 3:16 am
If not stopped, it will only get worse from here
David Gabbard
2014/7/19 12:40 am
Slouching toward fascism.
Frank Parady
2014/7/18 5:21 pm
I just called the police here in Stratford, CT to help with a tenant dispute. Their response was to threaten me with arrest. I told them to leave and told them they had failed to “serve and protect” or do anything worthwhile. Many call them “Gestapo” like but a more accurate description would be to call them “Order Police”: SS formations that committed mass-murder during the Holocaust. Read Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men” about them. Modern police in this country are either “Order Police” or militaristic thugs.
Dr. Heidi Wright-Dobrzak
2014/7/18 5:09 pm
There needs to be more police oversight, not just in NY, but all over the nation. As citizens, let’s create and participate in such oversight agencies.
c. Thompson
2014/7/18 3:44 pm
If we don’t act now it may be your house next. Nip it in the bud. What steps shall we take in other states?
Richard B Johnson
2014/7/18 9:40 am
The problem can’t be solved with just a few milliion people of color taking to the streets. Millions more are needed.
Michael Henning
2014/7/18 9:29 am
I have been stopped and frisked twice in two different counties???
joe gilbert
2014/7/18 8:32 am
i fully concur with your position on this subject matter.
Michael
2014/7/18 6:17 am
Dr. West you always keep things real, keep us informed over here in Europe
Nancy
2014/7/18 5:17 am
I hoped the new Mayor would make a difference, sigh.
Melissa A. Miles
2014/7/18 4:59 am
The police must stop treating the public as the enemy. They have become a corporate army.
Dan Moray
2014/7/18 3:44 am
I believe a truthful man and Dr. West gives me hope.
Paul Steer
2014/7/18 1:50 am
I support your call for resistance to the oppressive tactics of the NYPD, and the militarization of what should be the civil police authority in New York City.
don casey
2014/7/17 11:18 pm
thank you brother west. I have been watching and growing with you this last decade. Keep on keeping on!
Jerry Moss
2014/7/17 11:14 pm
What on earth was so threatening in that home? We have many, many problems in our cities, this type of unnecessary nazi act should not be one of them!
Suzanne Cutler
2014/7/17 11:04 pm
I am 100% with Dr. West on this issue. Thank you for starting this important campaign.
Angelitta
2014/7/17 10:50 pm
No Justice No Peace!
JDP
2014/7/17 10:35 pm
Who? If not us
mary walker
2014/7/17 10:17 pm
Stop this madness!
JOan Marie Kelly
2014/7/17 9:34 pm
I live in Singapore but am a US citizen. What is happening to my country? Why is violence always the answer and why has America lose its perception and turning to guns at every step? Keep up your work but what can the rest of us do?
David J Billups
2014/7/17 8:21 pm
Like more 2 read about what Dr west is writing about past and present
Julie Williams
2014/7/17 7:41 pm
I would like to help. Please let me know what I can do. Julie
Stacey Owens
2014/7/17 7:36 pm
It’s sad how society has become so used to the mistreatment in our communities that no one tries to stop it. We need more people to stand together in order to make a change!!!
Max Parthas
2014/7/17 7:33 pm
Brother West. Would you consider yourself as a modern day abolitionist? For as you and I both know neither mass incarceration nor police militarization combined with ever eroding human, civil and national rights are the root of our problems. They are symptoms. Let us speak clearly.
This is modern day slavery and human trafficking refined. A system set up on purpose in 1866 to maintain a profitable slave trade by exploiting the 13th amendment exception clause through federal and (as of 1980 with CCA) private prisons. Just earlier a war was declared on blacks in particular and browns by association from the oval office of disgraced president Richard Nixon. The mislabeled war on drugs. Mind what Nixon told his chief of staff; â??you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.
Nearly 50 billion taxpayer dollars are spent annually to maintain the largest prison population in the history of the world. Most of which are people of color. 70% are imprisoned for non violent drug offenses. Billions are being traded openly in prison stocks on wall street and each dollar represents a human being. A human life. We have many mourning mothers. Hosts of satellite companies profit from this miserly like demonic leeches. Private probation companies, material providers, service providers etc. All exploiting free labor and captive customers. 2.5 million Inside brutal prisons. 5 million on probation/parole or other controls. 1 million in prison working jobs. 1 million children arrested a year. 650,000 human bodies traveling in and out of this evil system annually. It is eating us alive. The same happens at our borders by the same companies and federal organizations where immigrants are for sale. Itâ??s the elephant in the room. The US Slave trade circa 2014 where private prisons have government contracted 20 year 80-100% occupancy guarantees. Where Prison lobbyist write our laws in groups like ALEC. Where courtrooms are processing plants and judges have been convicted of selling thousands of children like cattle in kids For Cash schemes to private prisons who still operate today. Where the wealthiest congress and senate ever have a collective personal financial investment in private prisons stocks that would challenge the GDP of some countries. Everyoneâ??s hands are bloody from the teachers union which has 90 million invested in private prisons to prison guards helping to enslave their own people for 15 dollars an hour. You canâ??t even buy a cup of coffee from Starbucks and not find out they were using prison labor in their business practices. So I ask again. Would you consider yourself as a modern day abolitionist? Because thatâ??s what we need more than anything else. We donâ??t want slavery reformed again, we want it abolished forever. Max Parthas. New Abolitionist Radio Please take 3 minutes to watch this video. Prison labor booms in US as low-cost inmates bring billions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CySzoJFkTA8
Anne Erde
2014/7/17 7:22 pm
Stop unfair practices now.
Alfred Boston
2014/7/17 7:22 pm
This is a horrible practice that the NYPD and needs to stop! If the police are seeking an individual in a someones home then they need to wait that person out.This will prevent innocent people from being humiliated or hurt!Show some love and respect for the Black and Latino communities, the way you do the White community!
Nita Lewis
2014/7/17 7:09 pm
We must forever rise together and unite to stop the pogroms.
dorothy schieber
2014/7/17 6:58 pm
the escalating militarization of the police all over the country is reminiscent of the rise of fascism in germany in the 1930’s. this is not policing it is occupation of the citizens of this nation.
phaaz
2014/7/17 6:56 pm
I 100% agree with this article. The stop and frisk activities of the police are unacceptable in any community, especially when a specific group are people are being targeted and made to feel guilty until proven innocent. The gestapo style raids Cornel describes are equally worth condemning, and i think it should be given more focus and stopped in its track before this becomes a norm.
Myisha
2014/7/17 6:54 pm
us as a generation must wake up and be brave for our future is at stake I do condemned these injustices and others like them
Jerry Batres
2014/7/17 6:47 pm
We the people are the ones that give power to authorities and we can also take it away.
Derail Armstrong
2014/7/17 6:47 pm
Lapd = terrorist Nypd = terrorist There is no honor in it they build up a personal anger and minds are clouded in a raid process making us victims of terrorism
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