The forum was hosted by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), an affiliate of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, which was founded 41 years ago as part of the movement to free Davis and other political prisoners. “In light of the dismantling of these services, it is police and the prison system that are left to address these populations affected by deindustrialization removal of jobs to other parts of the world.” “The emergence of global capitalism in the ’ 80s and its subsequent destruction of social services and the welfare state have created the most fertile kind of ground for police violence,” Davis said. Speaking with In These Times, Davis framed police repression as a consequence of worldwide shifts toward neoliberal and austerity policies, of which Chicago has been a poster child. The keynote speaker was Angela Davis - the scholar, activist and writer who in 1970 landed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List for her alleged involvement in the killing of a judge during a shootout in northern California, only to be acquitted later of all charges. In May, the city hosted activists from New York City, Austin, Louisville, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities for the National Forum on Police Crimes, organizing to fight police violence, racial profiling, the incarceration epidemic and related issues. Such situations have fueled a growing movement around police behavior in Chicago that began even before the uprising in Ferguson. This year, over the Fourth of July weekend alone, at least five people were shot by police, two of them fatally, in separate incidents. In late August, for example, prosecutors brought charges against a West Side police commander accused of shoving a gun down a man’s throat, holding a Taser to his groin and threatening to kill him during an incident in 2013. A lawsuit filed this spring involved officers videotaped beating and threatening a handcuffed, diminutive woman who managed a tanning salon being raided over prostitution allegations.Ī Chicago Reporter analysis found that black people are 10 times more likely than white people to be shot by police in the city. But police brutality, misconduct and shootings continue to make headlines and roil communities in Chicago. Burge is now in prison, serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence for perjury and obstruction. Police say McIntosh pointed a gun at officers community members have said he was unarmed and on his knees when he was killed.Ĭhicago has a long history of struggles between communities and police, from union members who fought with police in the 1800s to the Black Panthers in the 1960s to the 1990s- 2000s movement against police torture - namely the alleged systematic use of electric shocks, beatings and other brutality to obtain confessions under former Police Commander Jon Burge. As in Ferguson, community members are demanding the department release the name of the officer who shot McIntosh. In late August and early September, hundreds of people marched in a series of protests on the West Side against the fatal police shooting of 19-year-old Roshad McIntosh. 'Our country is quickly morphing into a police state-unless we do something about it.'
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |