St. Petersburg, FL––A young African man was attacked by the police as he walked down the sidewalk of 16th Street South––not far from where TyRon Lewis was murdered in 1997––with his niece on the evening of February 23, 2017.
Without any given reason, this young man, known only as Deon, was assaulted by a white female cop in uniform after being identified by what witnesses say was a bail bondsman, who was working with the State.
The officers yelled an order for young Deon to get on the ground and proceeded to slam him into the pavement, as stated by witnesses from the community. After doing so, the white female officer pulled out a taser and shocked him while his young niece and now gathered members of the community watched in fear.
As he was being handcuffed and dragged to a police car Deon yelled for his niece to find a phone and call his mother. Jesse Nevel, St. Pete mayoral candidate and Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement was on his way home when he witnessed the incident. He proceeded to record the assault and allowed Deon’s niece to use his phone.
According to Jesse, when he initially took out his phone to record the officer told him, “You can record all you want, but stay out of the way” and then went back over to drag the young African to the car.
Africans need community control over the murderous police stalking our neighborhoods
The St. Petersburg Police Department, like all other U.S agencies, is a colonial occupying military force in the black community and is known for being violent towards and murdering Africans who live here. The job of the police department is to protect the wealth and status quo of the white ruling class, at the expense of poor and working-class Africans.
The St. Pete police and it’s neighboring force, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department have long and nasty histories of murdering young Africans. From the murder of 18-year-old, TyRon Lewis to the more recent murder and slander of Dominique Battle, La’Niyah Miller and Ashaunti Butler, the police have been working overtime to kill and oppress this community.
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) is a world-wide revolutionary organization that has been fighting tooth-and-nail against the oppressive colonial State and white ruling class, demanding Black Community Control of the Police and justice for the African community for over 25 years. We believe that the black community should have the power to decide how to hire, fire, and discipline the people who come in and police our communities.
We demand justice for not only this young African, but every African brutalized or murdered at the hands of the State. We cannot allow for another African to be humiliated, abused and murdered by white power.
We call on all Africans to join InPDUM and offer your full support to this powerful organization dedicated to achieving self-determination for our people. We are in a time of mass African resistance and it is our time to get organized and liberated by any means necessary!
Fight For Freedom! Join InPDUM!
Visit InPDUM.org
Uhuru!
