Police and Prisons

In 1893, Ida B. Wells exposed the links between the white nationalist mobs and the police in “Southern Horror: Lynch Law In All Its Phases.” Wells famously wrote, “Those who commit the murders write the reports.”

“What is the State? It is a repressive organization. It is the police department. It is the army, the navy, the court system. The State emerges in human society at that juncture when it is split between those who have and those who ain’t got.”

The African People’s Socialist Party’s (APSP) San Diego Unit was the first organization to hold a local demonstration in solidarity with George Floyd and the Minneapolis uprising.

A video of the murder of Rayshard Brooks went viral overnight, sparking public outrage from the African community in Atlanta and beyond.

The May 25 murder of an African man, 46-year-old George Floyd, by the state of Minnesota in the form of the Minneapolis police department continues to incite and ignite the world. 

Ahmaud Arbery died on his feet, refusing to cower in the face of white power.  

On Friday, May 29, 2020, three days into militant protests that have rocked the foundation of the colonialist capitalAPSPuhuru.orgist world, African People’s Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela broadcast this message, which has been slightly edited here and which can be found in its original video version on the Burning Spear TV channel on YouTube:

We, the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), led by Chairman Omali Yeshitela, denounce yet another brutal police murder of an African man, George Floyd in Minneapolis. In response our Party is holding an international mobilization in support of African people to resist the colonial State and to fight for power over our lives.

COVID-19 news stories dominate headlines around the world, including its deadly impact on prisoners on lockdown in California. Headlines read, “California prisons report 194 coronavirus cases, plans to bunk inmates in groups of eight” or “70 percent of inmates tested have COVID-19: Bureau of Prisons.” 70 percent of the state prison population is African and Mexican.