18-year-old African woman killed in Bronx jail cell
On the New York front of the worldwide African Liberation Movement, 18-year-old African woman, Saniyah Cheatham, died under mysterious circumstances in a Bronx jail cell. Saniyah was arrested leaving a family barbecue, on July 4, 2025, for disorderly conduct, after allegedly fighting her friend–the last time her loved ones would see her alive.
The next day, the medical examiner announced that Saniyah had died by hanging after EMS was called to the NYPD’s 41st precinct at about 12 a.m., hours after she had been taken into custody. Saniyah’s family and community do not believe the police’s narrative that she committed suicide by hanging herself with a sweater while being held in a cell. Her mother stated that her daughter didn’t have a sweater on that day. A video shows Saniyah wearing a jersey the day she was arrested and kidnapped by members of the NYPD.
After announcing Saniyah’s death, the police barricaded the 41st precinct, anticipating the mobilization and uprising of the community. Several protests and demonstrations have been held since her questionable demise; however, no official statement has been made by the NYPD to date. Demands are being made by the family for the NYPD to release the body camera videos, and from within the precinct; however, that has not happened.
Saniyah was the only daughter of five children, an A-student at Bronx Community College, who loved writing. She was generally known as an outgoing, happy person who loved cats. She recently completed her freshman year in college and was very excited about her future.
Her death is reminiscent of what happened to Sandra Bland, another African woman who was taken into police custody in Texas for supposed minor infractions. She also died in her jail cell and police claimed she hanged herself, resulting in widespread controversy and international protests regarding police misconduct and procedures.
Black people have a history of being murdered in police custody in America, dating back to chattel slavery. Under this system we refer to as a colonial mode of production, the deaths of African people, at the hands of the pigs or otherwise, is normal and necessary. The system of policing in America was born out of the enslavement of African people by the U.S. government. Slavery was legal in America. And if an enslaved African dared to be free, they were subject to being arrested or murdered because they were breaking the “law.” Jim Crow segregation was legal in America, and countless Africans were murdered and imprisoned by police all across America for “breaking the law”—for simple things like drinking from white only water fountains or sitting in restricted public areas. It is the police that enforced these laws; laws that are designed to keep African people powerless to this day.
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement’s (InPDUM) position is that all police within the borders of the U.S. represent a standing army of the colonial State used to occupy, oppress and exploit the domestically colonized African communities in the U.S.. The presence of the police in the black community undermines the democratic right of African people to have self-determination.
Demand Black Community Control of The Police! Touch one! Touch all! Uhuru!
African father of two killed in St. Louis City jail
On Saturday, July 19, another African man, Samuel Hayes Jr., 31, was tortured and murdered in the brutal St. Louis city jail, making him the 20th death in this notorious death house in the past five years, and the 49th murder in custody since 2009.
The jail officials put Samuel in a restraint chair–allegedly after a fight with another inmate–where he began to convulse, according to his family’s attorney, Jack Waldron. Prison officers walked by Samuel as he suffered and convulsed for two hours until he died. Samuel’s mother, Anita Washington, was shown the video of Samuel’s death which she called “gut-wrenching.” Attorney Waldron stated that the video shows Hayes was already injured following the fight and not resisting when corrections officers placed him in the restraints.
According to St. Louis Channel 4, jail policy requires corrections officers to maintain “direct visual observation” and for medical staff to assess “mental health status” of the detainee in a restraint chair every 15 minutes, among several other “safeguards.” Waldron said those protocols were never followed and the family plans to file a lawsuit.
St. Louis is notorious for its brutal colonial terror inflicted on the African working class–including police violence. From 2009 to 2019 the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department killed 132 people and an additional 47 died in jail custody, according to the Arch City Defenders. Among those murdered by the police was Michael Brown, Jr., whose 2014 murder sparked mass uprisings demanding, “Kill the police.”
Police murder and colonial violence against African people are rampant throughout the U.S. due to the conditions of colonialism against our people. Point number 8 of The Working Platform of the African People’s Socialist Party states, “We want the immediate withdrawal of the U.S. police from our oppressed and exploited communities: We believe that the various U.S. police agencies which occupy our communities are arms of the U.S. colonial state which is responsible for keeping our people enslaved and terrorized.”
