Milwaukee, WI—On July 6, 2011, Milwaukee pigs murdered 22-year-old Derek Williams. Derek was an African father with no criminal background. He was left to die in the back of police squad car to suffocate, despite over 15 minutes of pleas for help.
An entire year and nine months later and with the video evidence, special prosecutor, John Franke, found there would be no likelihood of even misdemeanor charges against any of the pigs.
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) led a rally on April 22, 2012 themed “Police Killed 1000 Trayvon Martins,” in Milwaukee on the corner of North Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive. InPDUM raised the demand of justice for Derek Williams and all Africans murdered by police, building the Campaign for African Community Self Defense, a program aimed organizing the African community in defense from the colonial police.
We must continue to build revolutionary organization in Milwaukee to protect and defend our own!
The State against Derek Williams and the entire African community
Initially, the Milwaukee County Medical examiner ruled the pig’s murder of Derek Williams’ manner of death as natural.
The victim’s family tenaciously pursued the Milwaukee pig’s Department to release the squad car video surveillance. After a fierce legal struggle, the family secured the victims near final words.
“I wanted the world to see what they showed me,” said Williams’ mother, Sonya Moore. “Anybody that has a soul knows that was wrong.”
The family released the video to Journal Sentinel who then published it on the internet. The video can be seen here.
Williams is seen in the video pleading for help saying “Sir, I can’t breathe, believe me… I want an ambulance.”
The pigs ignore his pleas and reply, “You’re just playing games.”
The criminally negligent pig’s disregard for African life that led to the murder of Derek Williams is readily apparent. The public release of the video prompted an investigation by the Milwaukee County district attorney, John Chisholm who changed the ruling on Williams’ cause of death from natural to homicide.
An eyewitness told federal investigators he saw “police pigs punch Williams in the neck or face, stomp him in the back and hogtie him with handcuffs.”
Mr. Willams’s case is riddled with obvious tricks and legal ploys to grant immunity to the pigs, as exemplified by Sgt. Robert Thiel, who testified at the inquest under a grant of immunity from Franke. Thiel, was derelict in writing the arrest report required by law for shift supervisors.
Franke also intentionally entered conflicting evidence as to the whereabouts of the pigs during the incident. Franke espouses that an arresting pig, Cline, spent the most time with the suspect, but is clearly refuted by the video.
Nevertheless, Cline, is at one point on the video standing behind the police vehicle within earshot of the victim’s pleas for medical assistance. Cline is heard demanding that Williams “Stop messing around”.
Franke boasts that no trial jury even in full view of Williams’ girlfriend would find the pigs negligent. We are confident that the State is incapable of justice concerning African people.
A study published by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) cites that Africans are murdered by police at the astonishing rate of 1 every 28 hours!
Milwaukee cannot continue to isolate our struggles from the rest of the African world, if they touch one African anywhere, they touch us everywhere.
We will not win justice for one African in isolation. We are one billion strong worldwide and the quicker we unite the stronger we will be, the invaders are the minority! We have to define what justice means, not the bourgeois state definition which in reality means nothing for Africans. It is time to rebuild, reinvigorate and revitalize revolutionary organization to protect and defend our own.
Build InPDUM!!
UHURU!!
