On July 5, 2010, a 36-year-old African man named Decarlos Moore was shot and killed by a cop during a” routine” traffic stop in Miami, FL.
Cop Joseph Marin and his training partner pulled over Moore around 11:30 AM on the 1600 block of NW 3rd Ave in Overtown. Moore got out of the car and walked toward the two cops. According to the police account – which the State-sponsored media has consistently echoed – Moore went back to his car and reached inside for several things, including aluminum foil.
At that point, Marin shot him in the head. Moore was unarmed. No weapons or contraband were found in his car.
Numerous witnesses at a nearby convenience store said Moore fell to the ground, bleeding on the rain-slicked pavement. “He was still breathing,'' said witness Antwone McKnight who grew up with Moore and works at the convenience store. "He lost a lot of blood waiting for the ambulance to come.''
One witness saw Moore on the sidewalk, blood pouring from his mouth. "It looked like a faucet coming out of his mouth,'' he said "I've never seen crap like that.'' He started screaming for help.
Moore's sister, Katrina Moore, said the bullet entered and exited her brother's head. He was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he later died. "He was a good person," she said. "He loved life. He loved life. What can I say? That's my brother. He loved life."
Family members and friends who spoke at the funeral paid tribute to Moore's life, his love of family and unbreakable spirit. "Cocky was the big brother I never had,'' said cousin Yachica Moore.
This act of police terror occurred in the same month that white cop Johannes Mehserle was convicted of "involuntary manslaughter" for the cold-blooded murder of 22-year-old unarmed African, Oscar Grant, in Oakland, CA.
The murder of Decarlos Moore, like that of Oscar Grant, represents yet another example of the ongoing public policy of police containment of the African communities within the domestic colonies of the US. The murder of African people by the police is an all too common occurrence in the U.S. government’s undeclared war on the African community, which faces the colonial policy of police containment on a daily basis.
Officer Joseph Marin, whom the media repeatedly refers to as a "rookie cop," had recently returned from 14 years of service in the US Army, including a year-long deployment in Iraq. This is another example of how the so-called imperialist “war on terror” manifests itself as a war on the African communities within the domestic colonies.
Terence Nemeth, the cop who murdered 17-year-old Javon Dawson in St Petersburg, Florida in June of 2008, was a former Marine who had just recently returned from Iraq where he received awards for occupying Iraq the same way police occupy the African community in St. Petersburg and throughout the U.S.
The African People's Socialist Party (APSP) recognizes that occupation is occupation, whether in Iraq or in the colonized African communities in the United States. All colonized peoples have a right to resist colonial occupation.
The State-sponsored media have been relentless in their efforts to demonize and criminalize Decarlos Moore, emphasizing his being a felon – which a great percentage of us are – and publishing articles sympathizing with the police and their inability to handle "unpredictable" traffic stops.
The media echoes the police's claim that Marin and his training partner, Viona Browne-Williams, ran the plates of the Honda Accord that Moore was driving and believed it was a stolen vehicle. The car belonged to Moore's girlfriend and was, of course, not stolen.
Officer Marin was in his third month of on-the-road field training and is now on paid administrative leave.
Counter-revolutionary elements within the African community – namely, Reverends – have seized upon this tragedy for opportunistic purposes, maintaining the status quo for the repressive government by discouraging colonized Africans from taking any action against the State. A meeting was held at St. John Baptist Church the day after the shooting, where 175 people showed up, including city leaders and police brass.
`"I'm asking, I'm pleading, I'm praying for calm,'' Commissioner Richard Dunn told the crowd.
"I'm not going to get into the specific facts of the shooting, but it was 100 percent legally justified,'' said Bill Matthewman, a former Miami police Sergeant who is acting as Marin's attorney.
Armando Aguilar, Fraternal Order of Police president, said, "Obviously something happened during that stop that made him fear for his life and he had to use deadly force."
Twelve days after the shooting, 275 people gathered at the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Liberty City, where Rev. Gaston Smith urged the African community to "be still. God's got it."
Likewise, Tyrone Lamar, a community leader who is often referred to as Major Payne, urged, "Be calm. Violence begets violence. So I'm asking and I'm pleading with the parents to talk to your children."
Reverend Jesse Jackson visited the shooting site and urged a federal investigation by the Department of Justice, as if the US government has any interest in defending Africans from its own counterinsurgency.
Rev. Jackson completely liquidated the issue of class and colonialism, instead focusing on racial factors, stating, “Diversity is an important asset to police. Police bureaus should be more diversified with women and whites and people of color. It should look like the community so you have more sensitivity. If you have a diverse community, you should have a diverse police department."
What's especially ironic and baffling about Reverend Jackson’s statement is that the cop Marin is African. Hiring African police to terrorize Africans is the neocolonial strategy of the counterinsurgency.
The color of the cop is insignificant. Focusing on the individual cop is a way for the State to scapegoat its minions in order to divert attention from the larger problem of imperialism and police containment in African communities.
As with the interrogators at Abu Graib and Bagram, who were forced to bear the brunt of all the torture charges – even though they were actually carrying out the objectives of U.S. imperialism – the same is true of every police who murders, arrests or otherwise terrorizes the African community. When a police shoots an African man in the head at a traffic stop, it is standard operating procedure.
Justice will not be fulfilled through putting a few killer cops behind bars, but through economic development and self-determination for the African community.
For white North Americans and Europeans, this means joining in solidarity with the organized revolutionary struggles of African people. The State must be put on trial for its ongoing war against the African community!
SMASH COLONIAL POLICE VIOLENCE!
FORWARD THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION!
