ST. PETERSBURG, FL—On Saturday, April 4, the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 47 years ago, 50-year-old Walter Scott was shot down in the streets of North Charleston, South Carolina by white cop Michael Slager.
Slager’s version of the murder which stated that he feared for his life was the official version of the North Charleston police department for days.
That was supposed to be a done deal. Case closed-another African murdered by the police because the police “feared for his life.”
A young African, 23-year-old Feidin Santana on his way to work, saw the confrontation and captured the murder on his cell phone camera and emerged with the video four days later after hearing lies after lies from police officials.
As opposed to the cop’s life being in danger, the video reveals that it was Walter Scott’s life that was indeed in danger.
The video shows taser wires protruding from Scott and as he attempts to run away from the electrical shocks of the taser.
Scott is then shot multiple times in the back by Slager who continues to fire his gun until Walter Scott lay dead.
Slager then walks to Scott’s body, turns it over, handcuffs Scott, then runs back to pick up the taser and toss it besides Scott’s body.
By this time the other cops had arrived and saw what happened. Nonetheless the official story was that Scott had taken the taser from Slager and Slager feared for his life.
InPDUM in motion around Walter Scott murder
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) has called for demonstrations all over the U.S. to demand justice in the Walter Scott case.
The first of these demonstrations was held in St Petersburg, Florida on Wednesday, April 8, 2015.
In the wake of the Scott murder, the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement held a demonstration at the St. Petersburg, Florida police department.
It was significant to hold the demonstration at the police department in St. Petersburg because the police here have been responsible for the murders of numerous Africans over the years.
Among those murdered are Tyron Lewis, Javon Dawson, Jarrell Walker and Marquell McCullough between 1996 and 2008.
The militant demonstration called for justice through chants such as, “What do we want? Justice. When we want it? Now!” but also initiated the chant “Black Community Control of the police.”
The power to hire, fire, discipline and investigate the police that work in the Black community must rest with the Black community.
This is the demand by the Uhuru Movement and InPDUM raises the consciousness of African people until it’s clear that the current relationship between the police and the African community all over the U.S. is one of the police functioning as an occupying army that controls African people who are colonized and dominated by white power at every level of U.S. society.
The State in the form of police agencies all over the U.S. carry out executions of Africans every day in order to keep Africans under this colonial bondage.
The demand for Black Community Control of the Police
The murders of Walter Scott, Mike Brown and Eric Garner and the murders of the Africans in St. Petersburg are a part of the everyday lives of African people who live in the U.S. as colonial subjects.
We dominated by a foreign power that was built on the stolen land of the indigenous people and off stolen labor and resources of Africans over some 500 years.
What is emerging from all these murders is, however, a political movement in its infancy.
Political motion not seen since the African liberation movement of the 1960’s is becoming a reality.
The demonstration in St. Petersburg on April 8th and other InPDUM
actions such as the Black People’s Grand Jury held in January 2015 where the African community decided the murderer of Mike Brown should be indicted for murder.
The Black Grand Jury decision to indict white cop Darren Wilson for murdering Michael Brown was the impetus for the upcoming Black is Back Coalition (BIB) Conference in St. Louis on Black Community Control of the Police.
The Conference will explore and deepen the demand for the African community to have the power to hire, fire, discipline and investigate the police that work in the African community.
Justice will not be given to African people. We must resist and fight for it within the context of our struggle for total liberation.
Forward to the BIB Black Community Control of the Police Conference.
Justice for Walter Scott, Liberation for the African nation!
To find out what you can do: Contact info@inpdum.org