On Sunday, September 5, Manuel Jamines Xum, a 37-year-old Mayan worker and father was brutally murdered by Los Angeles police who claimed he threatened police with a knife.
Witnesses verify that Mr. Jamines Xum was not armed. Police yelled in English at Jamines Xum, who spoke only K’iche’, a Mayan language of Central America, according to witnesses.
Indigenous communities in Los Angeles have been protesting in large numbers this past week. Some of these protests have been organized efforts by community leaders, but thousands are simply individuals who have had enough of the endless police brutality and now are taking action.
This is one more attack by the colonial police on Indigenous workers coming to the US from the other side of the false colonial border created when the US stole what is now known as the Southwest from the Indigenous people of Central America.
As Chairman Omali Yeshitela has explained of what some call the “reconquista,” Indigenous people are coming across the border to reclaim their stolen land and resources.
“The US, and the parasitic system of capitalism itself, was built on the backs of African and Indigenous people,” Yeshitela explains.
According to a statement made by Unión del Barrio (Los Angeles), “…communities are demanding justice not only in this case, but in all the instances of police terror directed towards our people.
“Police investigating themselves is not and will never be justice. Historically we have demanded that independent, community based, tribunals be established to investigate these and other acts of police abuse.
“We demand that these murderers be put on trial for their crimes. And demand full community control of the police. We say that the police must be accountable to the people, not the institution of repression that only serves the interest of the rich.
“Our people are tired of being murdered by the police, exploited for our labor, kept in a state of unemployment and underemployment, and treated worse than animals.
“Our people are ready to defend ourselves from this racist and exploitative capitalist system that continues to murder us, and has relegated us to a disposable labor force.”
During three days of protests, police have been in full riot gear, arresting people on charges such as “failure to disperse” and “unlawful assembly” as well as attacking and intimidating protesters.
An article by CBS news showed lieutenant Andrew Neiman of the Los Angeles Police Department contradicting himself by first stating the protests were caused by agitators who are not from the community and then stating that community activists were stirring up controversy.
Community residents maintain their right to protest and demand justice, however. Unión del Barrio confirms that their organization was present and that “It is the LAPD who are the outsiders. We know that the LAPD Pico Union patrol don’t live in Pico Union.”
The death of Manuel Jamines Xum comes on the heels of recent border killings of Anastasio Hernández and Sergio Adrian Hernández by Border Patrol officers.
African and oppressed peoples in Los Angeles are also outraged by the recent verdict of “involuntary manslaughter” for Johannes Mehserle, the police officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant in the back at point blank range as he was lying facedown on the ground at the Fruitvale stop of the BART station in Oakland, California.
Mainstream media strategically conducted a virtual whiteout of the Mehserle trial, with information only to be gained from a few independent online sources and San Francisco Bay Area newspapers. Mehserle’s sentencing, which was supposed to have taken place on August 6, has been delayed to November, purportedly to find grounds for appeal.
The Burning Spear newspaper and the African People’s Socialist Party recognize unconditionally that this land belongs to the Indigenous people and stands in support of the demands for justice for Manuel Jamines Xum and community control of Indigenous communities.
