San Diego, CA—La Jolla, CA was listed with many other cities as a “sundown” town during the time when lynching was as common as baseball games.
A sundown town had social measures that said if an African was seen after dark he was killed. Lynching was also a consequence of going to a pool.
On the outside, La Jolla boasts to host some of California’s best beaches and most prestigious neighborhoods. Historically, La Jolla along with its neighbor Pacific Beach have a long history of white nationalism expressed through its social policies and enforced by the San Diego Police Department.
In recent news Pacific Beach and La Jolla were littered with literature that had white power propaganda on it; in 2017 a white man opened fire at Africans during a pool party in an area of La Jolla called University Town Center known for having a population of many colonized people with money.
Story after story circulates in African communities of illegal stops and arrests by police and fights and harassment from the white residents in Pacific Beach and La Jolla.
One story in particular that will not be silenced is the death of Aleah Jenkins while in police custody on October 27, 2018.
Unanswered questions will not cease to be asked and the community will not be quiet about the San Diego Police Department’s involvement in her death.
A Community On Edge
In San Diego County, African women are the victims of murder, rape, kidnapping, sex trafficking and our little girls have been the victims of the same heinous acts.
Time and time again, the mainstream news or the streets report stories of missing bodies of African women being found in the desert or African women being beaten or abused by police.
At the end of all of this violence toward African women are always unanswered questions and half stories covering up the truth.
The truth is African women in San Diego or anywhere on earth are not free and the foundation of this system was built on a culture of chattel slavery.
It is still sustained by the same policies that treat African bodies the same as cows or iron or tobacco.
Aleah Jenkins was hunted down for being black in La Jolla and arrested for a warrant because she was black at a trolley station smoking a cigarette.
These laws are opinions the ruling class sets forward to snatch Africans out of homes and cars in hopes of exploiting our labor behind bars or legitimize our murders.
There is a military occupation of Africans and a vicious system of violence especially targeted at African women in San Diego and once Aleah was in custody her nightmare got worst.
Her aunt Zekiyah Israel states that Aleah began feeling ill and instead of attempting to help her, “he watched her die.
She gasped for air and pleaded for help. She told him she couldn’t breath. Officer Durbin refused to give her medical attention. He told her to stop because she was going to jail anyway.”
Whenever an African from San Diego goes to La Jolla there is an understanding that the trip can lead to death.
Africans cannot live on edge knowing that if we step outside we are not guaranteed to come home.
While our communities are in shambles because of deaths, incarcerations, life altering trauma, disease and illegal occupation, the white residents of La Jolla rests well at night, listening to the ocean and enjoying the occupation of stolen land while the militarized SDPD hunt down colonized people who step foot in the area.
Whether in an area the state robs of resources to drive up the crime rate or an area where luxury defines the city, Africans are terrorized under this system.
This is genocide
Aleah’s mother Keiala Jenkins along with Aleah’s aunt Zekiyah and many other African women were at the San Diego Police Department for a “stand in to get them to release the medical file; Her autopsy report.”
When Keiala “requested it they sealed it; The DEA said she would be able to get it within 90 days; Today is the 91st day; And they still have not released the report.”
Zekiyah also said that, “they haven’t stated why they haven’t released them; Matter of fact they have not been responding to calls or anything,” and she also recognized their negligence when she said that, “Most likely I think they just don’t really care about this case at all.”
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states that genocide is (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
“She was without oxygen for 105 minutes. While she was unresponsive he took her fingerprints and even waited until she had no pulse or heartbeat before calling for paramedics.”
Zekiyah Israel and Keiala Jenkins know that we are facing genocide and the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement stands with their family and the countless other African families who have been robbed of loved ones under this colonial attack.
We recognize that genocide is the only charge that can summarize our experience for the last 600 years. We recognize it is going to take complete control of the police, Black Community Control of the Police, to end these murders.
It will be through the African working class that we will obtain self determination and set the standards for our own lives and other colonized populations will be able to do the same.
The San Diego Police Department is an illegal occupying army on stolen Mexican land and it will take unity between the African community and the Mexican community to put an end to this onslaught of violence.
Stop the Police Terror!
Africans Charge Genocide!
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