On the night of Wednesday, May 9, 2012, the Oakland Police Department (OPD) isolated the block on which the Oakland Uhuru House is located and searched all vehicles leaving the area for over ten hours.
While organizers of the Oakland Freedom Summer Project were in the middle of our political action meeting, the pigs caused further distress to the community.
The pigs blocked off Macarthur Boulevard, from 78th Street to 79th Street, which is the same block as the Uhuru House.
There were pigs brandishing AR-15s (assault rifles) walking up and down the block and they were inspecting the cars of everybody who attempted to leave the block, including our forces.
They didn’t appear to allow anyone entry to the block.
Later on, news reports claimed that the pigs had stopped an African couple in their vehicle on 79th and Macarthur and that the man pulled a gun on the pigs as he ran away.
We never saw this alleged incident or a vehicle pulled over at that intersection.
Since then, police have had helicopters flying around and the pigs have occupied this block.
The news reports also claim that they found "the gun.”
See videos of this police harassment here:
Background on martial law in Oakland, California
This most recent form of resistance should not be seen in isolation from the overall relationship that the police have with the African community in Oakland, nor should it be seen in isolation from the political reality that pervades the city right now.
The resistance that occurred on Wednesday night when someone allegedly pulled a gun on a cop, was part of the African community’s response to the ongoing colonial police violence that is inflicted on all of us.
Oakland has a relatively small population, but has a high rate of police murder.
From Oscar Grant to Gary King and Casper Banjo, the victims are always African.
The most recent incident of police murder happened early Sunday morning, May 6, when the pigs killed a young brother named Alan Blueford, just blocks away from the Uhuru House.
It is only natural for the same people who are being hunted in the streets like animals to begin to fight back.
The presence and actions of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) and the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) in East Oakland represent the highest expression of the will of the people to resist the police occupation of our community.
It was through InPDUM and the APSP that the African community held the March and Court for Black Justice through which we put the OPD on trial for colonial genocide of the African community.
Both the march and the trial happened just hours before young Alan Blueford was murdered.
Leading up to the march, we canvassed the community with posters raising up the resistance of Lovelle Mixon, a 26-year-old African man who killed four OPD officers who were part of a death squad that assassinated him in East Oakland.
InPDUM has always held up the resistance of Lovelle Mixon.
The fliers and posters announcing the Court for Black Justice did so as well, stating that the resistance of Lovelle Mixon must be part of the struggle for African community control of the courts and police.
Apparently, the most recent young African who allegedly pulled a gun on the OPD heard the call to resist.
However, the martial law that came down subsequent to the shooting was evidence of the need for the resistance to be tied to revolutionary organization.
Without organization of the masses, the state is able to carry out a collective punishment on the African community in the form of roadblocks, home invasions and other counterinsurgent tactics employed by the police under the guise of “finding the suspect.”
Organizing for self-defense is a must!
The need for such organization is becoming clearer and more urgent with every police and white vigilante murder of our people, from Trayvon to Alan Blueford.
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement is building revolutionary organization in the streets of Oakland and worldwide to resist the colonial police occupation of our community and Africa itself.
Currently, we are engaged in a worldwide campaign for African community self-defense, through which we are bringing the masses into organized struggle, carrying out work to undermine police occupation.
We are organizing cop watches, tribunals (courts) and “Know Your Rights” forums right now.
The ultimate goal of this work, as stated in InPDUM’s Revolutionary National Democratic Program, is African community control of the police.
On September 28-29, 2012, InPDUM will hold its international convention as a means of rallying our members and supporters from throughout the world to struggle to consolidate revolutionary organization in the community.
