Black Control of the Police is a Democratic Right
The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations held its annual conference in Chicago, highlighting its 19-point National Black Political Agenda for Self-Determination. Philadelphia coalition organizer Diop Olugbala said Point #3, demanding Black community control of the police, “is a democratic demand, in that it places control of the police directly in the hands of those most affected by police behavior. That means,” said Olugbala, “that the police will cease to be an invading force that comes into the Black community looking for trouble, but will have to live in the community and share the contradictions of the community.”
Black Chicago Politicians are “in the Mayor’s Pocket”
Veteran activist Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression united with the Black Is Back Coalition on community control of the police. His organization is pushing a measure to take “all the power away from the mayor, away from the independent police review authority, and putting that power in the hands of the people.” However, few of the measure’s supporters in the city legislature are Black. “Most of the Black aldermen are in the mayor’s pocket,” said Chapman, “and we have to change that.”
Flipping the Script on the NYPD
When the New York City Police Department held a community-oriented “Night Out Against Crime” in The Bronx, activists with the Freedom Cities movement staged a “Night of Safety and Liberation” counter-event. “It’s about a community vision that people don’t need a violent occupation force to keep the Black community safe,” said Albert St. Jean, of Freedom Cities and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. “The community can cope with its own need for safety.”
Political Scientist Rejects Organizing Based on “Purely Ethnic Affinity”
Cedric Johnson, a political scientist and associate professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago, has no confidence in the long term effectiveness of organizing based on “a purely ethnic affinity.” Dr. Johnson told the Dead Pundits Society podcast: “There are many different interests that are operating within the Black population at any given moment. Whenever we have these sorts of national agenda-setting exercises, what you get is a portrait of some of the different things that Black people want, but it’s not really a functioning agenda.”
Mumia: Trump’s America Shows Its Nasty Butt
The events in Charlottesville, Virginia, reveal the raw racism endemic to the United States, said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, in an essay for Prison Radio. To ask Trump to condemn white supremacists “is like asking grapes to condemn jelly,” said Mumia. “They are part of him, and he is part of them.”
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
United States "aid" to Afghanistan covers up the theft of that nation's assets and the resulting suffering of its population. The Black Alliance for Peace Afghanistan News Update explains.
The world needs a new United Nations. Its current formation gives great power to a handful of nations, ignores most of the world, and is ineffectual in addressing issues such as the climate…
The undercount of communities of color worsened in the 2020 census, the 20th commemoration of Gabriel's Rebellion at the African Burial Ground in Richmond, Virginia, and the quest for justice for…
Kelly Percival is Senior Council with the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. She is co-author of the report Improving the Census. She joins us from New York to discuss the…
Ana Edwards is Chair of the Virginia Defenders Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project in Richmond, Virginia. She joins us to discuss the 20th annual Gabriel Gathering scheduled for October 10…
