Re: [Marxism] SF protests cop killing of unarmed man

["Sky Keyes" <skeyesvogt@xxxxxxxxx>]

Charles Andrews' response to me really misrepresented what I said, and I
apologize that I couldn't answer it sooner because I was at the Gaza
Solidarity demonstration in D.C.

Charles said: "Sky also doesn't want to hear that the riot was conducted by
street thugs known in Oakland in addition to anarchists from Berkeley and
San Francisco."

First of all, if he had maybe read my post he would have seen that I said "I
share some of his sentiments about berkeley and SF anarchists and poverty
pimps.."  So I don't know where he got the idea about that part "Sky doesn't
want to hear [about]... anarchists from Berkeley and SF."  He misrepresented
me, a common tool for people with weak debate skills defending a weak
position.  No one will ever find me defending some outside anarchists coming
around sparking off some ultra-left activity, and if I had the privilege of
being in Oakland for the protests I would have participated in the earlier
peaceful protests but not in the ultra-left activity that followed.

But he is dead right when he says that I don't want to hear him call people
"street thugs" with no qualifying context other than that one person got
arrested with cocaine.  What the hell qualifies someone as being a "street
thug"?!   Charles is sounding like a damn police chief.  Charles is
literally sounding like Mayor Mike Bloomberg when he slandered the striking
transit workers a couple of years back.  I would prefer "misguided youths"
or some such other term, but "street thugs" is what we get?!  Were their
pants hanging too low for his liking?  Oh, I see that his sole qualification
(after two chances to retract or qualify) this term is that ONE of them is
arrested for possession of cocaine.  But according to his own stat he
cited:  "Press reports say that of the 105 arrests, 30 percent were Oakland
residents and 70 percent were from other cities."

So of the approximately 30 Oakland people arrested, all of them are
slandered as "thugs" because one of them possessed cocaine?  That's
bullshit.  We need more context for this term to be justified, or it needs
to be retracted.  We youths are unjustly slandered all the time in the media
as thugs and criminals and to see this replayed here on a marxist list with
trifling qualification is troubling.  In pictures of the mini-riot I see a
young Black woman running up on a police car as if about to kick it ((you
can see it here - 5th pic down:
http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/01/08/protests-for-slain-oscar-grant-turn-violent-officer-resigns/
).  Is this woman an anarchist from SF/Berkeley who chose not to wear
something to cover her face unlike the other anarchists in the photos, or
maybe an Oakland "street thug"?  Maybe she's just a pissed off youth who had
EVERY reason to be mad following this horrible murder of Oscar Grant.  Well
since Charles Andrews claims that this riot was conducted in part by "street
thugs known in Oakland" I assume he will be able to provide details about
why exactly they qualify to be slandered as 'street thugs,' including this
woman.  And if even ONE of the 108 arrested is an Oakland resident that
doesn't deserve that term then Charles Andrews has descended into the exact
same slander that the bourgeois media does and it is despicable.

But my main problem with his post was that besides the suggestion of better
organized and marshalled protests - which I agree with and suggest he takes
an active hand in doing - he centers in (by way of the blog comment he
quoted and defended) on his opinion that the police need more funding.  We
marxists should be better than that.  But here is Charles:  "Oakland has a
small police department. That might be fine with Sky, but Oakland residents
suffer a huge rate of robberies and burglaries, which are rarely
investigated and solved. The robbers know this and are happy. Oakland
working people are not." Does Charles hang out with these robbers, does he
interview them?... I mean, he must have some sort of interface with them to
know they are "happy"  right?  He can't just be making this up... can he?
Besides that, a youth just got murdered for no reason by the police and this
man is talking about how the police need more money to solve robberies?!
Did I just enter the fuckin twilight zone?!  If this doesn't qualify as
being an apologist for capitalist police then what does?

Me, myself, as someone who does gang outreach among Latin Kings and Bloods
gang members I have a few people that I consider good friends that are doing
time right now for robbery incidents.  I know it won't be popular on this
list to even make the following point, but I feel I have to.  Of the people
I know in prison particularly for robberies, these are people that never had
a chance.  They're not from working class backgrounds, they're from what we
call "the gutter."  They come from the projects, went to shitty schools and
all at least partially grew up within the juvenile prison system.  They're
not "happy" that America has turned its back on them since day one.  I do
outreach with these young brothers and sisters and when some of them want to
leave the gang life and the criminal life they usually can't find jobs.
There are VERY LITTLE job opportunities for people with criminal records,
horrible schooling and little job experience.  Unemployment has just
officially risen to 7%, and I have gone through the agonizing process time
and time again of trying to find a gang member who was previously involved
in crime a job, often unsuccessfully.  The feelings of frustration, anger
and powerlessness I feel at rarely being able to provide gainful employment
for these people is overwhelming.  But instead of coming to a comprehensive
view about who these criminals are and what leads them to the choices they
make, Charles portrays them as parasitic villains who laugh all the way to
the bank after robbing the working class blind.  To listen to Charles you'd
think that Oakland defies the national trend and doesn't send minority
youths to prison at alarming rates because the police don't have enough
funding.  I guess Oakland is a haven for crime where no one goes to jail!
Newsflash Charles:  getting robbed in any major city rarely leads to a
conviction.  But that doesn't mean they ain't locking a shit load of people
up.  And it certainly doesn't mean that a bigger budget for cops is the
answer to our problems.  To even MENTION more funding for police on a thread
about a youth murdered by police is to spit on Oscar Grant's grave and
Charles should be ashamed of himself.

This is the first time I've ever heard of a marxist calling for more funding
for the police.  Is that what marxism is coming to?  We're allies with the
capitalist police force now?  Charles should start a petition for more
police funding if he feels so passionately about it.  You won't see me
signing it.  I keep it fucking real.  My friend caught a stray bullet in his
shoulder in Jamaica, Queens, NYC three nights ago and when the cops came to
the hospital they treated him like the criminal.  Maybe I should advocate
for the Queens police department to get more funding, maybe then they'd have
treated my friend like the respect a victim deserves.  Or maybe I should use
the tools of marxism to understand that the police are here to oppress us
and protect the ruling class, and that it was that same Queens police
department who murdered Sean Bell for no reason.  How could I, in good
conscience, ever say that they should get more money?  Charles, it is the
POLICE who are the THUGS, not the oppressed youths out here.  You've lost
your god damn mind, and I suppose the ability to apply marxism in 2009, if
you think otherwise.

And as for Louis' comment about the relation to racism in this incident,
people can note that on me and my brother's blog we didn't even file it
under "racism."  To quote the leader of the Augusta, Georgia New Black
Panther Party when speaking on the police's recent murder of Justin Elmore,
"Its not about the color of a person's skin.  We see it as a police
brutality issue."  Racism figures into many but not all police murders, and
ultimately it is the police brutality issue that I think is important for
marxists to enunciate and center in on.  Some of the cops that shot Sean
Bell were minorities, and likewise with the murder of Justin Elmore.  I will
never downplay racism, but it cannot explain every police terror act,
whereas police brutality and an analysis of why it exists can.

In Solidarity With My People Locked Down By This Capitalist Nation,

In Solidarity With Those Slandered As Thugs,

In Solidarity With Those Murdered By Police From Greece To Oakland,

Sky Keyes

www.malcolm-che.com


P.S.  If what I have said has dirtied the sensibilities of those on this
list I leave it to the moderator's discretion to take me off this list or
leave me on.


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