Philly Cops kick, punch, drag 3 suspects
We’ve seen this movie before. Philadelphia police officers - more than a dozen of them assaulted 3 Black men - Dwayne Dyches, Brian Hall and Pete Hopkins over allegations that they were involved in a shooting earlier in the day. The officers caught up with them and decided to play judge and jury, but thankfully not executioner this time.
Rev. Al Sharpton is up in New York leading a protest of thousands - blocking traffic and engaging in civil disobedience in an effort to force a federal investigation of the Sean Bell murder where officers shot off 50 bullets into Bell’s car on his wedding day.
This video of the Philadelphia beating is eerily similar to the Rodney King beating tape.
No, Rodney. We can’t just get along. All over this country African Americans are being brutalized by individuals with badges and guns who seem to operate above the rule of law - including right here in Baltimore. The cops who engage in these types of vicious acts are often described as rogue cops or “bad apples” on the force.
However, I believe that the police department as a system was never designed to engage the African American community lawfully or with fairness and respect. Don’t miss that - I said the SYSTEM. I’m not talking individuals now - I’m talking about the set of connected policies and organized procedures which characterize how things are done.
The historic foundation of that Police System is one that has near its root, the terrorizing of Africans in America going all the way back to slave patrols. It’s so commonplace in our thinking that we don’t even pay much attention to the fact that it was police officers who didn’t just allow the lynching, raping, and brutalizing of Black people in America, but they often participated themselves! Their participation in the terrorism then gave legal cover to their peers who joined them. Thus, for example, with the thousands of lynchings that have occurred in America, not one person has ever been convicted of this heinous crime despite the fact that we have pictures to prove who was involved!
That’s why the next book that I’ll be adding to my library is Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Powers in America. The author, Kristian Williams will be in Baltimore Monday, May 12, 2008 7PM at Red Emmas. It’s sure to be an enlightening presentation.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
This reminds me of the days when Mayor Goode confronted the Move Group squatters in Philadelpia a couple of decades ago. Conditions have apparently improved, at least the Police and Mayor’s office did not collaborate and have a incendiary device dropped on the perps, this time!