The US political and criminal justice system has created a “repressive state” and granted impunity to police officers to murder people across the country, especially in black and poor communities, a researcher and historian in Washington says.
“This isn’t a problem of police brutality; this is an issue of the impunity of police departments across America being given a green light that they can murder, preferably African Americans but also other people,” said Dr. Randy Short, a member of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization.
“The issue is an undemocratic and inhumane tradition of the Anglo-American elite class that does not see the value in life of any people that are poor, blacks in particular but others [as well],” Dr. Short told Press TV on Saturday.
“Just looking at the police without looking at the larger judiciary, mass incarceration, mass abortion, the outsourcing of the industrial base where there are not jobs for tens of millions of people, the destruction of whatever social safety net that we had means that there will be more of this and pointing the fingers simply at the police shows a lack of sophistication and understanding of the American people,” he added.
Major rallies held Friday in New York City to mark the one-year anniversary of Eric Garner’s death by the hands of police were met with “mass arrests,” Short noted.
The protesters chanted “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as they continued to press for criminal justice and police reform. Many held signs saying, “Strong communities make police obsolete,” and “end police brutality.”
“It is the larger governing structure of the country that they need to be protesting and it is these people who vested the police with the right to kill, steal and destroy while calling it law and order,” Dr. Short noted. “This is very reminiscent of Nazi Germany or any other repressive state.”
The New York Police Department (NYPD) filled at least three vans with arrested protesters, according to accounts from witnesses.
Garner, a 43-year-old African American from Staten Island, died last year after being placed in a chokehold by a white police officer. His death was recorded on cell phone video.
A grand jury later declined to indict eight-year NYPD veteran Daniel Pantaleo, sparking weeks of angry protests in New York and elsewhere in the United States.
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