(en) Brazil, Unio Popular Anarquista (UNIPA) The performance of young black Michael Brown by police: the extermination of youth and popular self-defense (pt)

[machine translation]

"There is no capitalism without racism." ---- Malcom X ---- On August 9, 2014, the black 
young Michael Brown, 19, was killed by police in Ferguson, in Missouri, USA. In the 
version of the police, the young man would have tried to attack and steal weapons from 
police during a street approach. This version has not been confirmed by witnesses. Was 
also denied by an amateur video made by a local resident during the approach and 
contradicted the result of an autopsy of the body of the young man, who pointed the 
execution of Michael by police. According to witnesses, Michael walked down the street 
toward his grandmother's house when a car stopped and the policeman shouted at him "back 
fucking". What followed was nine shots against the young man who was unarmed and with his 
hands on his head. Michael Brown's body was lying on the ground for several hours 
accompanied by about 60 police officers while a multitude of popular met.

Spontaneous gatherings of people kept happening throughout Saturday by Ferguson, which is 
a suburb of residents, what we would call in Brazil a "dormitory town". Expressions of 
outrage continued throughout the week. Still on the 10th, a vigil gathered thousand 
residents of Ferguson. As the population agglutinated the repressive apparatus of the 
American police state went into operation with the practice of the curfew, by sending 
police on the outskirts of Ferguson, SWAT teams with guns, armored vehicles and K-9 teams 
that make use of trained dogs. In response, young blacks, whites and Latinos organized 
looting of the city, set fire to petrol stations and bus stopped. During the week the 
public service was paralyzed.

The case gained national proportion cynical statement after Obama on August 18 that "there 
are no excuses for the police to use excessive force" against protesters and detain 
journalists. Added to this measures send Secretary of Justice and the FBI to review the 
case. On June 20, residents of what Ferguson saw was the presence of the National Guard 
acting against popular demonstrations, arresting 60 people initially. The American 
bourgeois media ranked the protests as peaceful and violent (the same strategy used by the 
mainstream media in Brazil in July 2013) in an attempt to divide the popular revolt. The 
role of the media provoked reactions when it started to post personal pictures of Brown 
supposedly doing a typical sign of a gang. In social networks users came out in defense of 
Michael and there were protests in front of the headquarters of CNN.

Racial war or class war?

Ferguson is a location that has high levels of unemployment and racism. It has about 
21,000 inhabitants, of whom 70% are black. Unemployment is 47% in young black men between 
the ages of 16-24 years. Already in the whites of the same age group is 16%. Most of the 
police force of the city is formed by whites. These numbers are related to the history of 
the state of Missiouri own, the last to abolish slavery in the USA.

?Given the events in Ferguson around the execution of Michael Brown, the most common 
narrative that graduated classified the incident as racial tensions derived. This was also 
the narrative propagated by the bourgeois media in Brazil (G1, R7). However, to reveal the 
racism that does exist in the United States, concealed tensions existing class also there. 
Sort of racial tension protests and looting in Ferguson does not explain the participation 
of whites and Latinos in popular street actions. The narrative of "race war" does not 
explain the whole issue and creates obstacles to understand what goes on Ferguson as a 
fact of class struggle.

Given the facts, the state governor, Jay Nixon, put the safety of the city under the 
command of Highway Patrolman Ron Johonson black. The classification of "racial violence" 
is beneficial to the government and urged reformism that the presence of more black police 
officers on Ferguson as a political exit to the situation. "This is an opportunity to fix 
what is wrong," said Police Chief Thomas Jackson at a news conference. "We are working to 
find ways to get involved in the community. Racial relationships are our top priority. "

As we stated in the text of UNIPA Map of Violence: young and black in the sights of the 
murderous state: "It is important to reaffirm that violence is primarily a reflection of 
the class contradictions that underlie society, and in that sense the poor and the young 
suburbs and slums remains vulnerable to violence and crime because her rights to a 
bearable existence are denied by the state to ensure the maintenance of capital " . The 
AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the USA, limited his action asking Democrats to 
vote and send letters to legislators, because as the CUT in Brazil, is an arm of the 
government in the union movement. As stated Kareem Abdul -Jabbar, educational ambassador 
and six-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers, "Ferguson is not just a matter of 
systemic racism - it's about class struggle and how the poor are treated in the USA."

The Shooting Club Huey P. Newton and the rescue of Community Patrol


The popular revolt sparked demonstrations by Ferguson North American territory. The City 
of Dallas, State of Texas, another state with strong racist tradition, one of the main 
bases of the racist Ku Klux Klan, the popular reaction to classist and racist police 
violence came in the form of rescue community patrols.

On August 20, a group of 30 people conducted a patrol of armed self-defense in South 
Dallas in the afternoon. That same day occurred demonstrations against police violence in 
the city. The group, made up of men and women, blacks and browns, members of the Shooting 
Club Huey P. Newton, walked through the streets carrying rifles, shotguns and AR-15 
rifles, as well as tracks from the police and in favor of Michael Brown. "They are trying 
to protect the community," said Jacey Cofer the organization Mothers Against Youth 
Violence. The club's name is the name of one of the founders and Minister of Defense of 
the Black Panther Party.

Dallas also has rates of police violence. As stated by the Shooting Club Huey P. Newton, 
the last 10 years police killed more than 70 unarmed people, mostly blacks and browns. The 
police coercion community of black workers and browns is so present that despite the 
constant murder by police, since 1973 there are no official records of complaints against 
the police, unless a case where the police version was challenged by cameras surveillance.

The Shooting Club Huey P. Newton, is based on the tradition of popular self-defense 
practiced by the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States as a form 
of community control over the activities of the police and the State. The club seems to 
have ties to the New Black Panther Party and has a list of nonnegotiable demands 3: "1) We 
demand an immediate end to police brutality, harassment and murder of the people; 2) We 
affirm the right of people, especially those of color, to bear arms and protect 
themselves, where local, state and federal governments can not do it; 3) We demand that 
the media, in coordination with the police, immediately cease to assassinate the character 
of the victims of police terrorism " .

Before the extermination of poor black youth, and is in the USA, in Brazil, the Shooting 
Club Huey P. Newton shows that the way of the workers in the struggle against capitalist 
exploitation and racist oppression is a popular self-defense. This means not insecure 
claims for wage improvements for police or more black officers to serve as executioner of 
the poor, black, brown, indigenous. Resume popular self-defense by neighborhood, village 
or slum is resuming the role of workers against state violence, is already "we build with 
our own hands" the path of popular liberation against capitalism, the state and racism.

End of PM now!
Below the extermination of poor black youth!
Fighting, creating popular self-defense!