HANDS UP!, DON'T SHOOT!: THE GENOCIDAL KILLING OF MICHAEL BROWN AND A CASE FOR THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE OF THE NEW AFKIKAImBLACK COMMUNITY By: Uhuru Baraka-Rowe Yes. It has happened again. Another unarmed Black male murdered by the police. The location: This time in the racially-divided, predominantly Black town of Ferguson, Missouri. On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. and a friend were walking down the street in their own comaunity when they were confromted by an officer for allegedly interfering with traffic. Translation: They were confronted by the officer for the crime of "walking while Black.” The end result of this racial profiling was Brown succum- bing to a hail of bullets and his friend liter- ally running for his life. According to an eyewitness account given by 19-year-old Piaget Crenshaw- which aired on CNN on August 18- the officer tried to grab Brown from inside his police cruiser; there was a brief scuffle before Brown was able to free himself. Visibly upset that Brown freed himself, the officer exited his cruiser with his gun drawn and began firing his weapon at Brown as Brown ran down the street; as Brown turned around with his hands in the air screaming, "Don't Shoot! the officer maliciously and deliberately cont- inved to fire his service weapon- pumping Brown's body with mulitple bullets and exstinguishing the life of this recent highschool graduate. According to an independent autopsy report, Brown was shot a total of six times: four times to his right arm, once to his right eye, and once to the top of his head- evidence that he vas shot as he was bending over or in the process of falling down, and not “rushing" the officer as the officer would later claim. The renowned cellphone video recorded by Crenshaw shows the officer pacing nevously back and forth as Brown's bullet-riddled body lay uncovered in the middle of the street in his own community. The Ferguson Police Dept. refused to release the name of the officer responsible for Brom's murder while they concocted a story to justify such a violent end to the life of a young man who seemingly had a bright future ahead of him. As.a result of the lack of transparency by the Ferguson Police.Dept. regarding its inter- nal investigation of the officer involved and the ongoing trend of unarmed Black men and women being mercilessly murdered by the police, security guards, and self-appointed vigilantes, the Black community of Ferguson- together with other people of color and anti-racist whites- rose up in outrage to protest the un- justified shooting death of yet another unarmed young Black male. When it was clear the initial peaceful demostrations were on the verge of transitioning into a full-blown rebellion, the fascist Ferguson Police Dept. took to the streets in full military ragalia- armed with tear gas, smoke bombs, fully-automatic riffles and machine guns, and armored personnel vehicles. The streets of Ferguson resembled imperialist/ neo-colonialist occupation of a Third World nation. Failing to grasp the scicntific amaly- sis of counter-violence, this repressive show of force only exacerbated the situtation. The insurrection was on. More radical elements from amongst the peaceful protesters began engaging in. extreme. (non-violent) forms of civil disobedience in response to the military show of force and increased brutality by Ferguson's police force. The police began arresting and assaulting protesters they pro- voked-into confrontataions; including peace- ful bystanders, and reporters and journalists who were merely exercising their Constitution- al rights; discharging teargas, smoke bombs and flash grenades, shooting rubber bullets indiscriminately, pointing and aiming their riffles and machine guns at protesters, and marching behind armored personnel vehicles. Police terror was on full display. Having been thrust into the international spotlight, some interesting facts about Fergus- on were exposed tor the world to see: though Ferguson has a 67% Black population, 50 of Ferguson's 53 police officers are white; 5 out of 6 councilmembers are white; and both the police chief and fire chief are- you guessed it!- white. The unjustified shooting death of yet another unarmed Black male; the lack of transparency and militant show of force by the Ferguson Police Dept.; and the lack of Black political representation and leadership in key positions all led to a volatile mixture of distrust, fustration, hopelessness, and rage. Meanwhile, at the height of the insurrect- don, true to capitalist-imperialist-fascist form, Democratic Missouri Governor Jay Nixon resorted to counter- rwlutioary /counter-insur- gency tactics by taking security out of the hands of the Ferguson Police Dept. and trans- ferring it to the more repressive and militar- ized Missouri State Highway Patrol and the National Guard. Captain Ron Johnson- a Black man- of the Highway Patrol was paraded before the media and through the streets of Ferguson in a desperate attempt to gain the trust of the protesters. The use of "Black faces in high places” strategy is often used to quell or re-direct the revolutionary spirit of Blacks on the verge of waging revolution, and trans- form it into a more reformist and passive spirit. This strategy is designed to achieve one goal in Ferguson: manipulate the protest- ers- especially the radical elements- into believing the police-state is trustworthy and credible while sinultaneously taking their focus of f abolishing a corrupt system and re- placing it with People Pover. This strategy seemed to work until August 15th, when the Ferguson Police Dept. identified Darren Wilson as the pig responsible for ex- ecuting Brown in cold-blood;. en the same day, the police department also released a video of Brown ALLEGEDLY robbing a store moments before he was shot down. The release of the video is an old pyschological warfare tactic designed to turn “the people”- and thus, public sentiment- against Brown to quell an uprising and distort the truth. The tactic failed. The release-of the video refueled the flames of outrage as the protesters violently expressed their oppo- sition to the police departments indirect claim that because Brown was a suspect in robbery, he deserved to be shot down in the middle of the street in broad daylight like a rabid animal. What immediately followed was more pande- monium. Speaking about the violence before a crowd of protesters on August 16th, Captain Ron Johson stated: "What we (Black people) are doing is not who we are.” With all due respect to Capt. Johnson, but what New Afrikans and other oppressed people do in response to grave injustices- like the modern-day genocidal lychings of our men, women, and children by killer cops- is exactly who we are. Ever since Black people have been in this country, ve have been subjected to the most extreme form of systematic oppression and ex- ploitation, including genocidal lychings pur- posefully committed by law enforcement agencies to instill fear and terror in- and ultimately destroy- the New Afrikan communities. And, in most cases, it is because of "who we are” that has moved and inspired us to march, boycott, strike, protest, riot, and rebel when confron- ted with genocidal practices perpetrated upon our people. These systematic genocidal practices are to perform one fuction: destroy the New Afrikan conmunities. How do you destroy the New Afrik- an community? You retard its capacity te re- produce and sustain itself. How do you retard the capacity of the New Afrikan community to reproduce and sustain itself? By plaguing it with drugs, guns, liquor stores, poor health- care, under-funded/failed school systems, mass incarceration, joblessness, homelessness, hopelessness, and trigger-happy cops who patcol our communites eager to carry out state- sanctioned genocidal killings of the most vulnerable and unwanted "citizens" of this nation. In the aftermath of the atrocities committ- ed during World War II, the condemnation of genocide quickly achieved broad acceptance by the global community. In 1945, the U.N. General Assembly declared that genocide is a crime under international law, whether the perpetrators are "private individuals, public officials or statesmen." (G.A.Res.96 (I), 1 U.N. GAOR, U.N.Doc.A/64/Add.1, at 188-89 (1946)). On December 4, 1948, the U.N. Gensral Assembly adopted a "Conventjon on the Prevent- ion and Punishment of the Ciime of Genocide," declared and entered into force.an the 12th-of January, 1951, stating: "In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with in- tent to destroy, in whole or in part, a nation- al, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as such: A) killing members of the group; B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to Members of the group; ©) Deliberately inflictin on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; D) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; E) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." This convention was Tatified by the United States on February 23, 1989, and codified into law es 18 United States Code Annotated, Section 1091, and is often referred to as the “Genocide Tonvention Implementation Act of 1987." A ursory study of America's history and its treatrent of Iidigenous Natives (Rative Ameri- cans); Afrikans, and New Af¥ikans {so-called African Americans) since the year 1492, one will readily come to the conclusion that the forced mass migrations (maafa), sterilizations, lychings, and slavery of the above people meéfs everyone-of fhe criteria for the crimé of genocide: Modern-day genocide has takén mary forms; one spefically is the recént shootings deaths of unarmed Black men afic wofier ‘by racist killer cops, security guards, and self- appointed vigilantes. This claim is bolstered by a 2012 report published by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement titled, "Every 36 Hours: Extrajudicial Killings of Black People,” which stated that between January 1 and Jume 30 of 2012, “police, security guards, and self- appointed vigilantes have murdered at least 120 Black men and women. These killings are mot random acts of violence or the work of rogue 8- cops. The use of deadly force against Black people is standard practice in the U.S. woven into the fabric of society.” In 39 percent of these cases, police cited “suspicious behavior or appearance or traffic violations [driving while Black] as the reason for their attempt to detain [or question] the person whon they eventually killed." Of the 120 Black people killed by.police during the first .six months of 2012, 47 had no weapon at all and 40 were alleged by police to have weapons which later turned out to be toy guns, cellphones; wallets, etc. And most troubling, this report reveals a grim statistic: in America , " ne Black- person [is] executed [by police] every 36 hours." [a year end update to this report found a total of 313 killings in 2012- averaging one Black person killed every 28 hours by killer cops]. If this grim statistic holds true, there will be another another genocidal killing of an unarmed Black person before the dust settles in Ferguson. [How true this statement is? On October 8, 18-year-old Vonderrit Deondre Myers was shot a total of 7 to 8 times by an off- duty officer in St. Louis. Standing with a group of friends, Myers and friends were approached by the officer because they looked "suspicious." During a foot pursuit, the officer -9- alleged Myers shot at him 3 or & times. The officer fired a total of 17 shots. Though a gun vas alleged to have been found at the scene, Myers' family and community supporters believe Myers was unarmed. Store surveillance video recorded moments before his murder shows Myers apparently unarmed wearing only a black t-shirt and jeans. As was the case with Brown, Myers' criminal history was paraded in the media to direct sympathy away from Myers and Justify his death; and as in the case Brown, Myers' killer remains free on paid leave. Or- ganized civil disobedience, dubbed "A Weekend Of Resistance,” erupted in St. Louis between October 11-13]. On October 2, GNN reported that a St. Louis woman allegedly tweeted she "knew someone sitting on the Grand Jury" in the Brown case, and this juror revealed to her " here isn't enough evidence" to arrest or convict officer Darren Wilson. This leak reveals the kind of corruption and cover-ups we are all to familiar with. There will likely be no justice for Brown's family in ragards to their son and for the Black communities in general; as in nearly every other case, only the appearance of justice Will be sought by the Justice Dept. and the Ferguson judicial system to keep Brown's -10- family and the Ferguson residents pacified- at least until the protesters stop protesting and Our our demand for justice and outrage has subsided. Until the New Afrikan Black communites develop and national plan of action or strategy to confront, resist, and neutralize police harassment and brutality; and the extrajudicial genocideal killings of our sons and daughters by killer cops, security guards, and self- appointed vigilantes, there will be another Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Renisha McBride, Eric Garner, or Michael Brown coming soon to a city near you. Specifically, the New Afrikan Black communities need t - Create national independent institutions of learning that teaches Our people, the youth in particular, 1) The need for and the importance of embracing Our New Afrikan National Identity; 2) Our history of having decended from--not just enslaved Afrikans- but Queens and Kings in the most advanced and oldest civilizations in Afrika; 3) Our current reality of belonging to an oppressed/colonized nation within a nation which has consistently been subjected to the most extreme forms of structural and systematic racism, oppression, terror, exploitation, 11— brutality, and genocide; and 4) the knowledge and survival skills necessary to navigate a white supremacist patriachal system designed to kill New Afrikans' (and other people of color) minds, bodies, hopes, dreams, and aspirations. -Create mational independent patrol/security units to truly protect, serve, and secure Our New Afrikan communites from harassment, re- pression, terror, and genocidal killings by killer cops. History teaches Us America's police forces do not "protect and serve" New Afrikan Blacks.and other people of color; they only protect and serve the interests of the ruling capitalist elite while upholding white suprema- acy. In addition to the above, whenever an un- armed New Afrikan Black petson has been in- tentionally murdered (executed) by police, security guards, or self-appointed vigilantes, committed with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, New Afrikan people and communities, New Afrikans should collectively charge the Anerican government and its many police agencies with the crime of genocide in violation of both the "Convention on the Pre- vention and Punishment of the Crime Genocide" and the "Genocide Convention Implementation Act -12- of 1987 (Codified at 18 USCS §1091). 18 USCS §1091- under federal law- makes the crime of genocide committed by any private individual, public official or statesmen punishable by death or life imprisonment. ALL POWER to the protesters in Ferguson and the greater St. Louis county area. ALL POWER to the lumpen “street” organizations who came together in peace and solidarity to protest and resist police brutality and to protect the community. That was "gangsta" but revolutionary. Most importantly, ALL POWER to the people who don't fear FREEDOM! In love and solidarity, Uhuru Baraka-Rowe formerly known as Brian L. Rowe October 20. 2014 Anarchist Black Cross- Virginia Prison Chapter Unuru can always use your letters of love and light. Please write to: Uhuru Baraka-Rowe #1131545 Buckingham Correctional Center - Box 430 Dillwyn, Virginia 23936 Uhuru's other zines are available at: -13- South Chicago ABC Zine Distro /o Anthony Rayson P.0. Box 721 Homewood, Illinois 60430 (anthonyrayson@hotmail.com) Also, you can view Uhuru's other articles, Ppoenms, essays and other writing's at: 1) bostonanarchistblackcross.wordpress. con/pan/ 2) http:// sfbayview.con/2013/08/virginia-priseher- inspired-by-the-california-prisoner-hunger-strikers- ‘and-the-bay-view/ 3) http:// sfbayview.con/2014/09/hands-up-dont-shoot - d’u?gpo:idql-kghrg-offldnd-b:wn/ 4) sfbayview.con/tag/brian-lee-rowe 5) freerepublit.com 6)facebook.com/incarceratedworkers/posts/ 270516926473790 7) bostonanarchistblackeross. files.wordpress. com/2014/08/pan-7-2-print-version-finall.pdf. 8) bostonanarchistblackcross.files.wordpress. com/2013/08/pan-6-2-print-version-£inal . pdf Uhuru's current address is listed at: http:// wi.cellpals.con/roweuhurubaraka0213. htn Uhuru BaraKa- Rowe *131545 B.x.c.c. P.O. Box 430 Ditlwyn V.A. 2393¢ “14- South Chicago ABC Zine Distro P.O. Box 721 Homewood, IL 60430