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Pigs in the Bay Area community of Hunter's Point celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. day this year by terrorizing and beating up four Black kids between the ages of 12 and 14 and then telling their parents, "As long as you people are here, we will act like this." The kids were sitting in a car listening to music in front of their houses.
A cop forced 12-year-old Janell Harris out of the car onto her knees, then pushed her face to the ground and held a gun to her head while her mother watched helplessly. The cops forced the other kids into the same position. According to her mother, Janell still can not sleep at night from the terror of the experience. Fourteen year-old Jerome Brown witnessed the attack. The pigs beat him for asking them to "take the guns off my li'l cousin."
He suffered a concussion, a broken jaw, and needed stitches inside and outside of his mouth. Janell's stepfather objected to the brutality so another pig rushed him and beat him while forcing him into a police car. Witnesses asked the cops for their names and badge numbers but the pigs refused to give out this information. The cops then cuffed all the kids tightly and picked them up by their cuffs. Two parents asked the cops if they could cross the street to be with their kids and were told that if they crossed the street they would be shot. The pigs then searched the kids.
According to the mother of one girl "The police were starting to search the children. One of the officers took the palm of his hand and went across my daughter's breast. I started screaming that they needed to get a female police officer out here. The police officer continued to feel down my daughter. He went up between her legs to her crotch and lifted her sweater and felt on her behind with the palm of his hand." The cops searched the car, claiming that they had received a call about guys with guns and ski masks in a red car. They found nothing in the car. They released the two girls but took the two boys to the station. One of the girls was told that if she wanted to be released she had to sign a piece of paper. To this day no one is sure what she signed.
Since the beatings those same cops continue to patrol Hunter's Point, driving by the houses of the residents slowly and even giving out candy to kids in the neighborhood. The community is outraged and the parents are actively organizing to get these cops dismissed from the police force.
But they understand that this is not a question of just a few bad cops. Hunter's Point residents point out that usually the cops take an hour or more to respond to calls for help, if they respond at all. The pigs are not there to serve the people. They occupy the Black community as an army occupies territory.
This is an ongoing struggle. MIM Notes will report on upcoming protests. For information on how you can join MIM and RAIL at planned demos, contact mim124@mim.org. Expose the true purpose of the entire criminal injustice system, from the cops to the courts to the prisons: Social control of the oppressed nations!