As I was sitting in my apartment last night with a helicopter hovering over my head and sirens blaring as the cops circled my community in their caravan, I was thinking about what working class black organizers and intellectuals have long known: the police are an occupying military force here in New York and other cities around the country. Cops are not workers. They are managers for the capitalist state. They’re the outside agitators who invade the city from Long Island and assault our communities in order to protect the private property of their wealthy masters. When the masses demand justice they are met with tear gas and police batons. The corporate media seems to care more about the broken windows of billion dollar corporations that have built their wealth on looting the workers of the world than the broken jaws of civilians who are taking a stand against the extrajudicial executions by state officials of our black brothers and sisters. When the coronavirus struck our communities it revealed that we have been starved of the necessary resources to deal with any sort of public health crisis. Now over a 100,000 are dead and the total continues to climb. But there always seems to be enough money for state violence. As the social welfare state has been drained, the budget for state violence overflows with military grade equipment for the expanding police force and more cages for the black communities they attack. However, this is not the time to despair. The oppressed are standing up and fighting back. Shoutout to all the courageous comrades out there on the frontlines. Today we’re joined by two returning guests, Cheryl and Justin, to discuss the uprisings against police violence and for black liberation. https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/nypd-budget-defund-disclosure-senator-salazar/
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