“We pay your salaries and you have your assault rifles ready to shoot us unarmed protesters!?!? Stop paying them, people!” A poverty skolar shouted from the crowd where about 100 people had gathered in front of the Tenderloin police station in SF to speak up against police terror, murder and blantant brutality that is swiftly plauging many states in the nation once again.
Worldwide unrest opposing the murders of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Atatiana Jefferson and Ahmaud Arbery will not “quiet down” anytime soon, nor should it, because as long as the police perpetuate a form of domestic terrorism our voices shall be heard in unison demanding justice for our murdered loved ones.
While president trump was at a rally in Arizona making up racist names to replace the name of “co-vid” Rayshard Brooks was being laid to rest in a private celebration of life service in Atlanta and people including young students took to the streets in Berkeley and San Francisco in opposition of police terror.
Protesters that were at the Tenderloin police station had also called out the constant criminalization of the homeless in the city by police and other officials citing that power washing away poor people’s tents without having adequate resources available for those in need with housing, mental health and substance abuse problems is not the solution to the houseless epidemic but to support those in crisis during the covid pandemic and not leave people in the streets basically to die.
The demand was to cease the abundance of funding to police departments and take some of the financial resources and redirect them into more programs that would serve the communities’ needs such as education, healthcare, affordable housing, mental/drug treatment programs and most of all - equal opportunity.
“Every time there is a crisis or a state of emergency due to a disaster, poor people’s lives are always looked over and swept under the rug” said one protester. “Our lives do not matter not only when it comes down to the police, but the system as a whole.”
Some folks argue that if the police departments were to be defunded, that the crime rate will hit the roof because there would be no police officers to serve and protect the citizens. Unfortunately not every cop on the job “protects and serves” unless they are protecting more affluent neighborhoods and serving impoverished folks with the butt of their billy clubs-or worse. The excuse of police brutality victims engaging in alleged criminal activities is played out and does not give authorities the right to hand out death sentences, with that said the criminal activity amongst police departments must be called out indefinitely because criminals in uniform do not deserve one red cent from the very people that they (police) oppress and kill on a daily basis.
The severe discord between the police and the black community has its history of not only brutality, but fear itself because who in the community would dare call a cop when the chief himself was the grand dragon of the KKK? The deep-seeded racism that “kept colored folk in their places” is also a tactic that conditioned black communities and other communities of color to become complacent with being victimized and refusing to report crimes out of fear of being killed and nowadays, deported and with that layer added we have a long way to go.