NBPP vs. NYPD

Editor's note: We interrupt the adventures of Koolredd to bring you the misadventures of the NYPD. This update is brought to you by Dominique. When she told me what went down, I tried to find some more info on the internet. Of course, there was a media blackout, now if one of these pigs had got shot...The worst part is we sleeping so much, we harlem shaking to our own oppression.

(Your not gonna hear about this on the news, but you know that aint nothing new… what the proverb say…"Until lions have historians, hunters will always be heroes.")



I was marching with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) prior to The New Black Panther Party's (NBPP) participation this past Sunday at the African Parade in Harlem. Everything was going beautifully; it was well-organized, and alive with festivities rich in Pan African culture.



All the sudden, a brutal attack on several NBPP members was carried out by the NYPD.



Now, let me make this clear about the NYPD's purpose at the parade: Participants in the parade were in the middle of the street and the police are required to stay on the sidelines to keep audience out of the street, not run in the middle of the street and start beating people who are part of the parade.



Apparently, they had a different agenda as we were nearing the end of our march. An NYPD officer was literally stomping on a NBPP member's head while other members were trying to save him but ended up catching the similar fate while the NYPD simultaneously began knocking cameras down, forming a circular blockade around the beatings, doubling the latter block up again to prevent clear composed shots of the incident for witnesses to this atrocity.



Juxtaposed to this scene, a group of kids started dancing, shouting "Black Power", obviously not fully understanding that these human beings are unjustifiably receiving capital punishment for representing the continuing effort for Black empowerment at this parade. It dawned on me at that moment, that this brutal treatment is not abnormal for them (and I'm sure for many others) rather a joke to be danced around. It wasn't fully their fault; I can go on all day about the factors that lead to this mentality and I'm sure you can too but watching them carry on made me feel helpless, angry and determined to keep pushing at the same time...we are in a lot of trouble and incidents like this definitely calls for a mass movement to uproot. There were 20,000 people at the parade, marching peacefully, not effectively prepared to protect ourselves legally and physically from the NYPD's lashing out. With their guns ready, Billy clubs and combat boots, the NYPD threw
some of the NBPP members in the police van. 20,000! I cannot stress enough the need to organize as a continuing process!



After the police took off with the publically victimized NBPP members, the remaining NBPP members along with the MXGM headed straight for the nearest precinct to see about the members' welfare (and in case you're wondering, the parade continued, while the police were all over the place looking for more "work" and yes, they brought out the dogs too; it was chaotic but apparently not "abnormal" for others, as more chaos ensued).



The NBPP lined in front of the precinct as we waited on the side. Yes, 20,000 people were there but only a handful of us and the remaining NBPP were concerned about this issue enough to walk away from the festivities and silently post in front of the 32nd precinct.



Alarmingly, we encountered two passersby who wanted to put their two cents(less) in saying," Ya'll wilding out yo, what? This ain't no Malcolm X movie, ya'll lining up like this is the movie or somethin', ain't no cameras out here son, ya'll wilding out."





So if you are in NY this Sunday and can free yourself briefly from your morning responsibilities, please come and "wild out" in concern for these young political prisoners at 100 Centre st, Part F, Manhatten/ 9 a.m. These are hard times not just for us as a people but for this country as a whole. This country is reaping what it has sown; we must persistently build, edify, (re)define and strengthen our support for one another en route for liberation on all fronts.



Peace

The Reformer II

"The black revolution is much more than the struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws - racism, poverty, militarism and materialism. It is exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggests that radical reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced... White America must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical change in the structure of our society. [...] For years I labored under the idea of reforming the existing institutions of the society, a little change here, a little change there... now I feel quite differently. I think you've got to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values"

--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

So the last time I attempted to comment on the difference between reform versus Revolution, some of you said "I still don't get it" and some of you said "i'm still reading your first post". It made me realize two things, I hadn't fully explained myself and two some of you mofo's can't read, three, I love you illiterate mofo's for attempting to read my posts(i promise to add pics or videos or maybe candy to this joint for my illiterate folks out there), four, a lot of what i said sounded a lot like King in one of his last essays "A testament of hope". That's right kiddies--King became a Revolutionary and a socialist later on in life when he realized all that reformism stuff was like banging your head on a brick wall.

So here's the difference. Reform is perfecting the system while Revolution is creating a whole new system. Revolution replaces the values and thereby the institutions of a given society. Reform does not question the values or underlying assumptions of a given society so it may produce change, but does not seek a radical alteration of society. It's the difference between a Party and a movement. It's the difference between reacting spontaneously to circumstances and being conscious of the reasons behind everything you do. It's the difference between instinct and reason.

It's this consciousness I tried to point to last time. Without a Revolutionary consciousness there is no Revolution. A lot of times we fall short and only reach a resistance consciousness--we know what we fighting against, but not necessarily what we're fighting for. I respect the civil rights movement, the decolonization movement, the anti-apartheid movement but don't call it a Revolution. A Revolution overturns system, it does not seek to become a part of. This doesn't happen spontaneously or overnight. And yes, there will be a violent phase, but the real work is transforming a resistance consciousness to a Revolutionary consciousness. It's not glamorous, it's not gonna get you a spot on the 7' o clock news. But, the day-in day-out battle of ideas is where the Revolution is won. That's the only way we get to the underlying root causes rather than just attacking symptoms.

Imperialism on the rise...

So Mugabe has ceded some power
to the MDC. I feel sick. He has been forced to bend to the will of the imperialists. It's the same script getting played over and over again. Revolutionary or at least progressive leader stands up to imperialism and of course imperialism does everything within its power to bring him down and restore their global order. Either a coup or prop up some puppet opposition. My admiration for Cuba in their steadfast resistance-- just 90 miles from the belly of the beast--grows by the minute. I feel sick, but I know we haven't lost. I know it was a victory when these swine tried to impose their UN security measures and China and Russia vetoed it. I know it was victory Mugabe actually was allowed to win the elections and they haven't assassinated him. I feel sick, but the struggle continues.

Hasta La Victoria!!

The Reformer

So I was talking to my neighbor who was telling me how we(my generation) had it so much easier and how we were screwing things up with all these gangs and babies having babies etcetera etcera...He proceeded to tell me how I should be a mayor or president or something so he could just kick back and collect checks.

I had to break it down to him that there was no way I was running for no office. And no i'm not voting for the green party or a socialist party either. Our problems are bigger than Pookie selling crack on the corner, or officer Bob beating down Tyrone. Until we realize the root cause of our problems are systematic, not just individuals making bad choices we gonna continue to try and put a band-aid on a bullet wound. A little welfare here, a little job corp there, a rally today, a boycott tomorrow is about as useful as a blind man at a wet t-shirt contest.

So how do we make real change? Well first we gotta know the difference between reform and revolution cuz the two aint the same. The two can't exist in the same place at the same time like a full fridge and a fat kid(yea i'm talking to you HD). Having black faces in high places aint gonna solve our problems. Voting sure aint gonna solve our problems. We can't work within the system to fix the system. Capitalism is just the modern day form of slavery. The basic relations still exist. Most of us aint capitalists(we aint got no capital), we the ones being capitalized on.

Revolution means realizing the million dollar "journalists" on CNN and BBC and in the N.Y. Times or Daily News aint really for you. They sitting pretty and playing they position. You don't see no real dissidents on their programs--no socialists, no communists. Freedom of speech really mean freedom to own the press and continue to spread the misinformation and deception and keep you ignorant. Revolution means realizing where your real interests lie and that this system gotta die. Revolution means realizing your enemy could come in just about any shape,color or creed. If you show you're useful, capitalism will use you.

Ready for the Revolution!!!

The Obamaniac

"True change doesn't come through the ballot box -- even though we're all taught that it does. For voting was instituted to insure stability, not change. I know this may seem somewhat sacrilegious to many entranced during this current political season, for it certainly looks like change. But if we look deeper, we see how the very process itself -- the campaign -- is an exercise in conformity. People come to political campaigns to reassure themselves that their politicians won't bring too much change. In essence, our political campaigns are little more than slick popularity contests: who looks best? Who makes me feel most comfortable?” –Mumia Abu Jamal


So I asked Maisy, “what do you think about Mckinney running for president?”. She vocally corroborated what her blank stare had been telling me for the past few seconds with a response of “who?”. Once I explained Mckinney’s history as an African woman formerly of the “democratic” party and how she was now running under the banner of the Green party, her response was “ why she hating? she gonna mess it up for Obama”. Right there, lurking in my midst was another poor victim of Obamamania. I of course, tried to free my dear friend from the grips of this spell that has inexplicably swept the nation. Under intense pressure, you could almost see her curl up into a mental fetal position as she retreated to a defensive posture and began to run the A.B.M.(anybody but McCain) line, a close cousin to the A.B.B. line, but not nearly as popular.

Man, this “change we can believe in” crap is so smooth, even Castro been sipping the kool-aid. He called Obama the most progressive of all the presidential candidates. That’s when you know Obamamania has reached epidemic proportions. People you thought would be immune to this sort of hustle are falling victim left and right. The truth is, the difference between “democrat” and “republican” is like the difference between coke and pepsi. Am I lying? Take a look at who hasn’t fallen victim Obamamania. If they really were that different, there’s no way Lieberman would have flipped and started helping the top guy for the other team. What about all these Clinton fanatics who refuse to fall in line behind Obama? On the issues, Obama and Clinton are like twins. The fact that so many of these Clintonistas would go for the other team or even consider it, shows that there isn’t a big difference between any of them. For most voters, it really just comes down to a matter of who is cooler, or cuter or funnier or not as intelligent(George Bush) or whatever they use to distinguish the candidates in their own minds (I personally gave up on that pointless exercise a very long time ago). It certainly aint any type of meaningful change that distinguishes them.

As long as people continue to slop up this garbage about there being 2 parties(they really are on the same team) and you really have some big choice to make, we won’t get any meaningful change. That’s why I for one was happy to hear Mckinney was running for the green Party. It shows people are starting to wake up. The greatest weapon the enemy has is being able to control our thinking. In fact, the only way this so called democracy works is if the majority of us remain sleeping. That’s the only way we would continue to allow ourselves to be pimped by the american capitalist machine.

Ready for the Revolution!!!