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<h1 class="title">Obama Supports the Racial Surveillance That Killed
Trayvon </h1>
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<div class="submitted">Wed, 07/24/2013 - 15:09 — Glen Ford</div>
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<small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blackagendareport.com/content/obama-supports-racial-surveillance-killed-trayvon">http://blackagendareport.com/content/obama-supports-racial-surveillance-killed-trayvon</a></small></small><br>
<p>”<em>Blacks are hyper-surveilled from damn near cradle to the grave,
both within and outside their communities.”</em></p>
<p>President Obama pretended to cross over to the Black side for a few
minutes, <u><a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/politics/obama-zimmerman-verdict">last
week</a></u>, in response to near-universal Black rage at George
Zimmerman’s acquittal in the stalking and murder of Trayvon Martin.
According to a Washington Post-ABC News <u><a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/07/22/zimmerman-verdict-86-percent-of-african-americans-disapprove/?print=1">poll</a></u>,
87 percent of African Americans believe the shooting was unjustified,
compared to only one out of three whites. Blacks made their outrage
visible in hundreds of demonstrations and vigils across the country,
prompting even Obama’s most hardcore apologists to beseech their icon
to say <em>something</em> to put the angry Black genie back in the
bottle.</p>
<p>Beginning his performance with “Once the jury’s spoken, that’s how
our system works,” and an endorsement of the propriety of the trial,
Obama half-mumbled <u><a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/politics/obama-zimmerman-verdict">2,100
words</a></u> designed to indicate that he is aware of “a history of
racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws, everything
from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws” – and then
almost immediately washed his hands of the matter with the caveat: “The
criminal code and law enforcement is traditionally done at the state
and local levels, not at the federal levels.” Stand Your Ground laws
are something that might be reexamined “if they are designed in such a
way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and
confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather
than diffuse potential altercations.” Mostly, Obama was concerned with
reestablishing “trust” in the system. “I think it would be productive
for the Justice Department, governors, mayors to work with law
enforcement about training at the state and local levels in order to
reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently
exists.”</p>
<p>“<em>The groundswell of furious Black protest forced Obama to recall
a time when he used to be Black, too.”</em></p>
<p>Obama insisted, in closing, that “things are getting better” in
America, despite the proliferation of <u><a
href="http://www.propublica.org/article/the-23-states-that-have-sweeping-self-defense-laws-just-like-floridas">Stand
Your Ground</a></u> laws designed to justify precisely the vigilante
murder and acquittal that occasioned his “impromptu” press conference.</p>
<p>The fact is, Trayvon Martin’s death was quite ordinary, as was the
impunity granted to Zimmerman – once by cops, the second time by jury.
What was extraordinary, was<strong> </strong>the groundswell of
furious Black protest, a response so fierce it forced Obama to recall a
time when he used to be Black, too.</p>
<p>His cop-out – that most laws are made at the state level – belies
the fact that Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are champions of
mass incarceration, insulating the federal prison system from
austerity, even as he slashes Medicare and Medicaid budgets and the
sacred cows of defense and Homeland Security. While state prison
populations have declined, overall, mainly due to budget pressures, the
federal prison system “continues to grow by about 3 percent a year,”
according to <u><a
href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/obama-federal-prison-budget">Mother
Jones</a></u>. For this administration, mass incarceration is top
priority.</p>
<p>Filling up those prison beds with Black and brown bodies requires
the maintenance and expansion of a monstrous system of
hyper-surveillance – the foundation stone of the Incarceration State.
Racial surveillance, transforming whole communities into
Constitution-free zones, is the feeder system of the American Gulag. It
is the reason that one out of every eight prisoners on planet Earth is
an African American, and that one out of three Black American men will
wind up with felony records. Study after study has shown that young
Blacks use illegal drugs with the same or less frequency than whites,
yet Blacks are far more likely to be arrested and incarcerated for drug
offenses – due to massive racial surveillance. You find the crime you
look for.</p>
<p>“<em>For this administration, mass incarceration is top priority.”</em></p>
<p>When the president told the nation, last week, that
“African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the
criminal justice system,” he was attempting to frame white fears of
Blacks as somehow practical and commonsensical, rather than racist.
(Obama denied that racism is “endemic” to the U.S. in his <u><a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-th_n_92077.html?view=print&comm_ref=false">Philadelphia
speech</a></u> on race, in March, 2008.) In the real world of
pervasively racist America, Blacks are hyper-surveilled from damn near
cradle to the grave, both within and outside their communities.
“Involvement” in the criminal justice system is all but inevitable.</p>
<p>Hyper-surveillance places the assumption of guilt on the peoples and
communities that are targeted – which, in the U.S., means all Black
people (even Barack Obama – “until I was a senator,” he said).
Hyper-surveillance – its justification and practice – stripped Trayvon
Martin of the presumption of innocence, marking him with a fatal
presumption of guilt. <u><a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/07/22/zimmerman-verdict-86-percent-of-african-americans-disapprove/?print=1">Two-thirds</a></u>
of whites still believe his death was justified, despite the clear
facts of his innocence. That’s why his death is ordinary – because
ordinary white people routinely condone such killings.</p>
<p>“<em>I think Ray Kelly is one of the best there is.”</em></p>
<p>And so, in practice, does Obama, despite his press conference
theatrics. The president has high praise, and possibly a powerful
appointment in store, for Ray Kelly, the New York City Police
Commissioner who has overseen and defended over <u><a
href="http://www.bqbrew.com/2013/04/11/nys-stop-and-frisk-election/">five
million</a></u> stop-and-frisks since 2002, overwhelmingly targeting
Black and brown men. Obama is looking for a new head of Homeland
Security. “I think Ray Kelly is one of the best there is,” <u><a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/07/18/would-obama-consider-ray-kelly-for-homeland-security-amid-stop-and-frisk-controversy/?print=1">Obama
said</a></u>.<strong> </strong>Kelly proudly justifies his management
of the Mother-of-All-Stop-and-Frisk operations, as intended “<u><a
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/senator-kelly-stop-frisk-instill-fear-blacks-latinos-article-1.1304763">to
instill fear</a></u>” in young Blacks and Latinos that they may be
patted down by a cop whenever they leave their homes. Kelly also
created a massive program to <u><a
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/raymond-kelly-defends-spying-calling-essential-safety-strategy-city-article-1.1032607">spy
on Muslims</a></u>, not only in New York City but in other localities,
and arranged for CIA agents to be embedded in the NYPD to conduct
domestic surveillance – which is illegal.</p>
<p>Obama is, of course, well aware of Kelly’s huge contributions to the
cause of racial and ethnic hyper-surveillance, and has given his
wholehearted endorsement. The First Black President encourages the
killing of more Trayvons throughout the “Homeland,” just as he orders
so-called “signature” mass murder-by-drone of males of a certain age in
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia (along with whatever women and
children may be within the missile’s kill zone).</p>
<p>The rage that forced Obama to don his “Black” identity must be
channeled into sustained political action – a Movement – that directly
confronts the dehumanization and targeting of Black America at its
root: the mega-profiling of hyper-surveillance. Otherwise, it's all
sound and fury, signifying…not much.</p>
<p><em>BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at </em><u><a
href="mailto:Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com"><em>Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com</em></a></u><em>.</em></p>
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