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<div id="node-14414" class="node clear-block"><b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blackagendareport.com/node/14414">http://blackagendareport.com/node/14414</a></small></small></small></b><br>
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<h2>The Treasonous 32: Four-Fifths of Black Caucus Help Cops
Murder Their Constituents</h2>
<h3>by BAR executive editor Glen Ford </h3>
<h5>“The Black Panther Party was right all along: in Black
America, the police are an occupation army.”</h5>
<p>In the wake of events in Ferguson, Missouri, the Obama
administration has been exposed as the biggest supplier –
more like “pusher” – of military equipment to local and
state police departments in the nation’s history. The
president’s operatives have displayed remarkable creativity
in finding ways to shovel record quantities of weapons,
vehicles and gear into the hands of cops, who seem
increasingly anxious to prove their killing skills. More
than a year before Michael Brown was extrajudicially
executed on the street at high noon, the Huffington Post’s <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/obama-police-militarization_n_3566478.html"
target="_blank">Radley Balko described</a> <span
class="print-footnote">[3]</span> how Obama has left no
rock unturned nor federal agency untapped in his quest to
transform every police department into a military unit,
ready in an instant to do battle with – whom?</p>
<p>We know whom: Black people, mainly young and male,
America’s public enemy number one ever since the white
settler nation began running out of natives to kill. No
sooner had official apartheid ended, in the Sixties, than
white society demanded the imposition of what Michelle
Alexander calls the New Jim Crow – a mass Black
Incarceration State capable of waging constant, preemptive
counterinsurgency warfare against an entire people. The
Black Panther Party was right all along: in Black America,
the police are an occupation army. Obama, like his
predecessors, has simply been taking care of the troops.</p>
<p>The same goes for the Congressional Black Caucus, the vast
majority of whose members voted against an amendment that
would have <a
href="http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/267477/speedreads-the-congressional-black-caucus-voted-to-preserve-police-militarization"
target="_blank">halted Pentagon military transfers to U.S.
police departments</a> <span class="print-footnote">[4]</span>,
back in the early summer. Had the Black people of Ferguson
not stood up – and stayed standing – demanding justice for
Michael Brown, the June 19 vote on Democratic Rep. Alan
Grayson’s amendment might have remained largely unnoted.
Instead, in the glare of popular outrage, four-fifths of the
Caucus has been revealed as vile hypocrites and traitors who
put battlefield weapons and human rights-suppressing
equipment in the hands of local cops. These <a
href="http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll329.xml"
target="_blank">Treasonous 32 – 27 “Nay” votes and 5
abstentions</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span>,
out of 40 – can never be forgiven, and should be denounced
and shamed at every opportunity, starting with this month’s
CBC Legislative Conference and
celebrate-good-times-for-the-few party, in Washington.</p>
<h5>“Four-fifths of the Caucus has been revealed as vile
hypocrites and traitors who put battlefield weapons and
human rights-suppressing equipment in the hands of local
cops.”</h5>
<p>Congressman Grayson, the white liberal, spoke with
compelling insight and honesty, but failed to sway the 32
CBC miscreants. “These weapons are not being used to defeat
terrorism on our streets,” he said. “Where is the terrorism
on our streets? Instead, these weapons are being used to
arrest barbers and to terrorize the general population. In
fact, one may venture to say that the weapons are often used
by a majority to terrorize a minority.” </p>
<p>Grayson understands perfectly which group is targeted. The
27 Black “Nay” voters and five abstainers also know the
truth, but rejected their duty to their constituents.</p>
<p>Since only eight Black congresspersons voted with Grayson,
it is more helpful to list their names and the five
abstainers than the 27 that voted to continue militarizing
the police. </p>
<p><b>Ayes (8</b>)
</p>
<ul>
<li>John Conyers (MI)</li>
<li>Donna Edwards (MD)</li>
<li>Keith Ellison (MN)</li>
<li>Hank Johnson (GA)</li>
<li>Barbara Lee (CA)</li>
<li>John Lewis (GA)</li>
<li>Robert Scott (VA)</li>
<li>Maxine Waters (CA)</li>
</ul>
<p>The eight comprise the remnants of the once-dominant
“progressive” faction in the CBC, now pitifully shrunken in
both quantity and quality, and sometimes disappearing
entirely.</p>
<p>Presumably, the five CBC members that abstained from voting
could not make up their minds whether they approved or not
of tanks, tear gas, 50-caliber machine guns, senses-crushing
crowd dispersers, and roving bands of snipers with night
vision goggles overrunning their constituent’s
neighborhoods. </p>
<p><b>Not Voting (5)</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Marcia Fudge (OH)</li>
<li>Charles Rangel (NY)</li>
<li>Cedric Richmond (LA)</li>
<li>Bobby Rush (IL)</li>
<li>Bennie Thompson (MS)</li>
</ul>
<p>The five abstainers, along with the 27 “Aye” votes,
represent a clear and present danger to the lives and
freedoms of Black Americans. They are conscious
collaborators with the Mass Black Incarceration State that
dehumanizes, frames, imprisons, humiliates, tortures, maims
and kills Black people for a living. </p>
<p>One of them represents Ferguson, Missouri. Rep. William
Lacy Clay has been drifting steadily to the right ever since
he inherited his father’s congressional seat in St. Louis.
Embarrassed at the grassroots revolt among his Black
constituents, Clay pretended the June 19 vote never
happened, and that he had opposed militarization of police,
all along. Clay and Emanuel Cleaver, of Kansas City, another
CBC supporter of police militarization, staged a meeting
with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “regarding our urgent
concerns about the militarization of local law enforcement
agencies through the distribution of surplus Department of
Defense equipment via the 1033 Program” – the very program
they had endorsed less than two months before.</p>
<p>Clay refused to answer whether the Pentagon’s arms and
equipment transfer program should be “flat ended,” but
applauded President Obama for ordering a “review” of the
practice. Clay <a
href="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/ferguson-congressman-alarmed-by-militarized-police/"
target="_blank">feigned innocence</a> <span
class="print-footnote">[6]</span>: “I was so alarmed when
I went to Ferguson and walked with the demonstrators and I
saw this heavily armed police force, tactical units,
pointing sniper rifles at my constituents who were there
exercising their constitutional right.”</p>
<p><b>As if none of this was his doing.</b></p>
<p><a
href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/emanuel-cleaver-ferguson-reaction-110139.html"
target="_blank">Cleaver</a> <span class="print-footnote">[7]</span>,
one of Clay’s many Black congressional partners in
prevarication, acted as if he had no idea what the 1033
program was actually up to. “Having military style weaponry
moving down the main street of a middle-American town is as
un-American as a coup d’état rather than an election.” </p>
<span class="print-footnote"></span>
<p><b>Party Time at the Black Caucus</b></p>
<p>In two weeks, the Congressional Black Caucus will
congratulate itself for having pulled off another year of
misrepresenting Black people’s interests. Of the
conference’s 104 scheduled workshops and sessions, just four
blocks of time are set aside for discussions even remotely
related to the U.S. criminal justice system, and only one
appears to deal directly with the issue: the <a
href="http://www.cbcfinc.org/images/09_04_14_Session_Publication_Listing.PDF"
target="_blank">Judiciary Braintrust</a> <span
class="print-footnote">[9]</span> session hosted by
Detroit Rep. John Conyers, titled “The Intersection of
Criminal Justice Reform and Racial Profiling.” Meanwhile, 13
sessions are dedicated to minority business concerns.</p>
<p>Of the five voting members on the CBC’s Justice System
Reform Working Group, only two – Hank Johnson (GA) and Bobby
Scott (VA) – voted for the Grayson amendment. Sheila
Jackson-Lee (TX) and Danny Davis (IL) voted “Nay,” and
Cedric Richmond, of Louisiana, abstained. </p>
<p>(The Black representatives from Washington, DC and the U.S.
Virgin Islands are not allowed to vote on the House floor.)</p>
<p>Of the 20 voting members of the Black Caucus Civil Rights
and Judiciary Taskforce, 15 voted to continue police
militarization, and two abstained.</p>
<p>Clearly, the CBC votes like a police auxiliary unit, while
talking a different game for Black public consumption. In
preparation for the Legislative Conference (and “Black
Party”) in two weeks, the Caucus compiled statements of deep
concern about police militarization – but no repentance or
self-criticism – from selected members.</p>
<p>Bobby Rush (IL), a former Black Panther who now votes to
arm police to the teeth, said: “Young black people are not
prey for police departments and their rights must be upheld
because they too are deserving of the sworn office duty to
serve and protect.” Then he passed the cops the ammunition.</p>
<h5>“The CBC votes like a police auxiliary unit.”</h5>
<p>Gwen Moore (WI), who used to be a dependable “progressive”
on most issues, has gone over to the weaponized side.
Nevertheless, she mouths platitudes for the dearly departed.
“I have faith that Michael Brown’s life will have a lasting
impact on this world and inspire hope that tomorrow will be
a more compassionate and understanding place to call our
own.”</p>
<p>Andre Carson (IN), who voted for a militarized police
force, seems to confess that he should know better. “As a
former police officer, I also know that law enforcement is
supposed to protect and serve, not intimidate and assault.” </p>
<p>Frederica Wilson (FL), a totally worthless politician,
said: “I am tired of burying young black boys. I am tired
of watching them suffer at the hands of those who fear
them....” But she never tires of giving police the
battlefield weapons to kill Black “boys.”</p>
<p>Joyce Beatty (OH) pretends to abhor the militarization of
cops: “It is clear that demilitarizing and deescalating the
situation immediately is necessary so justice for the Brown
family may prevail.” But she voted the opposite.</p>
<p>Steven Horsford (NV) acts as if he is surprised at what his
vote has wrought. “You should not be forced to choke on tear
gas to make your voice heard. You should not have to
withstand a shower of rubber bullets to assemble.”</p>
<p>Marcia Fudge (OH), chairperson of the Black Caucus,
abstained from voting, which is another way of saying she
refused to cut off the guns-and-tanks pipeline from the
Pentagon to the streets of Black America. But, you’d never
know that from reading her statement: “Instead of being
respected as citizens of this nation who have the right to
vocally oppose what they believe is mistreatment by those
meant to serve them, these people, many of whom are young
adults, were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and police
equipped as though they are militia in a war zone.” Where
did Fudge think all those weapons of war were going –
Ukraine?</p>
<h5>“When 80 percent of the Black Caucus supports further
militarization of the police occupation force, it should be
obvious where their loyalties lie.”</h5>
<p>Charles Rangel (NY), an abstainer, didn’t even bother to
address police militarization, but went straight to the
butt-kissing. “I thank President Obama for making certain
that the Department of Justice will conduct a thorough
investigation to determine whether there were any violations
of civil rights.” </p>
<p>What a sorry waste of the Black electoral franchise. When
80 percent of the Black Caucus supports further
militarization of the police occupation force, it should be
obvious where their loyalties lie. Blacks would be better
off with no congressional representation, than in empowering
such shameless agents of the enemy. Indeed, Blacks made far
more progress in the Sixties, when there were less than two
handfuls of Black congresspersons and the people spoke in
the streets, than with today’s pathetic platoon of
sell-outs. </p>
<p>Betrayal is the inevitable result of the demise of
independent Black politics in favor of absorption into the
Democratic Party, the servant of Wall Street. The least
folks can do is spoil a bit of the CBC’s corporate-fed
festivities, later this month, by joining the “Shame on the
Congressional Black Caucus” rally on Wednesday, September
24, outside the Washington Convention Center. It will be an
opportunity to denounce the CBC’s unanimous endorsement of
the Israeli apartheid regime’s crimes against Palestinians
("CBC, get a spine, don't you care about Palestine?"); the
Black Caucus’ overwhelming support for a corporate telecom
takeover of the Internet ("The internet belongs to the
people, not the corporations!"); and to express the most
extreme disgust with the 32 Black lawmakers that failed to
stand against militarized policing. </p>
<blockquote>“We found that the teargas used in Ferguson was
also used by Israel against the people of Gaza, and that the
teargas was made by a company in Pennsylvania,” said
Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture, an organizer of the September 24
rally. For Blacks lawmaker to support the continued
militarization of police “is inexcusable,” she said, “given
the history of police terrorism and brutality against the
Black people of this country. The CBC should be ashamed of
themselves.”</blockquote>
<p>Black Agenda Report is also <a
href="http://events.blackagendareport.com/node/25"
target="_blank">circulating a petition, demanding the
Black Caucus “denounce Israeli apartheid</a> <span
class="print-footnote">[10]</span> and side with the
public for Network Neutrality, free from corporate-imposed
‘fast and slow’ lanes.” <a
href="http://www.cbcfinc.org/images/09_04_14_Session_Publication_Listing.PDF"
target="_blank">As the petition states</a> <span
class="print-footnote">[9]</span>, “The whole world knows
that Israel is an apartheid state, and the Congressional
Black Caucus sullies the good name of our people every day
by its failure to stand with apartheid's victims.”
Similarly, on the issue of network neutrality, “most of the
Congressional Black Caucus is firmly in the pocket of the
telecom companies” and have made “a deal with the devil.”</p>
<p>The battle against the Mass Black Incarceration State and
the rule of the rich is also an internal struggle against
the Black Misleadership Class, who are in cahoots with
Diablo. In the real world of struggle, the people must
isolate and identify the sell-outs and betrayers before it
is possible to tackle the main enemy, head-on. </p>
<p><b>The first task is to get the knives out of our backs.</b></p>
<h5>BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com">Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com</a>.</h5>
<h5>The "Shame on the Congressional Black Caucus" Rally, for
Wednesday, September 24, is set for 9 am to 12 noon, at the
Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW,
Washington, DC.</h5>
<br>
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<p><strong>Links:</strong><br>
[1]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/black-misleadership-class">http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/black-misleadership-class</a><br>
[2]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/congressional-black-caucus">http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/congressional-black-caucus</a><br>
[3]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/obama-police-militarization_n_3566478.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/obama-police-militarization_n_3566478.html</a><br>
[4]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/267477/speedreads-the-congressional-black-caucus-voted-to-preserve-police-militarization">http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/267477/speedreads-the-congressional-black-caucus-voted-to-preserve-police-militarization</a><br>
[5] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll329.xml">http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll329.xml</a><br>
[6]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/ferguson-congressman-alarmed-by-militarized-police/">http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/ferguson-congressman-alarmed-by-militarized-police/</a><br>
[7]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/emanuel-cleaver-ferguson-reaction-110139.html">http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/emanuel-cleaver-ferguson-reaction-110139.html</a><br>
[8] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://events.blackagendareport.com">http://events.blackagendareport.com</a><br>
[9]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cbcfinc.org/images/09_04_14_Session_Publication_Listing.PDF">http://www.cbcfinc.org/images/09_04_14_Session_Publication_Listing.PDF</a><br>
[10] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://events.blackagendareport.com/node/25">http://events.blackagendareport.com/node/25</a><br>
[11]
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