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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/27/george-floyd-police-violence-minnesota-racist?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR3cB9_YpIBAiKg68rtIpnuOU4Tc3mspSZSylwwXtIZyW8lfKLpuXeChdo0">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/27/george-floyd-police-violence-minnesota-racist?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR3cB9_YpIBAiKg68rtIpnuOU4Tc3mspSZSylwwXtIZyW8lfKLpuXeChdo0</a></font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">George Floyd could not breathe. We must fight police violence until our last breath<br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Derecka Purnell - May 27, 2020<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-line-height4 gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><div><p><span><span>W</span></span>hite police officer <a href="https://www.startribune.com/what-we-know-about-derek-chauvin-and-tou-thao-two-of-the-officers-caught-on-tape-in-the-death-of-george-floyd/570777632/">Derek Chauvin</a>
pinned George Floyd to the concrete as he hollered that he could not
breathe. George screamed. Screamed for his mother. Screamed for his
breath. For his life.</p><p>For many watching the footage, George’s
cries echoed Eric Garner’s “I can’t breathe.” New York police department
officer Daniel Pantaleo killed Garner a couple of weeks before a
Ferguson police officer killed Michael Brown. George’s plea reminds me
of another black man shot by police: Eric Harris. In 2015, Tulsa reserve
deputy Robert Bates told Harris “fuck your breath”. That same year,
Fairfax county law enforcement tased Natasha McKenna four times while
she sought help during a mental health crisis. As they were brutalizing
her, she said, “You promised you wouldn’t kill me.” For me, the image of
the white officer kneeling into George’s back reminds me most of
Freddie Gray. Baltimore police severed Gray’s spine through an
intentional rough ride in the back of a police van.</p><p>George, like <a href="https://www.vibe.com/2020/05/sean-reed-black-man-killed-by-indianapolis-police">Dreasjon Reed</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/police-killing-of-breonna-taylor-fuels-calls-to-end-no-knock-warrants-11590332400">Breonna Taylor</a>
and other black people killed by police this year, should be alive and
breathing. This cycle – murder, protest, calls for justice,
non-indictments – is revelatory. We must join others to reduce police
power before, during and after these viral killings. Police reform is
not enough. We need abolition.</p><p>In recent years, news stories broke
about how Immigrations and Customs Enforcement use raids, detentions
and deportations to threaten immigrants in the US. Calls to “Abolish
Ice” could be heard from the streets to the halls of Congress.
Ironically, there were no calls to have more Latino and black Ice
agents. Mayors did not call for community-driven deportation or raids,
like we see for community policing. Non-profits did not call to
strengthen relationships between border patrol and immigrants; cities
did not fund Ice and ice-cream trucks to pass out treats to immigrant
children. Liberals did not point out that there were good apples and bad
apples in border patrol enforcement. These programs cannot reform Ice, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/10/15/alex-vitale-interview-the-end-of-policing/">nor can they reform police.</a></p><p>If
we can understand that the calls to abolish Ice actually means that
this country needs a new, transformational immigration system, then why
dismiss police abolition as a viable option for a transformative
society? </p><p>One major difference is the mainstream narrative around
dreamers: immigrants hoping for a better life and fleeing persecution
and violence in their homeland. To be clear, the fight for immigrant
justice is crucial and inseparable from the fight against racial police
violence. Immigrants, especially undocumented black immigrants, are
vulnerable to police violence and face the risk of prison, deportation
and death. Yet black Americans, like indigenous and First Nations
people, represent particular reminders that white settlers looted land,
committed genocide and enslaved people to build a democracy. As a
result, black and indigenous bodies remain a public nuisance to be
disappeared, exploited, imprisoned and killed by white people and police
alike. They want us to live in constant fear of those possibilities for
a reason. Thus, black resistance matters, against police and white
supremacy alike.</p><p>Abolitionist organizers in Minnesota are informed
by a history of resistance that dates back to 1867 when the Minneapolis
police department was first formed to surveil black people and Native
Americans. Since then, MPD has murdered or beaten black people
“savagely” for acts ranging from inviting white women to a dance to
refusing to “move on”. <a href="https://www.mpd150.com/wp-content/themes/mpd150/assets/mpd150_report.pdf">Per a report </a>by
MPD150, the Minneapolis police department has garnered several
accolades over time, including the nation’s most homophobic police
department at one point. In recent memory, officers in the city arrested
black people at rates 10 times higher than white people for the same
offenses.</p><p>After a Minneapolis police department officer shot and
killed Jamar Clark in 2015, activists occupied their local police
department for more than two weeks. This activism spurred organizing
that continued after the cameras went away. Through struggle,
organizations like MPD150 and Reclaim the Block pushed the mayor and
city council to shift more than <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/11/30/mpls-budget-amendment-removes-million-dollars-police">$1m from police departments </a>to
communities. Unquestionably, this organizing since 2015 influenced the
mayor’s unprecedented decision to ensure that the police chief fired all
four officers responsible for George Floyd’s killing, almost
immediately after it happened. </p><p>The story is not over. On Tuesday night, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-minneapolis-protests-george-floyd-20200527-ix72khibnvayjcelxpmbo6uvc4-story.html">MPD teargassed</a>
and shot rubber bullets at protesters who took to the streets to decry
the murder. The fact that residents were willing to risk their lives
during a global pandemic to protest against this injustice demonstrates
that the race is not given to the swift nor the strong, but to the
organizers who resist until the end.</p><p><span></span></p><ul><li><p>Derecka Purnell is a movement lawyer, activist and Guardian US columnist.</p></li></ul></div></div><div id="gmail-slot-body-end"><div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div>
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