152.-against-hired-guns-oakland-residents-organize.pdf
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![James Williams, former Police Chief Peter Sarna, Sarna’s assistant Jenny Wong, the
OUSD’s general legal council Jacqueline Minor, another attorney for the district,
Sergeant Barhin Bhatt — who fired the deadly bullets at Raheim Brown, Jr., Lou Silva,
a former OUSD officer and current district-wide Campus Security and Safety
Manager and the department's Internal Affairs procedure. The testimony also refers
to complicity in the cover up by then-Oakland Police Department (OPD) Chief
Howard Jordan, OPD Captain Brian Medeiros, OPD Homicide Sergeant Rachael
Van Sloten and more.
In the initial release, Against Hired Guns offered this analys
“This police commander still has his job, and as demonstrated by his
approach to blowing the whistle, he believes the legal system to be the
primary mechanism for justice. The enforcement of our legal system
constantly justifies and relies on violence. Bellusa’s job is to enforce that
system through the wrist-wringing of handcuffs, the bars of a prison cell,
and the barrel of a gun. This twisted concept of safety increases and
intensifies violence by police and on our streets.
“The killing of Raheim Brown, Jr. and the events leading to it are not
unique. The corruption described in Bellusa’s testimony within the
Oakland school police and those who supervise and defend it is not
unique. The only difference in this case is that we have a ‘good’ cop and
a legal transcript.”
April 1%, 2013:
Deedee Jones’ widow loses a $10 million lawsuit against the OPD. "Justice is justice,"
Eriberto Perez-Angeles, one of the officers who killed Deedee aptly tells reporters
immediately after the verdict. "I don't think we ever did anything wrong. We were
just doing our job, as we were trained to do." Reports
say that Perez-Angeles is an OPD homicide investigator,
as of April, 2013."
Lessons learned RK
Fueled by footage of Oscar Grant III’s murder, people O =e ®
swarmed the streets of Oakland using a wide array of GRAN ]
www.sfgate.com /crime /article/ Widow-loses-suit-in-Oakland-police-shooting-
4400776.php
a a](152.-against-hired-guns-oakland-residents-organize 10.png)
![tactics to build power behind demands, which almost universally included charging
Johannes Mehserle, Oscar's killer cop, with murder. Among different groups,
demands went as far as a public community forum, disarming BART police, and for
the BART police department to be shut down altogether.”
The top demand was met. Mehserle was charged with first-degree murder. He was
jailed. Energy dissipated. By the time he was let out of his cage eleven months later,
Mehserle’s release was met with such a dull response in the streets that it was
covered only asa side note in news stories.
From insurrectionary-minded radicals to Oscar Grant's own family members, that
fight for justice has been celebrated.
While we should celebrate uprisings and the large impact on the public debate
around police violence that was made by that campaign, we must also be honest
with ourselves if we are to learn, grow and mature in our fight against police terror.
Justice was not served in the cop’s arrest, court process and imprisonment; or in the
temporary firing and rehiring of the cops who aided in the killing’; or in the
replacement of BART and Oakland police chiefs with new ones (both of whom have
overseen the “justified” killings of people since their hiring). Oakland’s current
mayor has extended the reign of violence, having overseen attacks on the Occupy
Oakland camp in the form brutal attacks on crowds of protestors with tear gas, flash
grenades and batons. She has also overseen and accepted numerous police killings
and the implementation of policies that give police more power to target young
people and Black and Brown communi
We angrily came out into the streets not just because Oscar Grant was murdered, but
because many of us know that repression of Black and Brown people (as well as
homeless people, sex-workers, youth, queer and transgendered people, etc.) is the
daily and mundane role of police. That plays out in the form of everything from
foreclosure evictions to heightened civil infractions for graffiti, sit/lie laws and gang
injunctions. It would be irresponsible, in the context of dozens of people killed at the
hands of Oakland cops since Oscar Grant was murdered, to find peace in a system
that locks up a single cop and empowers others to continue to take lives. That is far
™ For examples of these demands, check out these links: http:/ /mxgm.org/ statement-against-the-
execution-of-oscar-grant-iii/; _ http:/ /mxgm.org/statement-against-the-execution-of-oscar-grant-
iii/; http:/ /nojusticenobart blogspot.com / 2009/01 / what-is-no-justice-no-bart.html
a 1] a Ms a tai d z](152.-against-hired-guns-oakland-residents-organize 11.png)
![this piece, are the police killings of Gary Wayne King, Jr., Oscar Grant III, Derrick
Jones, Raheim Brown, Jr. and Alan Blueford to name just a few. In a broader context
of the term, we're referring to mobilizations that respond to specific repressive
policing schemes like gang injunctions or mass mobilizations to City Hall in
response to city governments extending police powers.
Against Hired Guns came together as an experiment in response to a specific incident
of policing. We imagined it could be contextualized in an analysis of the violence of
policing in order to create a stronger entry-point into these politics for organizers
focused on flashpoints.
Strengthening Our Strategies
In each police murder mentioned above, family members of those killed have been
thrust into organizing process. They’ve found themselves surrounded by people
who stepped up in response to their loved one being killed, and they’ve put in
important energy towards finding a sense of personal justice.
There were also people like those of us in Against Hired Guns who have been
bringing our energy to those organizing, processes because we feel they play a
strategic role in furthering our political interest of ending the violence of policing.
While we supported and continue to support family members of people whose lives
have been taken, we do so for personal and political reasons.
In each of the cases listed above, organizing coalitions formed to support “justice”
for those who were killed. In each of them, they’ve focused on firing and
prosecuting cops who committed a specific act of violence. We want to explore how
to support family members and those thrust into organizing processes while being,
intentional and explicit about our own roles and why we keep entering these spaces.
Part of the reasons we have joined these coalitions is because we've seen them as
strategic opportunities to achieve a broader goal of getting rid of the violence of
policing. We want to get justice for people killed by police, and a big part of that
means creating conditions that stop police from killing people. In practice, these
coalitions keep referring back to “justice”, but they do not have a cohesive
understanding of what that really means.
The roles of police, in the name of “public safety”, are to arrest people, remove them
from communities, put them in cages, etc. Each of these actions extend harm beyond
a 1] a Ms a tai d z](152.-against-hired-guns-oakland-residents-organize 21.png)
of organizers vs
\) who've struggled
together against the
violence of policing
in Oakland
reflect and
strategize.
This project is created by people who've been
organizing against the violence of policing,
particularly focused around killings by police
officers. We are dedicated to pushing the
boundaries of the organizing work we've been
involved with and organizing against police
violence more broadly in order to support
innovative and creative ways to lessen harms
caused by the state. We understand police in
the United States to be the armed guard of a
legal system that is rooted in the domination
of people and land through de jure (legal) and
de facto (in reality) slavery and capitalism —
the process of diminishing Third World people
to economic value. We are anarchists,
socialists, communists, Afrikan nationalists,
and just some random folks.
Against Hired Guns is an analysis on policing
through which a collective of organizers
who've struggled together against the violence
of policing in Oakland address the following:
1. Learning to Struggle Stronger
Proposes a shift in the organizing strategy of fights
against “flashpoint” incidents of police violence __...3
2. Education, Policing and our Collective Expectations
Explores the reaching tentacles of education, policing
and the cultures around them through a pairing of
“restorative justice” with policing, and motivations for
3. Reflecting Forward
Reiterates the need for shifting organizing strategy in
fights against police violence eld
4. Resources
Offers resources from projects, organizations and
experiments in responding to harm and violence without
police wd
http:/ /againsthiredguns.wordpress.com/
March 2014
Learning to Struggle Stronger
"We were just doing our job, as we were trained to do.”
~ Eriberto Perez-Angeles, OPD Homicide Investigator, speaking
about his involvement in the killing of Derrick Jones.
The realities of police violence are never as front and center as when a cop kills
another human being. The opportunity allows us to point out the hypocrisy of
policing as an institution, the notion that the police help to keep society safe in the
long term. From the killing of Little Bobby Hutton to Gary King to Oscar Grant and
Alan Blueford, this experience has consistently sparked militant and angry
responses. These situations inform the public debate about policing as they highlight
contradictions in our society’s perception of safety as being a hyper-policed
community.
But when we put all of our resources — time, energy, money, etc. — into fighting for
individuals who've been killed, we distract ourselves from confronting the violence
of standard and daily police policies. By rallying only when someone has been
murdered by police we miss the opportunity to build strategic, tactical and on-going
strategies of resistance against police brutality and the chance to prevent future
murders.
In our attempts to curb police violence solely through the legal system, we give
power back to the very forces that criminalize, kill, harass, corral and incarcerate
people. We willingly return power to the structure responsible for the violence in the
first place, replicating the system of domination that we are trying to fight.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting
different results. Yet even with a deep understanding and analysis, we often
continue to rely on the legal system to give us justice but are met with the same
results. At some point we must confront our active role in this madness.
While far from the spotlight, more mundane policing and imprisonment is violent
and deserves every bit of our focus. Outside of politically-oriented actions, those
targeted by police — through an extension of the de jure (legal) system of slavery our
a a le
a.
country was founded on - are overwhelmingly Black and Brown.' White supremacy
is alive and well in our laws, with police playing the role of daily enforcer.
With that said we have been able to recognize killings by police as contradictions
and therefore opportunities. The contradiction arises from our reliance on a system
that has consistently shown itself to be supportive of the very forces which oppress
us. The opportunity that presents itself with every police killing is a platform to
amplify that contradiction and further people’s analysis of modern policing.
That is all to say, as people focused on struggling against the violence of policing, we
identify strategic opportunities to move that struggle forward. We are strategic
opportunists.
Justice
September 20", 2007:
A police officer pulls across six lanes of traffic in North Oakland, into a corner store
parking lot, and beckons Gary Wayne King Jr, armed with a soda in one hand and a
bag of chips in the other, toward the car. The officer allows Gary to hand off the soda
to a friend before knocking the bag of chips onto the pavement and pulling his arm
out straight, all without saying a word. When the officer tries to cuff him, Gary
resists and a scuffle ensues. The cop tases him as he runs away and then aims his
gun, shooting Gary twice in his back as he tries to stand up in the street. The cop
handcuffs Gary, then calls an ambulance as blood soaks the pavement. Gary dies
right next to the median strip. Every Thursday for the following months, Gary’s
family along with supporters march to Oakland city hall, chanting “No Justice! No
Peace!”
December 31", 2007:
After running a red light, 20-year-old Andrew Moppin, who has a one-year-old
child, is pulled over not far from Fruitvale BART in East Oakland. At the cop’s
request, Andrew and passengers exit the car. After briefly trying to hide, Andrew
stands between a parked car and a brick wall just nine feet from officers, with a
helicopter searchlight blinding the scene. The commanding officer shouts, telling
Andrew to move. Andrew moves. Eight bullets tear through Andrew’s flesh, leaving
him bleeding on the ground. He dies later that evening. His family is not able to find
records of him being transported to any hospital.
‘http:/ / www.insidebayarea.com/ breaking-news,
reforms
ci_22490590// monitor-says-opd-regressing-
Two years later, US District Judge Claudia Wilkin rules: “The undisputed evidence
shows that Officers Jimenez and Borello acted reasonably when they used deadly
force against Mr. Moppin.” Wilkin’s ruling also claims the officers believed Andrew
Moppin was reaching for his waistband when they opened fire, justifying his
murder.”
Later, John Burris, a lawyer who has defended dozens of cases of police violence,
says, “The young man, really, was responding to conflicting commands. One group
of officers had him have his hands up. Another officer had him turn to the other
side, and when he turned, the two officers in front interpreted those movements as,
quote, ‘going to his waist band’.”*
July 25", 2008:
Police chase a car driven by Mack “Jody” Woodfox III for about a mile, until he
stops. After getting out of a 1993 Buick Regal, Jody tries to run, pulling his pants up
by reaching toward his waistband. Near the corner of East 17"Street and Fruitvale
Avenue at 3:50am, Jody is shot dead — three bullets lodge in his back while trying to
run away. The officer who takes Jody’s life is the same one who killed Andrew
Moppin just seven months prior. He is fired. Burris, who started investigating
police shootings in Oakland in 1979, says he can’t remember
a case prior to this one in which the OPD found a police
shooting to be in violation of policy.*
January 1°, 2009:
Oscar Grant III is on his way home from New Years
Eve celebrations, taking BART at the request of his
mother. A small scuffle ensues on the train, and scared
passengers call police. Once Oscar and friends exit the
train at Fruitvale station, a group of cops meet them,
throw them against a wall, throw Oscar on his belly,
and shoot him in the back — all in front of camera
phone-toting passengers. Video of the killing is
released publicly. Thousands of people take to the
streets to demand “justice for Oscar Grant” in the
P:// www sigate.com/ ayarea /article / Judge-rejects-suit-over-Oakland-police-shooting-
3202461.php
> http:/ / peopleshearing. wordpress.com / 2013 /01/22/full-transcription,
“http://www insidebayarea.com / ci_100244
a
form of prayers, vigils, marches, demonstrations and riots. After almost a month of
ongoing angry mobilizations which include the arrests of more than 100 people, the
cop who fired a bullet into Oscar’s back is arrested on a first-degree murder charge.
Two cops who were with him (including one who yelled the phrase “bitch ass
nigger” twice) lose their jobs.
July 8°, 2010:
Oscar Grant's killer cop is charged with involuntary manslaughter by a Los Angeles
jury, and people again take to the streets in anger — a Footlocker is trashed, windows
shattered, dumpsters burnt and more arrests. People in the streets know a legal
ruling of “involuntary manslaughter” is far from justice.
November 5", 2010:
Oscar Grant's killer cop is given the most lenient sentence possible: Two years minus
time served. People again take to the streets, and police violate constitutional laws to
which they are bound in a mass arrest that puts 148 people in cages.°
From January 2009 through November 2010, well over a million dollars of damage is
done in the form of broken windows, dumpster fires and burnt cars. The
government is forced to act. For the first time in decades, a California cop is
criminally charged with an on-duty murder. Two cops lose their jobs for aiding the
trigger-puller. The BART police chief, Alameda County District Attorney and two
Oakland Police Chiefs all flee their jobs and the city. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums is
frowned upon across the board for an uninspiring response.
November 8", 2010:
Three days after the sentencing of Oscar's killer and the mass arrest, two Oakland
police officers who'd been involved in a previous fatal shooting fire five bullets at
Derrick “Deedee” Jones, striking him in the back as he runs away from them. Media
reports say officers feel their life was threatened because Deedee reached toward his
waistband and had a gun. The “gun” turned out to be a small scale. Hundreds
mobilize in response, taking over the streets outside Deedee’s barber shop and
connecting his death to that of Oscar Grant - chanting “Oscar Grant, Deedee Jones,
we won't let them kill our own”, and marching down East 14" Street to arrive at
Grant Station (Fruitvale BART). Before protesters arrive, police shut the station
down, saying, “We can’t control the safety of people on the platform.”* Guarded by
* http://www.nlgsf.org /content/federal-court-
*http:/ / www.ktvu.com/news/news/ proteste!
o 8 le
fies-class-action-oscar-grant-protesters
link-oakland-shooting-to-grants-death / nK6H¢/
swaths of riot-gear-clad cops, the empty station stayed “safe.” With no follow-up
plan, the movement around Deedee dropped off quickly.
January 22", 2011:
Outside a dance party at Oakland’s Skyline High School, Raheim Brown, Jr. and
Tamisha Stewart sit in a Honda with its hazard lights blinking. A pair of officers
who work for the OUSD Police Department pull up behind the Honda in an
unmarked patrol car. Within minutes, Sergeant Jonathan Bellusa lunges into the car,
grabbing Raheim from behind. He tries to hold the 20-year old and then grabs him,
pulling Raheim’s shirt and ripping it. Leaning in through the driver’s window, the
other cop, hits Raheim with his flashlight. Using what he describes as a “hammer
fist,” Bellusa hits the young man three to five times in his lower back. Until this
point, Raheim has not yet made any aggressive move toward anyone, according to a
legally sworn transcript by Bellusa.
As the Sergeant reaches around Brown to grab him tighter, Raheim bites Bellusa’s
wrist, in what should only be understood as self-defense. The “hammer fist” strikes
again and the struggle ensues. The entire hand-to-hand struggle takes
approximately 20 seconds. Feeling, threatened, Bellusa, who initiated the attack,
orders his partner to shoot Brown. Barhin Bhatt shoots twice through the driver's
open window and past the face of Tamisha Stewart, before his gun jams. Trigger
happy Officer Bhatt takes five-to-ten seconds to clear his gun’s chamber and shoots
another series of bullets into Raheim’s body, well after Bellusa identifies that there is
no more threat.
In the end, Raheim receives two shots through his head and three more through his
arms and torso, killing him.
Tragedy
December 18", 2010:
One of the cops fired for aiding in Oscar Grant's murder, Marysol Dominici, is
rehired and given back pay and benefits for the entire time she wasn’t
working,’ Anthony Pirone, the cop who yelled “bitch ass nigger” at Oscar and his
friends, appeals his firing (to date there has been no apparent media reports of the
results of Pirone’s appeal).
7 http:/ /abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/ local / east_bay&id=7850134
February 19", 2011:
John Burris, a lawyer who has represented many local families who've lost loved
ones to police killings, says that the cases of Andrew Moppin and Jody Woodfox
“represent the real challenge that we all have in dealing with police misconduct and
particularly in shooting cases. There were no witnesses in Andrew’s case other than
police officers. And as a consequence of that, the judge — federal district court judge
— ruled against us because we could not contradict what the police officer had to
say.”
A few weeks later, on March 5", a police arbitrator decides the killer of Andrew
Moppin and Jody Woodfox will be rehired by the Oakland Police Department with
full back pay because “sacrificing Officer Jimenez on the altar of public opinion”
would not bring Woodfox back. The cop’s lawyer said he wasn’t at all surprised by
the ruling because his client was “the victim of political persecution.”*
December 11", 2012:
Patrick Gonzales, the officer who killed Gary Wayne King, Jr. as well as two others
and causing paraplegia in a fourth person as a result of gunshot wounds, all in
separate incidents, receives the Silver Star?- the Oakland Police Department's
second highest honor — avoiding focus on the $3.6 million in payouts by the city and
police department for incidents he was involved in as of August 2011."°
December, 2012:
Jonathan Bellusa, the police sergeant who ordered the killing of Raheim Brown, Jr.
tells Federal Judge Maria-Elena James that he wants to tell the truth of what
happened the night that Brown was killed. He says that he has tried to take his story
to the FBI and other agencies. James refuses to listen.
February, 2013:
After working to ensure the statement was legally sworn, Against Hired Guns (yours
truly) is the first to publish Bellusa’s testimony, in which he details ways that the
Oakland school cop shop that he works for systematically covers up rule-breaking,
implicating players at every level, including Oakland Unified School District
(OUSD) Superintendent Tony Smith — as well as the department's 2013 Police Chief
* http:/ /www.sfgate.com /crime/ article /Oakland-must-rehire-cop-who-shot-suspect-in-back-
2528215.php
* http:/ /www.mercurynews.com /breaking-news/ ci_22170941 / oakland-police-department-
honors-more-than-three-dozen
™http:/ /colorlines.com /archives/2011/08/deadly_secrets_how_california_law_has_shielded_oak
land_police_violence.htm|
o 8 ee le
James Williams, former Police Chief Peter Sarna, Sarna’s assistant Jenny Wong, the
OUSD’s general legal council Jacqueline Minor, another attorney for the district,
Sergeant Barhin Bhatt — who fired the deadly bullets at Raheim Brown, Jr., Lou Silva,
a former OUSD officer and current district-wide Campus Security and Safety
Manager and the department's Internal Affairs procedure. The testimony also refers
to complicity in the cover up by then-Oakland Police Department (OPD) Chief
Howard Jordan, OPD Captain Brian Medeiros, OPD Homicide Sergeant Rachael
Van Sloten and more.
In the initial release, Against Hired Guns offered this analys
“This police commander still has his job, and as demonstrated by his
approach to blowing the whistle, he believes the legal system to be the
primary mechanism for justice. The enforcement of our legal system
constantly justifies and relies on violence. Bellusa’s job is to enforce that
system through the wrist-wringing of handcuffs, the bars of a prison cell,
and the barrel of a gun. This twisted concept of safety increases and
intensifies violence by police and on our streets.
“The killing of Raheim Brown, Jr. and the events leading to it are not
unique. The corruption described in Bellusa’s testimony within the
Oakland school police and those who supervise and defend it is not
unique. The only difference in this case is that we have a ‘good’ cop and
a legal transcript.”
April 1%, 2013:
Deedee Jones’ widow loses a $10 million lawsuit against the OPD. "Justice is justice,"
Eriberto Perez-Angeles, one of the officers who killed Deedee aptly tells reporters
immediately after the verdict. "I don't think we ever did anything wrong. We were
just doing our job, as we were trained to do." Reports
say that Perez-Angeles is an OPD homicide investigator,
as of April, 2013."
Lessons learned RK
Fueled by footage of Oscar Grant III’s murder, people O =e ®
swarmed the streets of Oakland using a wide array of GRAN ]
www.sfgate.com /crime /article/ Widow-loses-suit-in-Oakland-police-shooting-
4400776.php
a a
tactics to build power behind demands, which almost universally included charging
Johannes Mehserle, Oscar's killer cop, with murder. Among different groups,
demands went as far as a public community forum, disarming BART police, and for
the BART police department to be shut down altogether.”
The top demand was met. Mehserle was charged with first-degree murder. He was
jailed. Energy dissipated. By the time he was let out of his cage eleven months later,
Mehserle’s release was met with such a dull response in the streets that it was
covered only asa side note in news stories.
From insurrectionary-minded radicals to Oscar Grant's own family members, that
fight for justice has been celebrated.
While we should celebrate uprisings and the large impact on the public debate
around police violence that was made by that campaign, we must also be honest
with ourselves if we are to learn, grow and mature in our fight against police terror.
Justice was not served in the cop’s arrest, court process and imprisonment; or in the
temporary firing and rehiring of the cops who aided in the killing’; or in the
replacement of BART and Oakland police chiefs with new ones (both of whom have
overseen the “justified” killings of people since their hiring). Oakland’s current
mayor has extended the reign of violence, having overseen attacks on the Occupy
Oakland camp in the form brutal attacks on crowds of protestors with tear gas, flash
grenades and batons. She has also overseen and accepted numerous police killings
and the implementation of policies that give police more power to target young
people and Black and Brown communi
We angrily came out into the streets not just because Oscar Grant was murdered, but
because many of us know that repression of Black and Brown people (as well as
homeless people, sex-workers, youth, queer and transgendered people, etc.) is the
daily and mundane role of police. That plays out in the form of everything from
foreclosure evictions to heightened civil infractions for graffiti, sit/lie laws and gang
injunctions. It would be irresponsible, in the context of dozens of people killed at the
hands of Oakland cops since Oscar Grant was murdered, to find peace in a system
that locks up a single cop and empowers others to continue to take lives. That is far
™ For examples of these demands, check out these links: http:/ /mxgm.org/ statement-against-the-
execution-of-oscar-grant-iii/; _ http:/ /mxgm.org/statement-against-the-execution-of-oscar-grant-
iii/; http:/ /nojusticenobart blogspot.com / 2009/01 / what-is-no-justice-no-bart.html
a 1] a Ms a tai d z
from justice, and advocating a reproduction of the Oscar Grant model will not get us
closer to it. Rather, we need to develop beyond that important example.
Applying the lessons
Police violence is officially validated when courts offer no punishment for cops who
harass, cage and kill people. In these cases, the values of the community and
grassroots values of justice all but disappear. These experiences show us that the
systems of courts and policing are built to sustain and reproduce themselves and
their agendas. From individual cops to federal enforcers, those doing their jobs
correctly erase any sense of accountability of the state to the people. This experience
in turn creates opportunity. If we are opportunists, these are times to seize.
Most of us who've mobilized against killings by police have not done so because our
family members have been killed in the same circumstances (although many of us
have family who've been criminalized and caged by the same forces). Rather, we
mobilize because we see police killings both as an ongoing issue impacting our day-
to-day lives and because they are an accessible entry point for people to build
analysis against policing. These circumstances present both a contradiction and an
opportunity.
In cases of police murders, we often accept the idea that there is nothing more we
can do than follow directions of the traumatized family and pursue justice in the
ways they ask of us. While solidarity with these families is important, let’s also look
to additional, sustainable and long-term ways that we can take the fight for justice to
the next level.
The principle of solidarity pushes us to support the material and emotional needs of
people who have family members killed in any situation. This support role can
move us forward in multiple ways. First, the healing process is a major strain on
material and emotional resources. Supporting those needs can help to strengthen
family members and therefore build their political focus, enabling them to engage in
broader organizing efforts. Second, building a real-world understanding of the
personal struggles of those directly affected by violence allows organizers to
humanize and realize the affects of unexpected death. Finally, that support also
allows for more strategic points of entry for organizers, and gives those who
maintain these relationships an intimate way of reflecting on — and therefore offering
innovations to — the organizing process.
When our radical community steps up to support families in these situations, we do
so because we recognize the contradictions and opportunities; we do so to rip these
contradictions out of the holes carved by government bullets and use them to
strategically put police under fire. But as organizers who step up for families and
watch life after life stolen and a broad focus by the grassroots on individual
responsibility (i.e. prosecuting “bad” cops), our role is different than that of a family
member or their legal representation. We must stop falling into traps of the past.
Traditional definitions would label a “bad” cop as one who either breaks rules at
their job or follows the law in ways that appear egregious to civilians. A “good” cop
is one who strictly follows the law or who acts in ways that civilians around them
perceive as positive. Both those categories exist. Neither have a place in a radical
conversation about justice.
Focusing on individual responsibility - such as the drilled-in demand to jail or
prosecute a “bad (killer) cop” — can be deeply important for a family who lost
someone, and they alongside those whose job it is to navigate legal confines should
be supported to focus on that goal. However, a broader movement built against
police killings, police brutality and policing in general, needs to have a deeper
understanding of how policing has been and is being experienced: as the armed
guard of a legal system that is rooted in the domination of people and land
through de jure (legal) and de facto (in reality) slavery and capitalism.
In the model mentioned above, the justice that is sought is not justice at all. Taking a
cop’s badge is useful in that it takes them off the street, but there are many more
eager to replace them and many departments willing to oblige. Putting one cop in
jail does nothing to solve the larger and endemic issues that plague poor Black and
Brown communities. Rather, let's refocus our energy toward preventing the same
patterns that allowed the trigger pulling in the first place from happening again and
again, and again, and yes - again.
Education, Policing and our
Collective Expectations
As adults in this great miasma called amerika, we make many assumptions. We are
taught to assume that we are free because there is a legal document promising that
we can say what we want to say, to vote, to have guns and to be protected. We
recognize that beyond the document — the Constitution — there are many rules and
limitations to understand before we can take advantage of these freedoms. One
assumption we make is that we can never break the law. If we break the law and
we're caught, then our ticket to freedom is revoked; we deserve what we get and
this is called justice.
Against Hired Guns released and analyzed the legal deposition given by Jonathan
Bellusa, killer cop. Though this represented a unique opportunity to distribute
unfiltered information, the really important stories are not the ones told by police in
the interest of crafting an image of themselves as the “good cop” / “whistle-blower.”
These individuals think they can grant themselves immunity from the judgments
they are passing on the system that they helped to foster and maintain; the snitch-
whistle is essentially a red herring.
“Incidentally, we feel that people have been blowing this particular whistle for decades.
Bellusa’s testimony doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.
The Tentacles’ Reach
In 2007, Alameda County and the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) adopted
a non-punitive approach to discipline, which is neatly referred to as Restorative
Justice. This approach promises the end to racially disproportionate suspensions and
expulsions, a dedication to keeping kids in school by adapting to their needs and by
proxy, interrupting what’s known as the “school to prison pipeline,” a scheme that
sends Black and Brown kids to prison at astounding rates.
B
Lh RRs PS
By adopting this idealistic and pragmatic policy, the OUSD acknowledges failures of
the public school system. It says that racism is alive and well and needs to be
confronted by two of the biggest government-based institutions in amerika. By
putting this policy into practice, OUSD reiterates statis that we have heard many
times before in myriad ways: 34% of the OUSD student population is African-
American, yet they receive...
+ 67% of the referrals for out of school suspension50% of the referrals for
expulsion
. 40% of OUSD African American students do not graduate from high school
. Since 2005, 66% of OUSD students who dropped out have had contact with the
criminal justice system'*
The practice of restorative justice has at its core a vision to use evidence-based
restorative practices within schools and the juvenile justice program in order to
address the root causes of misbehavior /wrongdoing/ rule and law breaking, etc. It is
done so in a way that insures that all parties affected have a voice and collaborate
together to decide what course of action to take in order to make things right, and to
allow for each person to take responsibility and be accountable to their actions. Of
equal importance is the idea that restorative justice is not about punishment or vengeance,
which interestingly places it directly opposite the law.
Policing in our society has everything to do with punishment. Regardless of laws
that claim we are all innocent until proven guilty, the results of wrongdoing and
office referral, investigation and trial, always start and end in punishment. Our
society takes this punishment as justice, and even though it is the nature of this
system to attempt to prevent crime by deferment regardless ar many
of us still cling to the idea that at its core the system means
well. Many of us think to
ourselves thatg
aberrations of this are
merely "bad |
apples” and we
must expunge or
punish them, but
® http:/ /www.ousd.k12.ca / /www.ousd.k12.ca.us/restorativejustice
the reality is that this is not a unilateral system of justice at all. The police enforce a
steady system of punishment on our streets, and punishment is specifically and
intentionally directed at Black or Brown people.
In a restorative justice model, everyone wants to do good and positive things: to
thrive in a collaborative environment with a certain amount of facilitation to repair
relationships and harms done to a community. Ironically, the OUSD has adopted a
practice that attempts to integrate this social practice, but it is thwarted by the fact
that there are two competing publicly-financed systems within the district: one (the
practice of restorative justice) attempts to provide the communication system
between students and the logic of our society, and the other serves as the heavy
hand of the law, producing the OUSD officers who criminalize, harass, arrest, cage
and kill people like Raheim Brown, Jr.
Our communities are also prevented in a search for restorative justice - less because
of those competing forces and more due to the individuality of this process in its
context of a society in which the legal system is responsible for the oppression itself.
How can we expect to destroy legacies of slavery and systematic violence while the
imperialist practices that created an entire class of “illegal” people whose labor is
necessary under capitalism, are valued and enforced by the daily harassment of
individuals by paid legal enforcers? This is the same ideology which drives us to
celebrate Johannes Mehserle being taken into custody by the same cops who
arrested and brutalized protestors seeking justice for Oscar Grant the day before. It’s
the same ideology that drives support for serving time in the penal institution which
we know is a continual resting point in the school-to-prison pipeline created for
many youth of color in Alameda County and beyond.
This is not meant to be an answer; rather we at Against Hired Guns would like to
broaden the questions being asked. One of the reasons we chose to quickly examine
restorative justice in this piece is because of its emphasis on restoring harm and
building relationships. By focusing on relationship building, responsibility and
accountability, restorative justice takes away from the idea that only individuals can
affect change in our communities. When we view epidemic physical and psychological
violence as community problems, we see that policing and restorative justice are completely
at odds with one another.
How then can the OUSD think that it can implement restorative practices in its
schools while still employing its own police force? How can Alameda County think
it is implementing restorative justice when the crimes that land people in the legal
(i | nan GE ES
justice system are overwhelmingly crimes of poverty and mental health? Rather, it
can’t. The two can never co-exist. Until our communities shift our collective notions
of justice and freedom away from the police, away from the courts, and back into
our own hands, then people like Bellusa become heroes and people like Raheim
Brown, Jr. end up dead.
Individualism and the amerikan Curse
It is interesting that with the story of ex-LAPD officer Chris Dorner still fresh in the
public’s mind, here in Oakland, another police officer publicly crossed the “thin blue
line” (that wall of silence supposed to protect police from outside scrutiny). Police
Commander Jonathan Bellusa exposed some history of corruption and racism within
the OUSD and OPD. Both Dorner and Bellusa have a desire to control the stories
around their cases. Whether it be in the format of a manifesto’ or a carefully
arranged press release'’, the object is to demonstrate that they both completely
believed that they were right, and that their infallible truth will appeal to a morality
within their departments and broader society, which will protect their freedom, their
names and their livelihoods. They believe that the system and the government is
theirs.
It is interesting, but not surprising, that both Bellusa and Dorner initially appealed to
the same power structure which created the people and circumstances they railed
against to begin with. Both Bellusa and Dorner want the system to work, and though
they've seen countless examples of its irreparable nature, they still cling to the idea
that if they do enough right, they will be spared the mercilessness of its fissures.
Even for these “good cops,” the institutions they appeal to become their oppressors
and silencers. In the case of Dorner, the police became his eventual executioners,
which is tragically representative of the way the so-called justice system works for
the people trapped within it.
Bellusa operates in a world that seems divided into either the right or wrong side of
his fantastical moral majority. We say “fantastical” because we know, as people
disenfranchised from any form of restorative justice that we can actively take part in,
that this morality does not have the interests of the majority in mind.
4 http:/ /documents.latimes.com /christopher-dorner-manifesto/
® http: / /www.nbebayarea.com/ news /local / Exclusive-Oakland-School-Cop-Calls-Shooting-
Investigation-Compromised-194114051.html
ee oe, le
Each situation appears to the public eye to have flashpoints for the individual
officers, both of which are self-centered and administratively based. While Dorner’s
manifesto cites witnessing overt racism at the LAPD (people responsible for the
beating of Rodney King and the Ramparts scandals being given promotions, his
fellow officer kicking a developmentally disabled man in the head and chest) it is his
subsequent firing from the force after he attempts to seek the legal system's justice
over the latter incident, which is the final straw in his experience of oppression.
We are not drawing direct parallels between these two men, The culmination of
events leading to Dorner’s rampage is what scholars call racial battle fatigue. RBE, as
it is more commonly known, is the result of long-term racially motivated micro-
aggressions which accumulate and are demonstrated in a variety of ways. What we
are focusing on, however, is the extent to which both men believe that the law
should work: especially for themselves.
Bellusa is not repulsed by the murder of Raheim Brown, Jr. which he himself
ordered, but rather by the depth of the administrative cover-up to prevent an
independent investigation. It is important to note here that this is not the first time
Bellusa, has been legally accused of excessive force. He has been sued via the police
department by several people, including Miles Deshawn Goolsby" and Virgil
Waldon, the latter whom Bellusa shot in the torso and leg, after pulling him over on
suspicion of driving without a license.” Ah, justice.
Clearly, Bellusa’s role in the system is to keep it moving forward. To the public eye,
each administrative incident seems perhaps corrupt and unfair, but not potentially
more than we would expect from a power structure which serves to uphold the
interests of corporations, the 1% and white supremacy via imperialism and
capitalism.
Doling Out Justice
Two police officers come forward with information regarding incidents within the
force that they feel have been improperly investigated by fellow officers and
officials. In both instances “excessive force” is applied. Dorner witnessed a mentally
ill man being kicked in the chest and head; Bellusa was complicit in the shooting to
http:/ /wwy
2939374.php
http: / www.sfgate.com /bayarea /article / Oakland-Schools-Cop-Shoots-Motorist-29-Suspect-
2785155.php
(i i a | Ne
gate.com / bayarea /article/Oakland-Might-Settle-Police-Misconduct-Suit-
death of a young Black man who may or may not have been trying to defend himself
with a screwdriver (witness and police accounts differ, as is explored in more depth
on the Against Hired Guns website). Where these cases diverge is in their outcomes;
Dorner is fired for “lying” (and subsequently hunted and murdered), while Bellusa,
although threatened and denied audience by judges, coworkers and lawyers, has to
date been rewarded with paid administrative leave (which he has described as
retribution) for his whistle blowing of ex-chief Pete Sarna’s racist comments. We can
be sure with his information about OUSD PD’s cover-up of Raheim Bro’ Jr's
murder, he will be awarded the status of cop-hero. While cop-Bellusa believ:
everything to gain, his Black cop-counterpart clearly had everything to lose.
Looking at the racist histories of the United States’ government and its
enforcers, we are presented with this question: why do we continue to seel
our oppressors? We must recognize that we are complicit in crafting the
legitimacy of police forces across the country each time we equat
justice with theirs. This is not to ignore the epidemics of domestic
violence, gang violence and other types of violence which are. vi
neighborhoods. We are not addressing that here.
Many have referred to Dorner as “the monster” created by Dr. Fre
who turns on his makers (the LAPD), and attempts to kill them and
expendable in the eyes of authority. As such, it become
motivated by vengeance against the perpetrators of this
unfairness. It is a pointed juxtaposition, but it leaves out
the context of a Black man who knowingly went to work
for the force that beat Rodney King.
When we look at Dorner and Bellusa side by side, there are many
differences and still many similarities that stem from a steadfast
belief in the ability and fantastical magic of the state. Both cops f
Similarly, our collective allegiance to the penal and criminal justice system
necessitates the police as enforcers of a racist, sexist, classist and violent society. A
reliance on the state and its police force creates a culture of narci
ism within itself
and is dangerous to society. By demanding justice from the system that oppresses
us, we give validity and power to our oppressor.
Reflecting Forward
Against Hired Guns is a group of people who've gotten to know each other since the
Oakland rebellions of 2009. Those rebellions happened in response to the public
execution of Oscar Grant Ill. After video of Oscar’s killing was released, broad
groups of people converged on the city, angry and ready to fight for justice. But we
had no cohesive ideas about what that meant and we pitted our individual ideas of
that meaning against each other.
This piece is a self-critical reflection of the organizing processes that followed those
rebellions, which we use to call for more strategic organizing against the violence of
policing. We use “violence of poljging” intentionally because we understand the role
of police to both be a source of violence
themselves and to extend / increase violence in
our communities. When we say “violence of
policing’, we're not referring to a specific
incident of violence, rather we're referring to
the broader role that police play and the
culture they enforce.
This piece is also an attempt to reframe
the use of “flashpoint” organizing as a
tool for justice. “Flashpoint” in this
context refers to an incident or series of
incidents that draw broad attention to
the violence of policing. Some
examples we draw from, most of
which are described in Learning to
Struggle Stronger, the first section of
9
this piece, are the police killings of Gary Wayne King, Jr., Oscar Grant III, Derrick
Jones, Raheim Brown, Jr. and Alan Blueford to name just a few. In a broader context
of the term, we're referring to mobilizations that respond to specific repressive
policing schemes like gang injunctions or mass mobilizations to City Hall in
response to city governments extending police powers.
Against Hired Guns came together as an experiment in response to a specific incident
of policing. We imagined it could be contextualized in an analysis of the violence of
policing in order to create a stronger entry-point into these politics for organizers
focused on flashpoints.
Strengthening Our Strategies
In each police murder mentioned above, family members of those killed have been
thrust into organizing process. They’ve found themselves surrounded by people
who stepped up in response to their loved one being killed, and they’ve put in
important energy towards finding a sense of personal justice.
There were also people like those of us in Against Hired Guns who have been
bringing our energy to those organizing, processes because we feel they play a
strategic role in furthering our political interest of ending the violence of policing.
While we supported and continue to support family members of people whose lives
have been taken, we do so for personal and political reasons.
In each of the cases listed above, organizing coalitions formed to support “justice”
for those who were killed. In each of them, they’ve focused on firing and
prosecuting cops who committed a specific act of violence. We want to explore how
to support family members and those thrust into organizing processes while being,
intentional and explicit about our own roles and why we keep entering these spaces.
Part of the reasons we have joined these coalitions is because we've seen them as
strategic opportunities to achieve a broader goal of getting rid of the violence of
policing. We want to get justice for people killed by police, and a big part of that
means creating conditions that stop police from killing people. In practice, these
coalitions keep referring back to “justice”, but they do not have a cohesive
understanding of what that really means.
The roles of police, in the name of “public safety”, are to arrest people, remove them
from communities, put them in cages, etc. Each of these actions extend harm beyond
a 1] a Ms a tai d z
the initial incident for which the police got involved. In other words, the roles of
police are both violent and they increase violence among people who are not cops.
This means that creating conditions that don’t let police kill people also means
creating conditions that don’t let police contain, harass, arrest or cage people. It
means an end to policing all together.
Removing cops is no all-of-a-sudden cause for safety, but thinking in these terms
allows us to experiment with practices of keeping ourselves safe without relying on
systems that we know extend and increase violence. Imagine what could be done to
support self-determination with all the money and resources that are poured into
systems of policing and imprisonment!"
In this writing, we focus on police killings because those events have and continue to
become really clear broad-based rallying points against police. Police killings are
strategic opportunities to amplify the broader violence of policing, rather than to
focus on specific incidents.
We can’t end police violence by targeting individual cops. Understanding policing
as violence, we have to target an entire system.
Sometimes our radical communities are really good at putting that analysis into
words: “Fuck The Police!” “Down with the system!” Far less often, we integrate
those understandings into how we're actually organizing.
Experimenting with Our Own Challenge
Against Hired Guns started as an attempt at placing the content of a flashpoint into a
broader context. We identified this flashpoint as a strategic opportunity to extend
our analysis of policing. Because of that, we describe ourselves as “opportunists”. By
this we mean that we are involved for political reasons, and so we try to find
strategic opportunities that will amplify those goals.
In December, 2012, we found out that a cop wanted to expose the everyday
functioning of his department. It’s a case study with nothing new except a cop who
wants to put his experience on record.
8 The Resources section of this document offers some specific examples of dealing with harmful
situations without relying on police, through interpersonal, organization and systematic
experiments.
(i i a | Ne
This cop, a commander in the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) own
autonomous police department, implicates at least ten district and police officials in
the legal deposition that we helped ensure to happen and were first to release. Those
people include the OUSD Superintendent, the OUSD police chief, the former OUSD
police chief, and more.
It would be a mistake to focus on each of these people without putting them into a
broader context and understanding of the violence of policing. While these people
have done horrific things, they’ve done so by fulfilling the function of their jobs. It
would only make sense to target them if that were done in a way that takes away the
OUSD’s ability to commit further violence.
When people lose their jobs in these contexts, they’re replaced by people who serve
the same function. It is interesting to note that when the OUSD chief from a few
years ago was fired for using the phrase “the only good nigger is a dead nigger and
we should hang them in the town square”, he was replaced by Barhin Bhatt, the cop
who killed Raheim Brown, Jr. Bhatt’s appointment was a public and obvious
rallying point among organizers because it was easy to point out the contradiction of
getting rid of an openly racist cop and replacing him with a one who had recently
Killed people.
But when Bhatt lost his position as chief, which happened as a result of community
pressure, he was replaced by another cop. James Williams, the replacement, may not
have shot or killed anyone but we know that his job is to facilitate the containment,
surveillance, arrest and caging, of kids in Oakland. He gets paid to facilitate those
processes.
We have to be outraged when a cop who kills people is given a promotion, but we
also have to be outraged, and have a sense of urgency, about the containment,
surveillance, arrest and caging of anyone. Let’s not forget that those policing
activities are targeted in hugely disproportionate ways against Black and Brown
people. »
Jonathan Bellusa, the cop who has spoken out against his department, is not a hero.
He wants to support a system of policing that is not “corrupt” in the ways that he
™ http:/ / www. insidebayarea.com /breaking-news / ci_22490590/ monitor-says-opd-regressing-
reforms
a al a lier
has observed, but rather to support a system of policing that, in legally justified ways,
creates and extends violence.
Moving Forward
As organizers, we can use flashpoint incidents to amplify a political analysis against
the violence of policing. Targeting these individuals can and should be part of our
organizing process, because if put into the context of policing as violence, using these
individual cases can take power away from police and the violence of policing.
Without that context, we've fallen into the trap of focusing on individual “good” or
“bad” cops, and in doing so we repeat patterns of asking, and therefore
empowering, the very system that enables them to kill. As explored in each section
of this writing, neither of those categories have a place in a radical conversation
about justice.
Against Hired Guns hopes to contribute to organizing processes by supporting
“flashpoint” anti-policing organizing that explicitly recognizes our reasons for
participating, and to contextualize those incidents in a broader understanding of
policing, through concrete recent examples. This experiment in using a strategic
opportunity is not a start or spark to a conversation about what “justice” really looks
like. Its’ intention is to add fuel to that conversation, that’s been an ongoing
experimental process locally and around the world.
To close, we’d like to offer some questions that could be used to extend this
contribution:
+ How can we use accurate histories of how violence of policing is justified in
order to better inform newer anti-policing, campaigns?
+ How do we connect flashpoint-based organizing strategies with broader anti-
policing struggles?
+ What does it look like for organizing strategies to not be based in or reliant on
the legal system?
As people struggling with and against the violence of policing, we think these
questions can be used to strengthen responses to flashpoint organizing. They should
help to frame “justice” in the context of flashpoint-based anti-policing work as a
constant challenge. Let’s think beyond the moment because we're in it for the long,
haul, and we're in it to win.
SR aS
Resources
This page highlights some projects and experiments in responding, to harmful
situations without relying on police or State-based mechanisms. The squares with
designs can be scanned as a barcode by a smartphone to directly link to the
corresponding website.
1 You Can’t Build Peace With a Piece, a statement by youth of color on
school safety and gun violence, explores ways to think about creating
safety in schools without police. “Nearly all of us have been to more
funerals than graduations. No one wants the violence to stop more than we
do. But, we have also seen how attempts to build public safety with security
systems, armed police and prisons have failed.”
http: / / www.dignityinschools.org / youth-color-statement-school-safety-and-gun-
violence
The Story Telling & Organizing Project (STOP) collects and shares stories
: about everyday people taking action to end interpersonal violence. It is
: sometimes difficult to imagine what community-based responses to
violence could look like. STOP has found many stories about things people
did to stop violence. You can listen to and read stories as well as submit your own
on their website. http: / / www.stopviolenceeveryday.org/
5
a
‘ie
wi Operation Ghetto Storm is a report organized and coordinated by the
33 Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM), exposing that every 28 hours
Felix in 2012, a Black person was killed by police or racist vigilantes. The report
"= Was published along with organizing resources and is a strong part of
MXGM's ongoing organizing work. http: / / www.operationghettostorm.org /
Creative Interventions was an Oakland-based organization created to
experiment with re/envisioning solutions to domestic or intimate partner,
sexual, family and other forms of interpersonal violence. It was established
as a resource center to create and promote community-based responses to
interpersonal violence. Creative Interventions has published a toolkit from their
experiences, which is available on their website for free. http:// www.creative-
interventions.org/
BAYES
i
A People’s Hearing on Racism and Police Violence, which took place on
February 19" and 20" of 2011, was organized to build concrete local histories
in Oakland connecting survivors and witnesses of police violence and state
Glatt pression so that they do not have to be isolated from one another. The
event's website describes it as a move toward the offensive, linking many sides of
the repressive state in order to strengthen our movements against it. See website for
full video and transcripts of the event. http:/ / peopleshearing. wordpress.com /
23 De Enero, once one of the most violent neighborhoods in Caracas, Venezuela,
expelled police years ago. Since, the rate of violence has shrunk drastically. These
are some links {to articles (in English) about that —_ experience.
http: / / www.greenleft.org.au / node / 36083;
http:/ / venezuelanalysis.com / news /3159;http:/ / venezuelanalysis.com /analysis/81
92; http:// www.counterpunch.org / 2008/09/09 /venezuela-from-below /;
http: / / www.theneweconomy.com/ strategy / venezuela-takes-socialism-from-
chavez
Local organizations that support self-determination and not the cops
Arab Resource and Organizing Center - http:/ / www.araborganizing.org /
Berkeley Copwatch - http:/ / www.berkeleycopwatch.org /
Black Organizing Project - http:/ /blackorganizingproject.wordpress.com /
Critical Resistance - http:/ /criticalresistance.org/
Eastside Arts Alliance — http:/ /www.eastsideartsalliance.com/
Idriss Stelley Foundation - http: / / www.cohsf.org /?p=761 #sthash.Z2nHffjl.dpbs
Justice 4 Alan Blueford - http:/ /justicedalanblueford.org/
ONYX - http:/ /onyxbrief.blogspot.com/
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement ~ http://mxgm.org/
National Lawyers Guild ~ http:/ /www.nlgsf.org/
Stop The Injunctions Coalition — http:/ /stoptheinjunction. wordpress.com /
Please contact us at againsthiredguns@hotmail.com if you have
more ideas for this list!
This flyer and at least 3 others like it were distributed in the
immediate aftermath and immediate location of police killings
in Oakland since the original Against Hired Guns document
was released.
Police at war. Against Hired Guns.
(On Wednesday afteioon, the Oakland police shot and killed a man at the comer of Bancroft and
Ritchie. According to police statements, they found out that “occupants of a particular vehicle may be
armed.” The cops chased the car untl people hopped out and ran in different directions. A cop shot
and killed one of them, who the police now say had a gun.
The police haven't even claimed that any of those men threatened them, which they always do in
order to justify murder, That's what they said when they killed Gary King, Andrew Mopping, Oscar
Grant, Raheim Brown, Alan Bluefored... The list goes on, and it's an old story that they always repeat
to justify murder.
The only person who was hurtin the entire situation was the person the police murdered. Had the
cops not chased them, there's no reason to believe anyone would have been hurt
When Derrick "Deedee" Jones was murdered by cops near Bancroft and Seminary in 2010, they said
that he took out a gun. They told us later that he NEVER had a weapon, and one of the cops who
killed him said: "We were just doing our job, as we were trained to do."
Just as that cop said, it is part of the job, k ple. It is a mistake to think that
they kill people to make us safer, which isi son they killus is the same
reason they lock us up. It's the same reason they ta ay orders, gang injunctions,
Operation Ceasefire, or whatever their la
iat tp:/Ioitly 6
an