Organized Resistance Takes
Its Place in the United States
Fight for Justice and to End State-Organized Racist Attacks and Use of Military Against the People
Youth lead Oakland, California demonstration, June
11, 2020, demanding
police get out of
their schools.
Across the U.S., actions that started on May 26
to demand justice for the police killing of George
Floyd continue as
organized resistance emerges to take its place. In
Minneapolis where
Floyd was killed and across the country, calls for
justice in numerous
cases of police brutality and killings, especially
of African
Americans, ring out. Calls also demand profound
changes to policing
that will not permit the people to be victimized
by a militarized force
that does not represent their interests. The
people continue to affirm
their convictions for new arrangements and their
own empowerment,
through protests as well as other forms.
 Since May 26,
protests have taken place in at least 750 cities
in all 50 U.S. states,
and internationally in 60 countries on all
continents except
Antarctica. The people have not been cowed by the
massive deployments
of the National Guard and police forces against
them and widespread
acts of police brutality. Activists have been
compiling reports and
footage of such incidents.[1]
One such database as of June 13 has 659 entries.
Just one example is
the killing of an unarmed 22-year-old man in
northern California on
June 1, while he was on his knees with his hands
raised. Police shot
him from their squad car, claiming to have
mistaken a hammer in his
pocket for a gun. Meanwhile, the website
Bellingcat.com has compiled a
list of police violence against journalists that
as of June 2 had 148
entries. It points out that "To give you
perspective on just how
enormous this number really is, the U.S. Press
Freedom Tracker tracked
150 press freedom violations for the whole of
2019. The incidents in
these protests have almost surpassed the 2019
numbers in a week."[2]
The standout feature of unfolding events is the
organized character of the resistance. People and
their collectives are
speaking out in their own name, basing themselves
on their own demands
despite pressure to back factions of the military
and ruling elite that
oppose Trump and say they support the
Constitution. The movement has
thus far not been diverted from achieving its aims
into maintaining the
status quo that disempowers the people.
In Minneapolis, with the mass demonstrations
resulting in the firing of and criminal charges
against the four police
officers responsible for killing George Floyd, the
people's attention
is focused on making profound changes to the
policing system which
criminalizes African Americans and other
disenfranchised minorities as
a matter of course.
Demonstration in Minneapolis, June 7, 2020.
In the face of the people's demands, on June 12,
Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a
resolution to replace the
police department with a community-led public
safety system. "The
murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, by
Minneapolis police officers
is a tragedy that shows that no amount of reforms
will prevent lethal
violence and abuse by some members of the Police
Department against
members of our community, especially Black people
and people of color,"
wrote five council members in the resolution. The
resolution states
that the council will begin a year-long process of
engaging "with every
willing community member in Minneapolis" in its
"Future of Community
Safety Work Group," to develop a "transformative
new model" of public
safety in the city. The council also voted
unanimously to end the local
emergency order that had been declared due to the
mass protests that
began on May 26 after George Floyd's death at the
hands of the police.
Demands to city council for police accountability
and to disband the Minneapolis police long predate
the killing of
George Floyd, local activists point out, noting
that timely action on
previous occasions could have prevented George
Floyd's death. The
organization Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4
Jamar (TCC4J) --
formed after the 2015 police killing of
24-year-old Jamar Clark -- on
June 11 called for the police officers responsible
for similar killings
and other crimes to be held to account and that
justice be brought for
all of the victims and their friends and families.
Activists across the
U.S. are making similar calls to defund police
departments and replace
them with bodies over which the people can
exercise control, while
increasing social services to provide working
people, not the rich,
with security based on meeting human needs, not
the use of state
violence and criminalization of minorities, the
poor and working poor,
the marginalized and the most vulnerable sectors
of society.
Minneapolis, June 11, 2020.
The people's resistance is also taking the form
of
National Guardsmen refusing orders to be deployed
against protestors,
because they see the justice of those who have
taken up the call "Black
Lives Matter" and do not wish to be put in a
position of carrying out
brutality against those exercising their right to
protest. As
one member of the California National Air Guard
put it, "What we're
told is, 'Discourage people from criminal
activity,' and things like
that. But that doesn't necessarily matter. What's
going to be
communicated on the ground when you see people in
uniform with weapons,
standing in formation?" He added that he signed up
to do humanitarian
work, "But to actually go out and be this invading
force? Many people
are not comfortable with it. They feel like it's
not really what they
signed up for." Veterans' organizations and GI
rights groups report
fielding a larger number of calls from troops
asking about their
options for refusing orders. The veterans' peace
group About Face says
it knows of some 10 service members who have taken
concrete steps to
avoid deployment, while many others have asked for
support in resisting
orders they think are illegal.
Another way this resistance is manifesting is the
tearing down of symbols that glorify slavery or
statues commemorating
slave traders. Amidst this situation, Indigenous
peoples living on U.S.
territory are gaining broader support for the
removal of statues of
Christopher Columbus as part of ending the
presentation of the genocide
and dispossession of Indigenous peoples as
laudatory historical
achievements, rather than crimes against humanity.
 On June 3,
attorneys for the families of George Floyd and
others informed that
they are calling on the UN to open a human rights
case against the U.S.
and sanction it for its mistreatment of African
Americans.
As a result of broad and continuing resistance,
former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin,
who held his knee on
George Floyd's neck, is currently being held at
the Minnesota
Department of Corrections facility in Oak Park.
His bail was increased
to $1 million June 3 when charges were upgraded to
second-degree
murder. Former police officers Thomas Lane and J.
Alexander Kueng, who
helped restrain Floyd, and Tou Thao, who stood
near the others, are
charged with aiding and abetting second-degree
murder and aiding and
abetting second-degree manslaughter. Bail for them
was set at $1
million without conditions or $750, 000 with
conditions. Lane was
released June 10 on a $750,000 bond.
In this TML Weekly Supplement
we publish calls by the organized resistance as
well as a photo review.
Notes
1. To
view the spreadsheet, click
here.
2. "Visualizing
Police
Violence Against Journalists At Protests Across
The U.S.,"
Charlotte Godart, Bellingcat.com, June 5, 2020
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