WELCOME TO KILLADELPHIA

Philadelphia police live up to reputation in murder of 20-year-old Milo Fornwald in broad daylight

A series of police killings have taken place after the writing of this cover article. As the Spear goes to press, we have inserted brief summations of the two most recent victims of Operation Safe Streets. A more detailed story of each murder will appear in next month’s issue, though the analysis presented here is in sync with what is happening to Africans everywhere. The Burning Spear is calling on people to join the Uhuru Movement, as the families have done, to organize to seize power. Uhuru!

By SATEESH ROGERS

PHILADELPHIA, PA — As an organizer for the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), I have interviewed and talked to countless parents and families who are grieving because they have lost their children at the hands of the U.S. government in the form of the police department.

Victor Carter in Newport News, Virginia was shot dead by police officers at 23. Robert Russ was in his 20s when Chicago police gunned him down.

Milo Fornwald, on June 11, 2003, was just a few months past his 20th birthday, when an assassin’s bullet fired from the chamber of one of "Philadelphia’s finest" police officers ended his life. Witnesses said that it was "cold-blooded murder" and that "Milo posed no threat whatsoever to the police." The community reported that when Frederick Girardo got out of his car, his intention was to "shoot to kill." One bullet was fired execution-style into Milo’s head, another into his shoulder.

So when I went to speak with Milo’s mother, just like Victor’s and Robert’s, I got the strangest feeling, having to talk to someone who had a child my age who is no longer here. There’s this look that’s on the mother’s face—the same loving look that I’m sure she had given her son since birth. The difference is that her face is tainted with a heartbreaking pain that is indescribable.

When I told Ms. Fornwald that I was 20 years old she said, "that’s how old Milo was." A mother who had gone through the joy and pain of childbirth, the first steps, the first girlfriend, the first school play was now referring to her child in the past tense.

Operation Safe Streets is the Mayor’s military plan against the African working class
This is Negro Mayor John Street’s police program, aptly named "Operation Safe Streets," working just like it is supposed to. In effect it identifies every African man, woman and child as a target. This program injects millions and millions of dollars every month into the Philadelphia police department in order to put "a stop to open air drug markets" and contain the "criminal threat" African people represent to Philadelphia. Three million dollars a month goes to overtime pay for police alone!

The thinking here is that people in the African community are nothing but a bunch of junkies, drug dealers and criminals. Therefore, the only way that you can deal with the African community is to launch a war carried out by the domestic army (police) to stop crime and drugs by any means necessary.

According to the government’s own statistics, 70-80 percent of all drug use and sales occur in the white community. Logic would say that if the government was really concerned about "drug markets" then 70-80 percent of the police should be in white community. But clearly, that is not the case.

As our Party has long said, the "White House is the rock house." In other words, the government, using different organizations like the CIA and, yes, the police departments, brings drugs into our community. This is common knowledge in the African community and has even been exposed in mainstream media newspapers, such as in the "Dark Alliance" series by Gary Webb, which ran in the San Jose Mercury News in 1996.

Some Africans, usually Negroes, want to act like this is crazy, despite all of the evidence. If you are of that opinion, just take a moment to think about how you got here. Remember that whole "slavery thing"? If the U.S. could sell you, what makes you think they won’t sell drugs to you? It’s not rocket science.

In the 1840s, the British were forcing opium into China, and in the 1960s the U.S. was hustling heroin in Vietnam. Now, everywhere you look on the streets of the African community throughout the U.S., you can find drugs put in your community thanks to Uncle Sam. Why do you think that in America’s "War on Drugs," the drugs never disappear – only the Africans?

The U.S. has built and maintains itself off the exploitation of the African population colonized within U.S. borders. The current scheme used throughout the U.S. calls for a plan that generally runs like this:

The government eliminates any and all economic development in our community. There are no decent jobs, no decent schools, no decent hospitals, not even any decent food. My grandmother, for example, who lives in Chicago, will actually travel 30 minutes outside of the city to get the "good food from them white folks" for dinner.

The legal economy controlled by the U.S. is kept out of the African community. In Benton Harbor, Michigan, for example, which is 92 percent African, the official unemployment rate last year was 25 percent. In the nearby white community the jobless rate was less than two percent.

It was in Benton Harbor recently that the African community, fed up with living like Africans do all over the world, responded to yet another police murder with rebellions that caught the brief attention of the headlines. Africans began doing drive-bys against the police and burning down the symbols of white power, night after night. If you didn’t hear about it, it was because they didn’t want to give Africans any suggestions on how to deal with the police.

So you have this very desperate situation in our community created by the U.S. for its own benefit. The legal economy is gone because it’s busy making the North American population wealthy. For us, the only economy left is the illegal drug economy, put there and controlled by the U.S. government.

People my age who grew up believing that we could be "anything we want to be" slowly begin to realize that was just a joke. The reality of being an African in America sets in, and you see very few options for survival, no hope and no future.

No one wants to be poor, homeless and hungry. So, facing that real possibility, you look for a job, but you can’t find one. Actually you did find one, but it only pays $5.15 per hour, so there isn’t even enough time in a day to work enough hours to even pay all the bills, the rent, the car insurance, the bus fare and eat.

What’s left? You can’t find a job on any corner but you can find drugs on every corner. The hustle, the grind or whatever you want to call it then appears to be the only option. Other people may sell their bodies to deal with this despair or some may spiral into addiction or alcoholism. Regardless, these are all ways of coping with this situation, called colonialism, a policy set firmly in place by the U.S. government.

These policies enforced by middle-class Negroes, like Philadelphia Mayor John Street, along with the support of the general white population, provide the basis of the "American Dream," which is nothing but an "African Nightmare."

Let me be clear: the government has a policy toward the African community of enforced poverty. These conditions are cultivated like a weed, designed to choke to death the natural aspirations our people have for a better material life. From its inception, the U.S., much like a parasite, has lived off the blood and sweat of the African community. If you are doing for yourself, you aren’t doing for them. That’s why the State must keep its domestic colony of Africans directly under its oppressive boot.

Military occupation and economic blockade are tools of colonialism
Chemical warfare in the form of drugs and military occupation in the form of the police are the modus operandi of the U.S. colonialist-capitalist State.

A person steals a loaf of bread, robs a liquor store, or steals clothes not because he grew up itching for that day when he could be a petty thief, but rather as a consequence of the piss poor conditions forced upon us and maintained by the State.

All our resources are controlled by white power. Even the legacy of your parents’ work is not yours. We rarely, if ever, benefit from our parents’ work. We usually just end up in the same position, waiting to pass colonialism on to our children. The only real criminals are the U.S government and the white capitalist class it serves.

People don’t realistically see a future in the drug game. I mean it’s not like you’ve got a retirement option, a 401k and health benefits. But the future doesn’t matter if you can’t eat now. That’s why Africans set goals for survival. "I hope I make it to 16." Then it’s "I hope I make it to 18, 21, 25" etc. That is how we are forced to live.

Some of our young Africans think they got the idea themselves to sell drugs in order to get over on the system. In reality, they are just government employees. When the police decide their employment period is up, they are given another job inside of a concentration camp, commonly known as a prison.

Drugs and prisons are the two largest growth industries in the United States. Larger than e-business, textiles, retail — everything. Not surprisingly, the oppression of Africans once again, as it always has, provides the foundation for a healthy U.S. economy at our expense.

The illegal drug economy is worth half a trillion dollars per year to the U.S. and worldwide economy. Just so you can get an idea of what that means: If you were to take all the cash money everyone had in the U.S., and put it in a pile, you would need three times that amount just to get half a trillion dollars! The interest alone from this money generates three million dollars per hour.

Still, we’re supposed to believe that some 17 or 18 year old African, living in the projects with a gold chain and shiny wheels on his car, operates this worldwide drug economy.

The prison system uses prisoners on modern plantations to do everything: milk cows, raise chickens, make seatbelts and airplane parts, do telemarketing, maintain roads and highways, construct computer motherboards. You name it, it’s done in a prison, likely by an African captive. In fact, thousands upon thousands of Africans are still picking cotton on prison plantations.

Prisons have become so beneficial to the economy that laws have been created to make sure Africans and Mexicans end up in jail for years. "Three Strikes" laws, which violate the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy, have been used to lock up Africans and Mexicans for 50 years to life for "crimes" like stealing a package of videotapes from K-Mart. Meanwhile, George W. Bush’s neice, a habitual crackhead, will never do time.

The U.S. invests $22,500 per year in keeping an African man in jail, but only $5,000 per year to keep an African child in school. You can now invest in prisons on the New York Stock Exchange. Africans were the first and largest "stock" on the market years ago. In 2003, African bodies are still the most valuable commodity.

Squad cars and paddy wagons have become the slave ships, the prison the plantation and these Negro leaders, the overseers.

So, the State has all types of economic interests in keeping our community just as it is. The entire U.S. economy feeds primarily off of this relationship. African oppression is the backbone of the empire. Slavery is the American way. Military operations, like "Safe Streets," serve one purpose and one purpose only: to criminalize the entire African community paving the way for a total police state. This justifies the kidnapping, murdering and locking away in concentration camps the most vital element of the African revolution.

"Operation Safe Streets" killed Milo Fornwald. It has become common now that a cop like Frederick Girardo can kill an African like Milo Fornwald and get rewarded with a desk job and, in some instances, even a paid vacation. This has been the case across the U.S. as well as in Philadelphia. In something like the last 25-30 police murders in the city, not one cop has ever been held responsible for slaughtering our people like animals in the street. "Police are right. The people are wrong. What don’t you understand? Listen to your Negroes."

How many Milo Fornwalds will there have to be before we realize that we are the only ones who care about our community, and that we must have our own power? We must have control over our lives.

Negroes often say that we need to work harder. If hard work meant anything, Africans would be the richest people on the planet, so that can’t be the issue. The issue is that we have not worked in our own interests. We have worked in the interests of America and her loyal Negro middle-class servants. But, rarely have we worked for our nation and our homeland – Africa, the richest continent on the planet.

Africans demonstrate chanting “Kill the Killer Cops!”
This was the message put out at the protest held in Philadelphia, in which 150-200 people militantly marched through the streets from Milo’s home to the local police station. The march was led by a large banner reading "Welcome to Killadelphia, the City that Beats and Kills Blacks." Fox News helicopters flew overhead, capturing the aerial shots of the protestors flanked on each side with the red, black and green African flag.

Philadelphia International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) President, Kamau Becktemba, led the chanting and slogans, one of which went "Stop Police Murder, Jail the Killer Cops." As we chanted, the masses made it very clear that if an African had killed a police officer he/she would face the death penalty. With that understanding, the people changed the chant from "Jail the Killer Cops," to "Kill the Killer Cops!"

The militancy of the crowd reflected the desire for revolutionary leadership, not some sort of "let’s all just get along, don’t be angry, give peace a chance" type of nonsense. If that needs to be said, say it to the police killing Africans left and right, not the people, because we have the right to be outraged.

Regardless of what happens, we stand with our people, not with the State. Up and down the line, the U.S. is wrong. In fact, we’ve got a few centuries worth of issues that still haven’t been resolved and won’t be until African people are self-determining, self-governing and Africa is free.

Operation Black Power
At the follow up meeting to discuss the plans for what needs to happen now, some people got up and made some generally important statements. The key though, will be doing the work on the ground that has some sort of short-, mid- and long-range goals in mind. People were given a yellow sheet of paper produced by the Uhuru (Freedom) Movement that outlined the following objectives:

1. Prosecute killer cop Fred Girardo for murder.
2. Win a policy of economic development for the African community and overturn "Operation Safe Streets."
3. Win Civilian Review Board that has punitive powers.
4. Win Reparations for the family of Milo Fornwald.

These reasonable demands formulate the basis of a plan the Uhuru Movement is calling "Operation Black Power." We are calling on people seriously concerned with overturning the conditions that led to Milo’s assassination to join this operation. Imagine if our own money, $3 million or more was in our own hands every month to employ our community, create functional schools, and develop a prosperous neighborhood. Imagine if all the work we were doing was going to the benefit of our own land, government and self-determination. Common sense would unite with Operation Black Power and African liberation.

At any rate, people will have to choose sides. With military plans like "Safe Streets," Milo’s family paid the police to murder their son when they submitted their taxes. These same taxes kept food off the table and put Milo in a casket. Bush said, "You’re either with us or with the terrorists." In this case, you’re with the people or with the terrorist U.S. State and the police. There is no in-between and we do each other no favors by pretending that there is.

Crisis of Negro leadership emerges
The "7th Street Roundtable," a local organization that participated in and helped to organize the initial demonstration and meeting has a close relationship with the family of Milo Fornwald. The problem is that they work with the police.

At a follow-up meeting, the 7th Street Roundtable said that the Uhuru Movement could not participate with them anymore because the chant "Stop Brutality! - Jail the Killer Cops" kept being said. But the people were saying, "Kill the Killer Cops" for their part in the response. We were "warned" not to say it anymore. But, that "warning" violated the fundamental agreement that all participating organizations had.

Basically, Fred Girardo has to be sentenced to jail based on first degree murder, just like anyone else and the chant we initiated reflected that.

The real contradiction is that certain players that represent the material interests of the black-middle class inside the "Roundtable" have an interest in not challenging the city or overturning “Operation Safe Streets” the way that we must. They have a good relationship with the family and the police, with the murdered and the murderers.

As the middlemen, they can broker some type of agreement that will only benefit them and ignore the interests of the African working class. It is a strategy that is guaranteed to fail if justice for Milo Fornwald and the African community is really the priority, though they will likely succeed in getting benefits for themselves.

This sell-out position should be exposed for what it is. It is a tactic of the petty-bourgeoisie used and encouraged by the State to prop up the police and separate the people from genuine African working class leadership that can transform our daily reality by determining for ourselves what our community will look like.

Unfortunately, the family and even some people in our community are being misled into believing that this "brokering" will work. It works for the middleman — never for the people, and history proves this point. It is what we call neo-colonialism or white power in black face. That is what Mayor John Street is about, and functionally this is what the position of certain people in the "Roundtable" represents.

The Uhuru Movement, under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party, represents the material interests of the African working class. This unwavering commitment informs us that we must expose the true nature of the contradiction in any given situation. Not only where direct white power is concerned but also indirect white power represented by the black petty-bourgeoisie or the black middle-class. In fact, all over the African world, this is the defining question of the current political period. It is the question of different class interests that exist among us that has to be raised and dealt with. The neo-colonialists are enemies of the people’s freedom concerned only with their own "greedom" and comfortable position underneath the master. They unite with our oppression because they’ll get some sort of material benefit.

To make the criticism that has been made is not an attempt to cause some sort of unnatural division but rather to clarify the truth of the situation. If the truth is that working with and supporting the police is killing us, blame the truth, not the Uhuru Movement when we say “Operation Safe Streets” must be overturned. Everyday, Africans around this country are being beaten and murdered – our responsibility is to the broad masses of the African working class. We have to be crystal clear on what the correct stance is, because if at every turn we shy away from criticism, our people will not be transformed into the makers and shapers of history but will remain slaves and colonial subjects forever.

Operation Black Power is the strategy to cut out the neo-colonialists. It cuts out the middleman and brings power directly to the African working class to determine for ourselves what is in our best interests. If we succeed in the stated aims of this operation, then certain parts of the "Roundtable" no longer have a privileged position to act as overseers. So they will block this effort at every turn – even just being in the same coalition was unacceptable to them, as we were kicked out.

However, we view the most recent development as an encouraging sign that the artificial class peace between the petty bourgeoisie and the African working class must be smashed. Our understanding of how our oppressor functions through blackface must be deepened. There will be no freedom without this understanding. There will be neither justice nor freedom absent the struggle for political principle and dialogue.

It has become clear that we have been forced out of the loose coalition without any political principle or dialogue and that the family has been led to believe that African working class leadership is not the answer, because "the people won’t act intelligently."
This is unfortunate, but the reality is that the primary basis for organizing in this case is not only out of concern for the family, but because Milo Fornwald was murdered due to the fact that he was an African. Our entire community is under attack and Milo was one of the latest victim in a series of police murders.

People who recognize the crisis of "negro-colonial" leadership and the importance of community control are urged to get involved with Operation Black Power. We will need to build grassroots support if we are to succeed. Petitions supporting the above demands will be circulating through the African community of Philadelphia and we need people to assist with that regardless of who you are. This will help us build practical support on the ground for community control, which will be used at a later stage to leverage our political power as a community.

Operation Black Power will give our community the voice it is often denied by the media by organizing forums, press conferences, additional demonstrations, distributing flyers about Africans murdered by police and the need for the African community to dictate its own affairs just like any other community. We will be organizing call-ins and fundraisers for a community defense fund. This will help to unite a strong political base, aware of its own interests poised to seize political power at every turn and in every struggle.

The organizers inside of Operation Black Power will also be responsible for identifying a candidate from our own base to run for political office based on the above concept of community control and self-determination.

Operation Black Power is a comprehensive strategic plan that anticipates building a stronger community through our own day-to-day work. There are more aspects to this Operation but there you have the general premise. This has been a successful general plan in other cities where we have applied this formula.

The African working class community in Philadelphia needs to address its problems by determining for ourselves what happens in our neighborhoods. When we control our blocks we control them for the interests of our whole people, not for the greedy, criminals that currently control every aspect of our existence. Let Operation Black Power serve to advance our ultimate objective of a liberated Africa and African people! We start by liberating the block from our oppressor.

Justice for Milo Fornwald!
Join Operation Black Power!
Power to the African Community!
Build and Consolidate the U.S. front of the African Revolution!

MORE PHILADELPHIA KILLINGS

Justice for Anthony “Tony” Overton!
In the early hours of July 19, Anthony "Tony" Overton died at the hands of state troopers. First the police told Anthony’s family that he had been killed by the troopers. The next day, the police told the family that he had pulled a gun, pointed it to his head, then aimed it at the troopers. They said the troopers then shot him in the leg, and he ran across two lanes and over the median where he then shot himself in the head. Everyone who knew Tony Overton believes he would never kill himself.

The Uhuru Movement, Tony’s family, and the community believe it was a brutal murder!
Anthony Overton was a 31 year old African man with two young children who had recently started a new, promising job. He was full of life and loved by his family and community. Tony was known as a hard-working, caring person who tutored children, helped the elderly, and broke up fights in his neighborhood. He carried himself with pride and dignity and would speak up against injustice. The community demands to know the truth!
Demands:

• Full independent investigation of police
• Independent autopsy
• Demand to know state troopers involved
• Arrest and prosecute the police
• Justice and Reparations for Anthony "Tony"Overton and his family!

The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement meets every Wednesday at 7:30pm 1021 S. 49th Street Philadelphia, PA 215-724-3535

Justice for Edward Shawn "Boo" Pickens!
Edward "Boo" Pickens was murdered by undercover narcotics officer John Ramirez on Sunday night August 3rd at 52nd and Warrington Streets in West Philadelphia. Witnesses say the brother was unarmed and there was no justification for the shooting and murder by the police. This was a cold blooded murder!

Boo Pickens is the most recent of several young Africans murdered by police over the past few weeks in the Philadelphia area, in addition to the murder of Anthony Overton and Milo Fornwald. The police are an occupying army in the African community - framing, robbing, intimidating, harassing and arresting young African men and women. Operation "Safe Streets" is a sham!

Everybody knows the U.S. government is responsible for the drugs and horrible conditions in the African community! The White House is the rock house and Uncle Sam is the pusher man!
The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement calls on the African Community to come together to organize for our rights!

Demands:
• Justice and Reparations to the family of Edward Pickens!
• Prosecute Officer John Ramirez for the murder of Edward Pickens!
• End police brutality and murder in the African community!