Monday,
May 21, 2012
Worldwide
attention has been focused on the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black
youth, by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain in
Sanford, Florida on Feb. 26. 45 days
after the local police department refused to arrest Zimmerman on the charge of
murder, Zimmerman turned himself in to authorities after national media
coverage looked into the case; various petitions/signature gathering events;
dozens of global demonstrations and marches; and the shake-up of various
officials and the appointment of a special prosecutor.
This
scenario is unfortunately the norm and not an anomaly in the U.S. When it comes to the murder of Black people
by law enforcement and racist vigilantes, tremendous amounts of resources,
energy and pressure must be applied simply to initiate the process of holding
individuals accountable for their crimes.
Within
the United States historically, local law enforcement agencies and vigilante
hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have operated as parallel organizations
and as “mutually reinforcing types of organizations.” In his book Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, author and
activist Kristian Williams writes that “… historically, police offer a degree
of validation to Klan activity … by refusing to treat racist violence as a
crime. At times the police have supplied
the institutional nucleus around which vigilante activity could orbit.”
Since
the killing of Trayvon Martin, research compiled by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
has shown an epidemic of at least 23 Black men and women who have been murdered
by local law enforcement, security personnel, and self-proclaimed “keepers of
the peace.” In all, over 40 Black women and men have been killed by these
forces since January 1, 2012. Within the U.S., murder – the unlawful killing of
human beings – is usually determined by a jury in a court of law however very
few law enforcement personnel have ever been charged with murder while
performing their jobs. Police murder is
simply not considered a crime.
To
address this epidemic of police murder, it is imperative that the Obama
Administration immediately implement a National Plan of Action for Racial
Justice. This national plan of action must consist of 1) a national database to
document the killing of Black people by the police; 2) eliminate racial
profiling; and 3) ending the policies of mass incarceration targeting Black
people.
“There
is only one way to address the upsurge of racist violence being committed
against Black people, Latinos, Arabs, Muslims, and immigrants in this country”,
says Kali Akuno, organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, “and that is
for the Obama administration to implement a National Plan of Action for Racial
Justice that addresses all levels of government and demands compliance with all
the provisions of the CERD treaty. All the resources being used to enforce racially-biased
policies like S-Comm (Secure Communities) or stop and frisk throughout the
country can just as easily be used in fact to end racial violence and
discrimination.”
The
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination,(ICERD, or more commonly, CERD), is an international treaty
designed to protect individuals from discrimination based on race, whether that
discrimination is intentional, or is the result of seemingly neutral policies.
The United States ratified CERD in 1994 and is therefore bound by all
provisions of the treaty. The National Plan of Action would provide the Obama
administration with the means to implement the general recommendations of the
CERD. National Plans of Action for Racial Justice are a product of the World
Conference against Racism held in Durban, South Africa in 2001.
Currently
in the U.S., there exists no independent, national human rights institution
that could serve as a check on domestic human rights abuses. A National Plan of Action for Racial Justice
should pave the way for the establishment of such an institution that would be
in accordance with United Nations principles that the U.S. has already
accepted.
Additionally,
no national, independent mechanisms are currently established for the
monitoring of police abuses within the United States. Given the history of
racial antagonisms in the U.S. and along the border with Mexico, a National
Plan of Action for Racial Justice must make its priority the reporting of
police brutality and excessive use of force; that the allegations are
independently, promptly and thoroughly investigated; and that the perpetrators
are prosecuted and appropriately held to a count.
We are
calling on all those who genuinely seek justice for Trayvon Martin; all those
who truly want a concrete “next step” to prevent future Trayvon Martins, to
join us in this demand to hold the United States government accountable for its
failure to fully address the systemic problem of institutionalized racism.
We are
calling for people of goodwill across the nation to endorse the demand for a
National Plan of Action for Racial Justice.
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and its allies will be delivering a
petition to the Obama administration in June demanding that it implement a
National Plan of Action for Racial Justice. "It is time that the US government
play by the same rules and standards that it demands of other nations around
the world", says Kali Akuno. "The US government must respect, protect
and fulfill the human rights of everyone person under its jurisdiction to
ensure that there are No More Trayvon Martin's, and we intend on demanding
compliance to ensure that it does so."
For more
information about the Petition for a National Plan of Action visit http://mxgm.org/trayvon-martin-is-all-of-us/.
For more
background information on What A National Plan of Action for Racial Justice is
visit http://mxgm.org/the-national-plan-of-action-for-racial-justice-short-explanation-of-what-it-is/.
To
contact the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement call Kali Akuno 510.593.3956 or email
kaliakuno@mxgm.org.
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