Where is the outrage and outcry? -Larry Hamm
by Kofi Ayim
The head of the Peoples Organization for Progress (POP) Mr. Larry Hamm is livid about the conspicuous silence of society by the un- provoked murdering of a black homeless man in New York City March 20, 2017. The alleged murderer, James Harris Jackson is a white veteran who traveled from Baltimore to New York with a sword with the express aim to butcher black people. Mr. Larry Hamm said the fate of silence is to allow such unwarranted brutalities against blacks to fester.
Speaking at the 3rd Annual Zachary Yamba/Robert Manley Lecture Series at the First Presbyterian & Trinity Church in South Orange, New Jersey March 26, the Civil Rights Activist enumerated countless police brutalities and killings of black people in New Jersey and elsewhere without any con- viction of the police personnel involved. “Our people are being shot down in the streets unarmed and nothing is being done about it,” he fumed. In 2015 more than 1136 black people in the U.S were killed by police and more than 1000 killed in 2016.
Speaking on the theme “The Need for Criminal Justice Re- form,” Mr. Hamm explained that police brutality against black people has historical underpinnings. He observed that it is a structural problem entrenched in white racism rather than bad habits. According to him the estab- lishment had sanctioned the use of force against black people because black people in the U.S. were supposed to have been enslaved in perpe- tuity by the so-called Found- ing Fathers who were nothing but Slave Masters. “Blacks” he added “are currently expe- riencing an updated and vali- dated version of the original plan of the slave masters.” If there is ever a time to wake up, it’s now,” he challenged. White supremacy is on the rise because they feel they feel they now have a champion in the White House.
He suggested radical reforms in the Police Force and called for an Independent State Prosecutor to investigate po- lice killings in New Jersey and elsewhere. A Civilian and Oversight Control Board is needed to monitor the police just as the President as a civilian is the Commander in Chief of the Military, he ar- gued.
He opined that the Police Force in New Jersey is fast becoming a Political force by virtue of its cordial relation- ship with the State, and quickly added that the New Jersey penitentiary system is crying out for reforms be- cause the place is “run like a slave plantation, and so peo- ple come out unreformed.
Mr. Hamm pointed out that about 70% of New Jersey’s jail population is black due to institutionalized racism. So much goes on behind those close doors, he inferred. “To be black means you are guilty until proven innocent, because to be black is criminal,” he poetized. Why isn’t a movie about the successful Haitian slave rebellion against French hegemony which basically crippled Napoleon so much so that the French had to sell Louisiana and its vast territory to keep their country from going under, he asked rhetorically. He added that African Americans owe a lot of gratitude to the Haitian Revolution.
The event was attended by Dr. Robert H. Manley, Founder/President of the Center for Global Responsi- bility and former Professor of Political Science at Seton Hall University,. Dr. Zachary Yamba Former President of Essex County College and current Interim President, local Police Chiefs and other Activists.
Posted by admin
on Apr 14 2017. Filed under top stories.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry