KENT, Washington, June 28 — A King County jury yesterday convicted the police officer who killed Jesse Sarey five years ago. Jeffrey Nelson, a police officer in Auburn, Washington, was found guilty of both counts filed against him: second-degree murder and first-degree assault. It was a blow against police violence and a measure of justice for those victimized by it.
This is a story by James Mac Warren. “I would like to share a personal encounter with the Memphis police department that had a profound impact on what I would set out to accomplish in my young life. I’ve never told this story publicly. I think my reason was to avoid giving the impression that I committed my life to fight to change the world because I was brutalized by the police. My case against the Memphis police department is more than fifty years old, unlike most cases coming to light today. Brother Tyre Nichols’s horrific murder has opened up a can of worms the MPD is working frantically to shut down.”
On December 23, a jury in Minneapolis convicted Kimberly Potter, the cop who killed Daunte Wright last spring, on first- and second-degree manslaughter. Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence and other opponents of cop brutality in Minnesota welcomed the verdict—a still too rare glimpse of justice. We join Wright’s family and supporters in celebrating the verdict that delivered some accountability. As Katie Bryant, Daunte’s mother, told supporters outside the courtroom, cops are now more likely to think twice before pulling their gun instead of their taser. “And we made this happen, you made this happen, Daunte Wright made this happen.”
On November 24, a jury in Brunswick Georgia rendered a degree of justice in the brutal murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man. The three defendants, Gregory McMichael, 65; his son Travis McMichael, 35; and their neighbor William Bryan, 52 were found guilty of murder and other charges. All now face the prospect of life in prison. Future vigilantes may think twice before attempting such a lynching again. The outcome of this case is one more step forward in the long battle for genuine equality for African Americans and for the extension of democratic rights to all.
The November 19, 2021, acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse by a Wisconsin jury on all charges, including first-degree reckless and intentional homicide, is a travesty of justice. It sends a message to other rightists that vigilantism is acceptable so long as it is clothed in claims of “self-defense.” It echoes the verdict in the 2012 trial of George Zimmerman who was exonerated for his murder of Trayvon Martin that same year.
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 2, 2021—More than 500 relatives of victims slain by the police across the United States, and their supporters, participated in a powerful testimonial rally here on August 28. They demanded that authorities “prosecute police who brutalize and/or kill” and “reopen and re-investigate all cases that allege police violence,” as a press release for the action stated. Members of families impacted by cop violence called for an end to what many described as the “ongoing scourge” of police brutality. The most compelling deterrent to such violence is to prosecute the cops responsible and put them behind bars, they emphasized.
WASHINGTON, DC, August 28, 2021—Below is an initial gallery of photos from the magnificent rally and march to the Justice Department today. More than 500 members of families who have lost loved ones to cop violence, arriving from 44 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, took part in the rally at the Washington Monument and subsequent march to the Department of Justice to demand: Reopen All the Cases, where justice has been denied! Prosecute and Jail the Killer Cops!
SEATTLE, August 6, 2021—An important and in some ways unique demonstration against police violence will take place in Washington DC on August 28, the anniversary of the historic 1963 civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
The is an Op-Ed based on a Facebook post the author, James Mac Warren, released June 17, 2021. World-Outlook is publishing it to mark the centennial of this horrible milestone in African-American history. Above all, we believe the ideas expressed below have genuine political importance for today, in addition to setting the historical record straight on the Tulsa massacre.
This is part 2 of an essay Marxist scholar George Novack wrote in 1961, in the thick of the mass struggle to end Jim Crow segregation in the United States. World-Outlook is publishing it to mark the 160th anniversary of the start of the U.S. Civil War, and in celebration of Juneteenth (short for June 19th), an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery at the conclusion of the Civil War.
The trial of the police murder that shook the world was barely days old before the police killed another unarmed civilian just miles away from where George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police. While the verdict was being announced another civilian, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was killed in Columbus, OH. 13-year-old Adam Toledo of Chicago was killed while his hands were up, Andre Brown, Jr was killed by North Carolina police, and video has just emerged showing the brutal and fatal arrest of Ronald Greene in Louisiana. Every day across the United States, unabated, another civilian is killed by police.
Hundreds of impacted families are joining together to say enough! They are demanding that the police that have killed their loved ones be put in jail. They are demanding that all past cases of police brutality be reopened.
May 25, 2021—On the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s brutal death at the hands of Minneapolis police, all opponents of cop violence and racism can rejoice in seeing Floyd’s executioner locked-up behind bars. We can celebrate the prospect of a long sentence awaiting former police officer Derek Chauvin. His conviction by a Minneapolis jury on April 20 was a victory for the mass movement against police brutality and racism that Floyd’s homicide sparked across the United States and around the world.
This is the text of the call for a national march and rally in Washington, D.C. The action will take place on Sat., Aug. 28, 2021, from 11am to 7pm in the U.S. capital. Its demands include reopening all cases of police misconduct where justice has been denied and prosecution and jailing of guilty cops. Mass Action Against Police Brutality and other organizations issued the call, which has been endorsed as of May 2 by 245 members of families that have lost loved ones to police violence across the United States.
April 30, 2021—This is a partial but representative round-up of protests against police brutality and racism that took place in a number of U.S. cities on April 24. They were initiated by Mass Action Against Police Brutality in Boston and others and were largely led by members of families that have lost loved ones to police violence. Demands included prosecuting and jailing the guilty cops and re-opening all cases of police misconduct where justice has been denied. Similar actions will occur on May 25, the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police.
April 20, 2021, 5pm EST—A Minneapolis jury just found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all charges—second degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter—in the brutal killing of George Floyd. Chauvin could face up to 40 years in prison.
Now, we need justice for ALL the families who have lost loved ones to police violence.
This article was first published on April 17, 2021, by the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (MSR), the oldest Black-owned newspaper in the state of Minnesota. It is re-published here by permission.
Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old African-American man and father of a 2-year-old toddler, Daunte Jr., was shot and killed by police officer Kim Potter during an April 11 routine traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, about 10 miles north of Minneapolis.
Hundreds of people marched to a rally at Jefferson Square Park in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 13 to mark the one-year anniversary since Breonna Taylor’s death. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was shot and killed in her home by police officers who broke down her door in a midnight raid to serve a no-knock search warrant on the wrong house.
Mar. 23, 2021— Protests took place across the United States, leading up to the March 8 opening of the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of killing George Floyd. Demonstrators demanded Chauvin’s conviction and used the attention focused on that case to highlight the many other ongoing fights against police brutality and racism across the country.
On March 4, 2021, a live Facebook video event turned a spotlight on the stories and demands of families who have lost loved ones to police violence in Washington State. A total of 23 people speaking on behalf of 17 families shared the heart-wrenching truth about the ongoing plague of police murders with few if any criminal consequences. That video has been shared 175 times on Facebook. World-Outlook.com hopes to continue that process.