DC Ferguson Shuts Down Chinatown Demanding Lanier Actually End Jump-Outs

By Grassroots DC, on June 19th, 2015

Cross-Posted from DC Independent Media Center Written by Luke

On the 16th of June, DC Ferguson returned to the streets and shut down Chinatown, demanding not only that Police Chief Lanier keep the de facto promise she just made to end jump-outs, but also an end to gentrifcation and homelessness. The 16th of June was the 39th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising a crucial event in the movement that ultimately ended Apartheid in South Africa.

A few days earlier, DC Police Chief Lanier said that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) would be switching focus from “low-level drug dealers” to major suppliers. According to the Washington Post report, the city’s vice squads are to be finally eliminated. Not once was the word “jump-out” used in any mainstream media story, but it is clear this is in response to growing pressure to end this tactic. When DC Ferguson began organizing against jump-outs, MPD first claimed to have discontinued the tactic during the 1990’s, then claimed only vice squads did anything like this. Now they say they will abolish the vice squads, but will the jump-outs really end or some other or renamed part of MPD continue business as usual?

Jump-outs are essentially when undercover cops swarm onto a block and attempt to intimidate every young Black male into submitting to an illegal search. Presumably MPD hopes to catch street corner drug dealers by searching everyone on the corner in this way. Jump-outs are seen in gentrification front-line areas and in Wards 7 and 8, which are African-American majority neighborhoods. Police deny they do this, yet everyone on some blocks I know well knows exactly what a jump-out is.

Since Lanier’s statement, FAUX (known by most as Fox) News has been running nonstop crime stories, along with interviews with masked cops complaining about the shift of focus. Faux is yakking every day about overdoses of a bad batch of “synthetic pot”-just after real pot has been legalized. Most likely FAUX has another agenda behind supporting jump-outs, a pro-gentrification one. This is in itself evidence that as protesters charge, jump-outs are about social control and racism, not about drugs at all.

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DC Ferguson Movement Protest Against Racist, Militarized Policing

By Grassroots DC, on June 15th, 2015

Posted on Behalf of DCFerguson

On June 16th 1976 twenty-thousand Black students took to the streets of South Africa to protest the imposition of the racist language Afrikaans in their schools. The event is remembered as the Soweto Student Uprising. Their protests were met with bullets by the Apartheid government killing hundreds of youth. Oppression, however, breeds resistance. The murders of those students jump-started the movement against Apartheid as thousands upon thousands of Black (and white) South Africans actively joined the struggle, swelling the ranks of the Liberation Movement.

Here in the United States we are in the midst of our own Youth uprising, from Ferguson to Baltimore Black youth have led the way and kicked off a powerful movement against racism, police murders and poverty.

On June 16th DCFerguson seeks to honor those who lost their lives in Soweto township in 1976, who gave everything to be liberated. Our uprising must turn into a liberation movement that uproots racist oppression. We will march to commemorate the lives of the lost martyrs in both struggles and in the memory that through struggle comes sacrifice but also victory. Join us on Tuesday June 16 as we continue to demand an end to racist militarized policing in D.C. and the entire United States!

This morning, Mayor Bowser and Chief Lanier announced that they will be “shifting” the strategies of the Metropolitan Police Department. They are backpedaling because of the pressure DCFerguson and their supporters have been able to bring together.

Her announcement is designed to create the appearance of being responsive to those who have called for changes to policing, without any substantive engagement. The Chief, clearly feeling the pressure from our exposure of the jump-out policy, is attempting to make it appear that jump-outs are ending by closing down the “vice units” that were often most responsible. However, there has been no indication that jump-outs themselves will be completely halted. Further, we have no actual way of knowing or measuring progress on this or other fronts while the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) continues their attempt to sidestep any comprehensive data collection.

The takeaway? That what we are doing is working. Clearly, the administration is looking for a way out. A way of calming down the community and hoping we will relax and stop paying close attention to the actions of police. We will not relax, and we will pay attention. Tomorrow, more than ever, we need to demonstrate to show that this movement isn’t going away until we have changed the racist, militarized policing strategies of the MPD, changed them permanently, and in a way that can be monitored and enforced. Period.

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Raphael Briscoe Video News Round Up

By Liane Scott, on February 24th, 2015

Last Friday I posted an event “Rally and March for Raphael Briscoe.” Having very little information about Raphael Briscoe, I did a quick Google search and proceeded to cross-post the first article I found which was from Homicide Watch DC. The article stated that Raphael was the third person killed by police in 2011. The other two were reportedly killed after a shoot-out with police following a botched robbery attempt. The article said nothing about how or why Raphael was killed by the police. Today, I did a little more research. Here’s what I found.

WJLA did report the story the day of the shooting. Below is the video they posted on their website. It’s worth watching, not for the information about Raphael Briscoe, but for all of the information that’s left out.

If the above video isn’t working CLICK HERE to watch the video on WJLA’s site.

According to the WJLA report, Briscoe had a gun. In fact, he had a BB gun, which is not quite the same as a regular gun that fires lead bullets at 2,500 feet per second. They also failed to report that Briscoe was shot in the back in the act of running from the police. To their credit, WJLA did report on their website a follow-up report with more details, but I couldn’t find any evidence that this report ever made it to television.

WASHINGTON, DC (WJLA), April 26, 2011 –Police Chief Cathy Lanier said officers with the Gun Recovery Unit confronted an adult male with a gun. An officer or officers fired on the suspect after the situation escalated. The suspect was struck at least once.

The suspect was identified as 18-year-old Rafael Briscoe of Southeast.

Lanier on Wednesday said the weapon the suspect pulled out was a BB gun. She said she has seen the gun and there was no way, under similar circumstances, that officers could have known it wasn’t a real gun.

The officer involved in the shooting has been placed on leave.

Witnesses said the shooting episode started in the Forrest Ridge Apartment complex. They described the victim as a “good kid.”

WUSA did a far better job, reporting not only that the gun wasn’t real, but also that Briscoe was shot after running from the police. In reality, he was running from an unmarked police car full of heavily-armed white men with guns.

WUSA’s website report had even more details …

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA), April 27, 2011 — A day after an 18-year old man was killed by police in a Southeast DC neighborhood residents there continue to demand answers.

DC Police confirm a plain clothes officer shot and killed 18-year old Rafael Briscoe after he ran from them along the 2400 block of Elvans Rd., Southeast, Tuesday afternoon. The officer was part of an undercover detail known as the Gun Recovery Unit, a group of officers tasked with taking guns off the streets. Investigators say a BB gun resembling a real handgun was found on Briscoe.

The shooting has sparked outrage among community members who held a vigil for Briscoe Wednesday evening. Neighbors who live in the area are now turning their frustration at the police, claiming Briscoe was shot in the back and never threatened the officer.

Cherie Smith, Briscoe’s grandmother, said, “The police senselessly shot and killed my grandson, and they are making up all kinds of excuses for them doing it.”

DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier will only say the incident is under a full investigation. On Wednesday she said, “In any instance when we have use of force, especially deadly force that’s a serious matter and we’ll make sure that it’s handled properly.”

The events of the shooting were captured by a police surveillance camera along Elvans Rd. 9NEWS NOW has officially requested a copy of the surveillance video from DC Police.

It took four years and a lawsuit by the ACLU before surveillance video of the incident would materialize. WNBC reports on the case as it has developed after the policeman who killed Raphael Briscoe was cleared of all charges.

As is not uncommon, the text-based version of the story on WNBC’s website had more, and perhaps more incendiary details. Including, the knowledge that Raphael did not turn towards the car that was following him in the surveillance video, which calls into question reports that he brandished the offending bb gun at the police who pursued him.

WASHINGTON, DC (WNBC), February 23, 2015 –A jury cleared Metropolitan . . . → Read More: Raphael Briscoe Video News Round Up

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Justice for Raphael Briscoe Rally & March

By Liane Scott, on February 20th, 2015

#DCFerguson will hold a rally, 6pm, February 22 at the Congress Heights Metro Station in Washington DC and March to the 7th District Police Station. The purpose of the rally is to bring more awareness to the “Jump Outs” a military style tactical unit within the Metropolitan Police Department.

Justice for Raphael Briscoe Rally & March Congress Heights Metro Station February 22, 6:00 PM

#DCFerguson continues to stand in solidarity with the Ralphael Briscoe family and the sisters and brothers that are continuing to protest and resist the police murders of Black and Latino people every 28 hours in America.

ANSWER Coalition organizer Eugene Puryear says,”The murder of Rafael Briscoe should be a turning point. Where we finally come to terms with the root causes of these issues and address social deprivation and oppression and the police brutality that comes with it.”

The initial sponsors of #DCFerguson include the National Black United Front, the ANSWER Coalition, We Act Radio, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the American Muslim Alliance, as well as independent organizing networks that have sprung up in the wake of Michael Brown’s killing.

 

 

 

 

 

If you haven’t heard of Raphael Briscoe, here’s some background information.

Rafael Briscoe Third Person to be Killed by Officers in D.C. this Year

Cross-posted from Homicide Watch DC April 27, 2011

Rafael Briscoe of Southeast, DC, who was killed Tuesday afternoon by D.C.Metropolitan Police officers, is the third person to die in a D.C. officer involved shooting this year. On Feb 13, Davon Sealy, 19, of Gaithersburg, and Akeem Jamaal Cayo, 21, were fatally shot in a shoot-out with officers after a botched home invasion robbery.

MPD’s protocol for deadly use of force is here. A good discussion of the use of deadly force, it’s impacts and how communities respond is on the FBI’s website, here. That document describes the general tension surrounding officer-involved fatal shootings as follows:

Some members of the public seem to automatically assume that the officer did something wrong before any investigation into the incident begins. Conversely, others believe that if the police shot somebody, the individual must not have given the officer any choice.

 

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