Operation Ghetto Storm

The Police War on Black People Continues—Here’s Why

8/10/2015

Update on #Every 28 Hours Report

Despite the outrage over the impunity of police who summarily execute Black people on camera, the killing of Black people continues with shocking regularity. And the impunity of police, and even vigilantes, proceeds apace. What makes this modern day lynching a seemingly inoperable tumor woven into the arteries and sinew of the U.S. body politic? This three-part series offers a diagnosis of sorts of our national disease.

Download a pdf of "The Police War on Black People Continues—Here’s Why"

This article was originally published by TeleSur English in July of 2015 as a three-part series “Update on Operation Ghetto Storm—The Enduring War on Black People.”

Part One Part Two Part Three

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What If Michael Brown Had Been Armed?

9/5/2014

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This article originally appeared in Counterpunch on September 5, 2014

Reading beyond the hashtag #every 28 hours

What If Michael Brown Had Been Armed?

by Arlene Eisen
It was simple arithmetic, I thought. In 2012, police, security guards and vigilantes killed a total of 313 Black people. Divide the number of hours in a year by 313 and you get one every 28 hours. If federal law required all law enforcement agencies to report all their killings; if most reporters didn’t depend exclusively on police department press releases; and if I had had more time to investigate, I have no doubt that the number would have been 24 hours or even more often. Yet, after spending more than 18 months in dogged research and data analysis, I am sure that at least one Black person is extrajudicially killed every 28 hours by police, security guards and vigilantes.

Still, I wish I had never decided to use, the hashtag “#every28hours”. I was seduced by the promise of social media that with a dramatic slogan, the Report “would go viral.” The hashtag encouraged people to reduce 171 pages of radical analysis and data to 13 clock-related characters. It can’t be done.

Operation Ghetto Storm

“#OperationGhettoStorm” might have carried more meaning. It is an adaption of the code name of the first U.S. invasion of Iraq. It encapsulates the conclusion drawn from studying the deaths of 313 Black people–the purpose, policies, high tech military hardware and mind-set that were mobilized to invade Iraq also sustain the occupation and war on Black and Brown communities inside the U.S. To prevent future extrajudicial killings of Black people by those paid or sanctioned (security guards and vigilantes) by the national security state, it is important to know that these killings are a result of the perpetual war on Black people. But, even with renewed interest in the Report, with images of police is full battle gear maintaining a military occupation of the community of Ferguson, the national conversation has focused more narrowly on abusive police and taking them to court. Operation Ghetto Storm urges that we widen our lens to expose that Ferguson, like most low-income Black and Brown communities, is a colonized community under siege.

Here’s an example of the pitfalls of communication by hashtag. On August 20, in one of those debates that corporate media set up more for entertainment than for enlightenment, CNN pitted right-wing Black pundit, Larry Elder against liberal Black commentator Marc Lamont Hill. Lamont attempted explain that the killing of “unarmed Black youth Michael Brown” was part of a pattern. Elder interrupted and demanded to change the subject to “Black-on-Black” violence. In an exchange, now partially deleted from CNN’s website, Elder accused Hill, “You don’t even know how many Black people are killed by police.”

“Yes we do know,” Hill proclaimed, “Every 28 hours an unarmed Black person is killed,” and he cited the Report. Unfortunately for Hill, neither the hashtag, nor the Report, distinguished between “armed” or “unarmed”. It counted the total.

Politifact.com gleefully pointed out Hill’s error based on their review of the Report and then flipped to their own racist misreading of the Report.

If perhaps, Hill had thought about Operation Ghetto Storm rather than “Every 28 hours”, he might have countered, with a quote from the Report. “We certainly do not intend to minimize the horror and importance of thousands of Black people who tragically die at the hands of other Black people each year. However, in general, those killings are not directly sponsored or sanctioned by federal, state and local governments. On the other hand, police, sheriffs, security guards and to a certain extent self-appointed enforcers of the law (vigilantes) ARE authorized by governments and paid for by taxes.”

They killed 313 in 2012, and 288 of these killings involved unnecessary excessive force. Only 10 police officers and 16 security guards/vigilantes were ever charged with a crime. In contrast, both the victims who survive and the perpetrators of intracommunal violence (“Black-on-Black crime”) end up in the rosters of the more than million Black people incarcerated in the U.S. The Report also details the ways that the state even promotes intra-communal violence through its involvement in drug trafficking from the federal to local levels.

Does it matter: hoodie or suit, aged 9 or 29, gun or no gun?

Accounts of his fatal encounter with Officer Darren Wilson, April 9, invariably add the adjective “unarmed” to Michael Brown’s name. Community outrage flared when news spread that Brown was unarmed. Demands for justice hinged on Brown’s innocence, proven by the fact that he had no gun. Protest marchers demonstrated his unarmed status and made it iconic with the chant “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Brown was not the first or the last unarmed Black person to be killed by police, security guards and vigilantes. Operation Ghetto Storm reported that 136 or 44% of the 313 killed had no weapon at all at the time they were executed. Another 83 or 27% allegedly possessed a gun, but police reports of gun possession frequently turn out to be false. [1] Police are infamous for planting weapons or declaring that a cell phone, wallet or other harmless object is a gun. While, reporters rarely question police reports, Operation Ghetto Storm required corroboration before accepting allegations as fact.

Still, 62 or 20% of those 313 killed in 2012 were armed—including three who carried toy or replica guns. Please keep in mind that in 41 states, including Missouri, it is legal to carry a pistol openly, in public. Some states require permits, most do not. Carrying a gun is not a crime, let alone a capital offense.

However, Black people have been so demonized that the public, including some Black people, typically sees an armed Black man as a menace at best, and, at worst, as a terrorist to be shot on sight as efficiently as possible with militarized overkill.

Study of the 313 deaths profiled in Operation Ghetto Storm leads to the conclusion that whether a Black mother’s child is young or old, wearing a hoodie or a suit, carries a gun or not, makes little difference. That child will still be subject to omnipresent surveillance, racial profiling, mass incarceration, trial without due process and execution without trial. For example, conservative white pundit Ben Stein insisted, “He (Michael Brown) wasn’t unarmed. He was armed with his incredibly strong, scary self.” Before you dismiss this remark as the hate speech of a right-wing fanatic, consider that 47% of killer cops are routinely justified and returned to duty when they claim, without a scintilla of evidence, that they felt threatened by an unarmed “suspect” and another 36% kill with impunity based on their unsubstantiated allegations like “suspect lunged”.[2]

Regardless of how fatal encounters with police begin, whether they involve activity that violates the laws of the state or the laws of basic human decency, no one should be sentenced to death without trial. In most countries, even with a trial, capital punishment is considered barbaric. The use of deadly force—regardless of how police paperwork, investigators and juries try to rationalize it—is almost always excessive and “extrajudicial” by international human rights standards. The Report pointed out one exception. In 2012, twenty-five cases or 8% involved situations where the “suspect” shot at, wounded and/or killed police officers and/or others while the police were on the scene. Although it may have been preferable to stop them with non-lethal force, the use of lethal force in these circumstances can be justified.

No comprehensive study for 2013 or the first half of 2014 has been published, but it is safe to assume the numbers have not improved since last year’s update of Operation Ghetto Storm. Given the escalating militarization of local police and intensified demonization of Black people, there is reason to believe that the numbers have deteriorated. The painful truth is that these state-sponsored and sanctioned killings are part of a comprehensive system of containment that ranges from surveillance, profiling, mass incarceration to military occupation and death. Until Black and Brown communities organize for a long haul struggle against this system, the killings will continue.

Police Impunity Exposes National Security State

The legal system almost always allows police to commit homicide with impunity. The names of only a few of the 313 people on the 2012 death roll have become nationally- known rallying cries for justice: like Trayvon Martin, Remarley Graham and now Michael Brown. Their murders have sparked massive mobilizations, media commentary, calls for government intervention, lawsuits and endless legal wrangling. However, after the initial announcements in local news media, the lives of most of those who were executed are forgotten. In some cases, scanty police reports and press coverage barely note their deaths. The failure of the federal government to require police to fully report all killings, including race-based data, is deliberate and helps perpetuate police impunity.[3]

The standard procedure in most jurisdictions is for police involved in fatal shootings to be given paid time off or “desk-duty” while the department investigates itself. The press applauds their fine records, while headlines scream about the “criminal past” of the deceased. Almost all killer cops are routinely exonerated and quickly return to duty. Grieving families who typically ask, “Why did he have to die?” are ignored. If there is some demonstrated, concerted community outrage, the case may be investigated further. The legal system rarely charges the executioners. In 2012, of the 313 extrajudicial killings only ten officers were ever charged: three for vehicular crimes stemming from reckless driving and seven for manslaughter.

To date, of those ten charged officers, four were acquitted or had their charges dropped. Two pleaded guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, two of the cases have not yet been litigated, and two faced “unimpeachable” evidence. New Orleans plainclothes officer Joshua Colclough shot Wendell Allen, who was wearing only his pajama bottoms. Confronted with videotaped evidence and community outrage at the killing of a star athlete, Coclough pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to four years. Randy Trent Harrison of Del City Arkansas was convicted of first degree manslaughter for shooting Dane Garrett Scott in the back. Scott was unarmed with his hands in the air. In a nearly unique act, another police officer who witnessed the shooting refuted Harrison’s version of events. Harrison was also found to have drugs in his system. He received a four-year sentence.

The convictions of these two officers are the exceptions that prove the rule. In 2012, district attorneys, grand juries and other state agents refused to charge nearly 300 police officers responsible for the extrajudicial killing of Black people. Several recent Supreme Court decisions have reinforced this impunity.

Nor have the Executive or Legislative branches of government done anything to limit the impunity police enjoy. On the contrary, they have supplied police with enough military hardware to wage several wars at a time, passed legislation that strips citizens of the basic rights that protect against all forms of police tyranny, given various agencies carte blanche to monitor citizens’ every move and utterance, justified racist profiling and provided infinite funds to maintain a system of mass incarceration. If you think the label of “national security state” for our government and its armed agencies is hyperbole, think again.

Operation Ghetto Storm reported on more than the extrajudicial killing of one Black person every 28 hours. The study of the outcomes of the killing of 313 human beings documented that federal investigations, lawsuits, trials and tweaking laws won’t protect our children or prevent the next Michael Brown. Operation Ghetto Storm sounded an alarm that the national security state threatens the survival of Black and Brown people and ultimately negates everyone’s rights. The horror of police troopers firing on protesters in Ferguson, hurling curses along with teargas, calling them animals and threatening them with death—all on camera—turned that alarm into a deafening siren.

The actual eardrum piercing military equipment used against the people of Ferguson spurred their resistance. Their example of massive community participation gives new energy to a national comprehensive campaign to challenge surveillance, racist profiling, mass incarceration, police impunity—-to organize block by block a movement capable of ending military occupation of all oppressed communities so they become self determining with full human rights to life, housing, health, education and dignified employment.

Arlene Eisen is the author of the report called Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards and Vigilantes, published by Malcolm X Grassroots Movement with preface by Kali Akuno, revised edition posted October 2013 at www.operationghettostorm.org

Notes.

[1] .A classic study documented that 76% of officers admitted that they frequently bent the facts to establish “probable cause” and 48% said that judges were correct in tossing out police testimony as untrustworthy.

[2] See Operation Ghetto Storm” at www.operationghettostorm.org p. 25-26.

[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/radley‐balko/why‐is‐there‐no‐good‐data_b_2278013.html
and
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday‐commentary/20120810‐stephan‐salisbury‐police‐shootings‐go‐largely‐ignored.ece

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Police Impunity Update

9/3/2014

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UPDATED NOVEMBER 4, 2014:
Download the Updated Impunity Table.

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Many More "Zimmermans"

7/18/2013

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Thursday July 18, 2013

For Immediate Release:

The U.S. judiciary exonerated hundreds of other “Zimmermans” since 2012

George Zimmerman, the self-appointed neighborhood watchman, acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin, is not alone.

In 2012, police officers, security guards and self-appointed keepers of the peace killed 313 Black men, women and children. Like the killing of Trayvon Martin, 288 of these 313 extrajudicial killings involved unnecessary, excessive force. Yet, only 26 of the killers were ever charged with a crime—that is the judicial system ruled 91% were justified.[1]

After the Zimmerman verdict additional research found that of the 15 security guards and self-appointed keepers of the peace charged with a crime, only four have been convicted. And of the 11 police officers charged, none have been convicted.

“This data demonstrates that Zimmerman’s acquittal follows the norm that systemically criminalizes Black people and institutionalizes denial of our human rights, ” says Kali Akuno, an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM).

"Any one of these people killed could have been my son or your husband or daughter”, remarked Arlene Eisen, member of the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee and author of the Report. “The more research I did, the more obvious it became, that lawsuits and tweaking laws won’t protect our children or prevent the next George Zimmerman.”

Akuno announced a comprehensive campaign of mass action to challenge hyper-surveillance, stop and frisk, mass incarceration and executions of Black people. “Now is the time for direct action to educate and exact a price for the continued denial of Black peoples’ human rights. We join the Boycott of Florida and the call to Free Marissa Alexander—the Florida Black woman sentenced to 20 years for firing a gun in the direction of her abusive husband. For details, go to www.mxgm.org

[1] . This data comes from Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards, and Vigilantes, by Arlene Eisen, MA, MPH, published by Malcolm X Grassroots Movement , April 2013, download at http://mxgm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Operation-Ghetto-Storm.pdf

Impunity in the Judicial System for Extrajudicial Killers
UPDATE: July 19, 2013
Only 4% of officers who committed homicides of Black people in 2012 were ever charged with a crime. All the rest, 91%, of the extrajudicial killings were ruled “justified”. Of the 25 killings by security guards and vigilantes, 15 were charged—including Zimmerman. So far no officers and only 4 security guards and vigilantes have been convicted.

Click here for detailed table

Contacts:

Kali Akuno
323 422-6025

kaliakuno@mxgm.org

Arlene Eisen
415 305-7835

arlene_eisen@sbcglobal.net

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Hard Knock Radio Interview with Kali Akuno

6/18/2013

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Kali Akuno

June 17, 2013 - Davey D interviews Kali Akuno on Operation Ghetto Storm, the 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards & Vigilantes. The conversation between Kali and Davey D, breaks down the specifics of the Operation Ghetto Storm report and connects it with the terrorism and mass surveillance the Black community has long experienced with law enforcement and what is currently going on now with the PRISM program.
Click to listen to the radio interview.

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Arlene Eisen on KPFA Women's Magazine

4/15/2013

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Kate Rafael of KPFA Women's Magazine interviews Arlene Eisen, the principal author of Operation Ghetto Storm.

Click here to listen to the interview.

"Invariably what the families say is 'Why?' "

What initially triggered these deadly encounters, how did they start?

"Nineteen per cent of these killings began with calls to 9-1-1...."
"There's a high percentage--more than a quarter of these people die after --usually a woman-- calls 9-1-1 for help with an emotionally disturbed child or because of domestic abuse. As mothers and people trying to deal with violence in our households...we are on our own pretty much."

Shereese Francis, Queens NY, 3/15/12.
Francis had a diagnosed mental illness. When her family called for medical assistance, the police arrived, further upset her and in the process of “subduing her”, beat her, held her face down on the bed, and suffocated her.

Stephon Watts, Calumet City, IL, 2/1/12. His family allegedly called 911. Stephon Watts was a 15 year old child with Aspergers Syndrome. Police reported that he lashed out with a kitchen knife. His mother said he had a small harmless pen knife. The police department had been called to this house many times before and had experience in dealing with this emotionally disturbed child.

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Kali Akuno on Political Prisoner Radio

4/13/2013

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Kali Akuno, a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, was on Political Prisoner Radio yesterday to discuss the new Report and the Organizing Drive for a Peoples’ National Plan of Action for Racial Justice and Self-Determination. Since MXGM issued its report last year on the extra-judicial killing of Black people by law enforcement, security guards and vigilantes, the slaughter has continued unabated. However, if any change is going to come, MXGM says that it will have to be initiated by the oppressed.

Click here to go the Political Prisoner Radio website and listen to the podcast.

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Summary of 2012 Annual Report

4/11/2013

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Overview

This Report is the product of a year of research and questioning that was initially prompted by the killing of Trayvon Martin, February 26, 2012. Since then, we have verified that at least 313 Black children, women and men have been killed by those employed or protected by the government. By international human rights standards, these killings are extrajudicial because they were executions without the formal charges, trials, or jury deliberations of due process. The Report also documents the militarization of police forces – equipping and training peace officers for war, rather than for protecting and serving communities.

The heart of the Report is a 100-page chart that features the names, images, ages of those who were killed; their place of death, and as many details as possible about their deadly encounters with police and their aftermath. By studying these 313 killings, we found that police, security guards and self-appointed law-and-order enforcers typically justify execution without trial on flimsy grounds. It is no accident that the federal government does not require any of the nearly 18,000 local law enforcement agencies to report officer-involved killings. This Report makes a ground-breaking contribution first by simply collecting nationwide information and then documenting that 88% of the killings of Black people by police, security guards and vigilantes cannot be justified by any human rights’ standards.

Findings: A Sketch of those who died in 2012

Age: 66% were young people under 32 years old—with 40% of the 313 in the range of 22-31.

Geography: The Report presents a map of states and a table of cities where extrajudicial killings are prevalent. Police in Chicago, New York and Atlanta kill the largest numbers of Black people. When the total number of Black people in each city is taken into account, the highest rates of extrajudicial killing occur in places such as Atlanta, Birmingham (AL), New Orleans, and Saginaw (MI).

Mental Health Issues: Twenty-two per cent had diagnosed mental health problems and/or had been self-medicating. An additional 4% behaved in ways that indicated they had mental health problems and/or were self medicating.

How the deadly encounters began:

- 19% began with calls to 9-1-1 for help with emotionally-disturbed household members.
- 43% began with some form of racial profiling that singled out the “suspect” for appearing, behaving or driving suspiciously.
- 7% began with calls to 9-1-1 for assistance in situations of domestic violence or abuse.
- 7% died as “innocent bystanders”
- 24% began with police investigating activity defined as “criminal” in the given state.

The issue of arms: Press releases by police and media often justify killing “suspects” by simply stating that they were armed. Yet it is legal to carry guns, even unregistered ones, in most states. Forty-four per cent of suspects had no weapon at all at the time they were killed. 20% did possess guns. The armed status of the remaining suspects involved cutting implements or was in dispute.

How police “justify” shootings: The us-and-them mentality of militarized police, layered with white supremacy, creates an “enemy” who is semi-human, demonized and feared. One consequence is that 47% of the extrajudicial killers shot because “they felt threatened”. An additional 22% “justified” their killings with more specific versions of “feeling threatened” like “suspect lunged” or “reached for waistband”. 14% of “suspects” fled (many of whom were shot in the back). All these “justifications” for shooting-to-kill share the officer’s sense of feeling out-of-control. Only 13% of the suspects are alleged, in fact, to have fired weapons.

Women: A total of 23 women were killed: 11 were killed accidentally or in crashes; three had mental illness and/or were self medicated; two were accused “car thieves”; four fled police; one slashed her sister’s tires and one was allegedly involved in a kidnapping. The oppression of Black women also plays itself out with the killings of family members when the women call 9-1-1 for assistance.

Killing with Impunity: Ninety of the Black people who were killed seem to have been forgotten after a brief police press release announcing their deaths. Out of the 250 homicides committed by police that clearly involved excessive force, only 3% (8) officers were charged. Out of the 25 killings by security guards and vigilantes, 15 were charged.

Other Features of the Report

Memorial pages dedicated to the 313 who were killed.
FAQ’s that answer questions about the meaning and development of “Operation Ghetto Storm”, the name of the Report; about our sources and the reliability of the data; about “Black-on-Black” killing; about comparisons with white killing; and about women.

We offer this Summary as a convenient reference to our quantitative findings. It cannot substitute for reading the Report.

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