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.
If we stop acting like wild animals (not all but too many) then all this would not be a need for. Its time to wake up people and take responsibility for our actions. We are our own biggest threat.
They only jump out on thugs, people who are up to no good, people standing on corners, standing in front of liquor stores and carry outs.
They need to jump out a lot more often. Are they beating the hell out of these guys or making sure they are not doing anything illegal? I am tired of seeing Black men standing around on the streets.
Let me just make sure I understand what you both are saying.
LaTonya, are you saying that people standing on corners and/or standing in front of liguor stores and carry outs are all up to no good and should be defined as thugs? And are you saying that these “thugs,” i.e. people who stand in front of liquor stores and carry outs and allegedly are up to no good, should be jumped out on by the police? You say the police should jump out more often. How often? Cause, I gotta tell ya. I wait for the bus in front of the liquor store. If it’s raining, I like to stand under their awning. Am I in danger? Or can we assume because I’m a Black woman and not a Black man that I’m not a thug and/or up to no good. I mean, maybe that lets me off the hook but that kinda leaves our sons, brothers, fathers, uncles, nephews, male friends and significant male others in a bit of a pickle. Where should they wait for the bus? Maybe we (or should I say they, ’cause the media generally doesn’t define women as thugs) should all stop using the sidewalks all together.
You ask if they are beating the hell out of these guys or making sure they are not doing anything illegal. I reported on one jump out that left a young man dead. You might want to check out that story. http://www.grassrootsdc.org/2015/02/raphael-briscoe-video-news-round/ Shot in the back, while running from the police. In that case the suspect (suspected of what, was never made clear) was dead long before the police were able to ascertain whether or not he was doing anything illegal. And then of course there’s Freddie Gray and Walter Scott, both of whom we only know about because they were caught on tape. Do you really think we need more jump outs? Really?
Germaine, you say we (not all but many) are acting like animals. Are you sure you don’t mean that the police, who use deadly force against people because they suspect they might be doing something wrong, are acting like animals?