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Tue Jan 22 18:01:32 IST 2008

al surveillance and electronic space in which our most intimate thoughts can=
 be charted. In this world, what few protections were afforded those who sta=
nd in opposition to the status quo are lost, snatched back by systems of pol=
icing -- local, national and global -- bent on breaking all but the tamest f=
orms of resistance. 
 
Such attacks on liberty are, needless to say, not new. Entire systems of ec=
onomic and political domination have been built upon policing at once extrao=
rdinarily violent and intrusive. Among these, one might cite the very system=
 on which the country we live in was founded. From the arrival of the first =
slave ship at Jamestown Harbor in 1619 to the contemporary streets of our la=
rgest cities, from the era of Jim Crow lynchings to the beating of Rodney Ki=
ng and the killing of Amadou Diallo, the United States has been a place of v=
iolence meted out at the hands of a few bent on controlling and silencing th=
e many. &nbsp; 
 
Once, men and women of African descent, in this land, were deemed 3/5th of =
a human being; today, so many men of African heritage -- one in every ten=
 -- are behind bars or otherwise ensnared in the criminal justice jugger=
naut** &nbsp;that one can legitimately speak of a genocide under way. In Atl=
anta, Detroit, Los Angeles, women and men of Native American, Latino and, in=
creasingly, Asian heritage are questioned, arrested, incarcerated at rates i=
n no way commensurate with their representation in the population at large. =
Post 9/11, over a thousand Arab men are in US jails, still waiting to be cha=
rged with a crime; in many cases, their own families have not been told wher=
e they are. 
 
Elsewhere too, state violence has broken and continues to break lives, spir=
its, entire peoples. Violent repression was the cornerstone of the colonial =
project, in Africa and Asia alike. &nbsp;Patrice Lumumba of Congo, murdered =
by Belgian-trained gunmen mere months after his country gained independence;=
 Ruben Um Nyobe, heartbeat of Cameroon&#8217;s struggle for self-determinati=
on, killed in a French ambush in 1958; &nbsp;Steve Biko, beaten to death by =
South African police in 1977... Theirs are but the best known names -- a pal=
try few &#8220;history&#8221; deigns to recall among those of hundreds upon =
hundreds of thousands who died, many resisting, killed by authorities in pow=
er only because they had the means to destroy. 
 
In Europe, as the industrial age emerged, workers died by the thousands. In=
 Napoleonic Paris, boulevards were cut through the city in wide swaths to ma=
ke the task of shooting discontented factory hands easier, should they take =
to the streets en masse. As the 19th century drew to a close, in the UK and =
US, strikers seeking better wages were clubbed and shot. In the wake of a Ma=
y Day protest that brought 80,000 workers to Chicago&#8217;s Michigan Avenue=
, police violence exploded. Within days, eight men were arrested. &nbsp;A &n=
bsp;trial was held, centering on a bomb all agreed none of those indicted ha=
d planted. Five of the men were sentenced to death; the three others were re=
manded to prison for life. 
 
One would like to think that such excesses are a thing of the past. They ar=
e not: 



ABNER LOUIMA 
 
AMADOU DIALLO (1) 
 
LUC BENOIT BASILEKIN (2) 
 
SUSANA GOMEZ, RONALD RAUL RAMOS (3) 
 
SEATTLE, QUEBEC CITY, GENOA (4) 
 
SEOUL, JAKARTA, BRISBANE (5) 
 
JOHANNESBURG, PARIS (6) 
 
BULGARIA, ALGERIA (7) 
 
VIRGINIA (8)

(1) THREE YEARS AGO, A GUINEAN IMMIGRANT NAMED AM=
ADOU DIALLO WAS STRUCK DOWN IN A HAIL OF BULLETS FIRED BY NEW YORK CITY POLI=
CE. HE WAS REACHING FOR IDENTIFICATION; THE OFFICERS ASSUMED HE WAS REACHING=
 FOR A GUN. THEY FIRED FORTY-ONE BULLETS. NINETEEN HIT THE TARGET. 
 
(2) IN FEBRUARY 2001, THE GOVERNMENT OF CAMEROON INSTITUTED THE OPER=
ATIONAL COMMAND, A PARAMILITARY TASK FORCE BRINGING TOGETHER MEMBERS OF THE =
LOCAL AND NATIONAL POLICE AND THE ARMY. THE C.O.&#8217;S OFFICIAL PURPOSE WA=
S TO END A CRIME WAVE IN THE CITY OF DOUALA; IT WAS MEANT IN FACT TO BRING T=
O HEEL SECTORS OF THE POPULATION OPPOSED TO THE REPRESSIVE RULE OF THE GOVER=
NING PARTY. IN ITS FIRST SIX MONTHS, THE C.O. PERPETRATED 500 EXTRA-JUDICIAL=
 EXECUTIONS; BY YEAR&#8217;S END, 1000 PEOPLE HAD DIED. &nbsp;ONE OF THE FIR=
ST WAS LUC BENOIT BASILEKIN. 
 
(3) IN APRIL 1996 IN GUATEMALA CITY, SUSANA GOMEZ WAS RAPED B=
Y TWO NATIONAL POLICE OFFICERS; SHE WAS SIXTEEN YEARS OLD. IN SEPTEMBER 1996=
, RONALD RAUL RAMOS WAS SHOT AND KILLED BY A TREASURY POLICE OFFICER; HE TOO=
 WAS SIXTEEN. MORE THAN TEN OTHER STREET CHILDREN WERE MURDERED THAT YEAR, L=
IKELY BY POLICE. TWELVE MONTHS LATER, NONE OF THE PERPETRATORS IN THESE CASE=
S HAD BEEN APPREHENDED. 
 
(4) IN SEATTLE, QUEBEC CITY AND GENOA, OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, UNAR=
MED WOMEN, MEN AND CHILDREN CALLING FOR A MORE MEASURED APPROACH TO GLOBALIZ=
ATION THAN HAS BEEN PROPOSED BY SUCH BODIES AS THE WTO AND WORLD BANK WERE A=
TTACKED BY POLICE WIELDING BATONS, RUBBER BULLETS, WATER CANONS AND TEAR GAS=
. SIMILAR VIOLENCE GREETED UNARMED PROTESTERS AT MAY DAY RALLIES THROUGHOUT =
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC IN 2001, FROM SIDNEY AND BRISBANE TO KARACHI, SEOUL AND=
 JAKARTA. 
 
(5) IN FEBRUARY 2002, A COLONY OF SQUATTERS WAS VIOLENTLY DISPERSED =
IN CENTRAL JOHANNESBURG. THE POLICE LEVELED THE INHABITANTS&#8217; MAKESHIFT=
 HOMES AND DESTROYED THEIR BELONGINGS. THE SQUATTERS WERE MADE TO BOARD BUSE=
S AND WERE DRIVEN OUT OF THE CITY, WHERE THEY WERE UNCEREMONIOUSLY DUMPED, M=
ILES FROM FRIENDS AND FAMILY. THE METHODS EMPLOYED IN THIS DISPERSAL WERE SI=
MILAR TO THOSE USED IN FORCED REMOVALS OF THE APARTHEID ERA. 
 
(6) ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 17, 1961, ALGERIANS LIVING IN PARIS ORGANIZED =
A PEACEFUL MARCH TO PROTEST A CURFEW ON PERSONS OF ARAB DESCENT. THE POLICE =
MOVED IN. THEIR COMMANDER WAS MAURICE PAPON, WHO DURING WWII HAD OVERSEEN TH=
E REMOVAL OF 1560 FRENCH JEWS TO GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS. TWO HUNDRED UNA=
RMED ALGERIANS WERE SHOT, BLUDGEONED AND DROWNED. &nbsp;PAPON REMAINS FREE. =
&nbsp;DAILY, FOR NO REASON BUT THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN, PERSONS OF NORTH AFR=
ICAN DESCENT ARE DETAINED, ARRESTED, BEATEN AND SHOT ON FRENCH STREETS. 
 
(7) SINCE 1994, RACIALLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE AGAINST ROMA GYPSIES IN =
BULGARIA HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY. MUCH OF THIS VIOLENCE IS PERPETRATED BY=
 POLICE AND PRIVATE SECURITY FIRMS. IN THE COURSE OF ONE WEEK, IN APRIL 2001=
, EIGHTY YOUNG PEOPLE WERE KILLED BY THE POLICE IN KABYLIA, IN NORTH-EASTERN=
 ALGERIA. &nbsp;ALL WERE MEMBERS OF THE MINORITY BERBER ETHNIC GROUP. 
 
(8) ON MARCH 1, 1999, A SEVERED HEAD WAS FOUND IN A RICHMOND, VA PAR=
K. &nbsp;THE VICTIM WAS A GAY MAN. THE PARK HAD BEEN THE SITE FOR SEVERAL MO=
NTHS OF A POLICE &#8220;STING&#8221;: &nbsp;UNDERCOVER OFFICERS HAD BEEN APP=
ROACHING GAY MEN, PROPOSING SEX, THEN PROMPTLY ARRESTING THOSE WHO SHOWED IN=
TEREST. THE ARRESTS WERE WIDELY REPORTED. THE PUBLICITY GIVEN THEM MAY WELL =
HAVE ENCOURAGED THE MURDERER. &nbsp;WHY THE MANY PLAINCLOTHES OFFICERS PRESE=
NT IN THE PARK ON THE NIGHT OF THE MURDER FAILED TO SEE ANYTHING IS ANYONE&#=
8217;S GUESS. 
 
IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA, IN NORTH AFRICA AND EUROPE, AMNESTY INTERNATI=
ONAL AND THE INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION REPORT CA=
SE AFTER CASE OF RAPE, TORTURE AND MURDER INVOLVING TRANSGENDER AND BISEXUAL=
, LESBIAN AND GAY PERSONS, ALL TOO OFTEN BY POLICE.