by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

The informal NYPD slowdown is proving that cops do more harm than good. Low level arrests have plummeted, but “so far, none of these declines in enforcement have had an impact on safety in the city.” The lesson is clear: “The hyper policing inflicted on black communities is a sick farce, serving only the purpose of making white people feel comfortable about the numbers of black people in jails.”

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

The U.S.-Saudi oil price war against Russia, like the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, is “a calculated act of desperate men, based on the inescapable facts of imperial decline and the logic of class survival.” In their doomed attempt to stay on top, U.S. imperialists and their clients risk burning down the global house. “But, that’s what any ruling class would do when staring death in the face.”

by Danny Haiphong

“The police ensure Black America, Indigenous America, and the majority of people of color live under a constant state of social and economic violence.” The U.S. military seeks to impose a similar regime in the rest of the world. Both institutions serve the global imperialist system.

by Colin Jenkins

Much of contemporary entertainment reflects the capitalist reality, “something akin to a post-apocalyptic, zombie-filled world where manufactured scarcity pits poor against poor and worker against worker, all the while pulling attention away from the zombie threat.”

Michael Brown’s Killer Indicted by Black People’s Grand Jury

After two days of investigation and deliberations, a Black People’s Grand Jury handed down a first degree murder indictment against former Ferguson, Missouri, policeman Darren Wilson in the death of teenager Michael Brown. Four Black prosecutors presented evidence to the 12 St. Louis County residents, who also drew on the records of the mostly white official grand jury that failed to indict Wilson in November. “Darren Wilson is a killer, but he’s not out there by himself,” said lead people’s prosecutor Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement. “Somebody made the decision to leave the body there for 4 ½ hours” in the blazing August heat. Darren Wilson “has been rewarded with almost a million dollars by white people. The problem is institutional, and this grand jury is more capable of understanding that” than the one that was seated and manipulated by St. Louis prosecutor Bob McCulloch.

An Awakening People

Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the lifelong activist and former professor of African American Studies at Temple University, said young Black people are “awakening. They’re getting a sense of their power and what they can do without any corporate-designated leaders. And, once they’ve seen that, they’re going to connect the killing of Black people by the police to the economic and social crisis that engulfs the country.” Dr. Monteiro was fired from his post at Temple for his political activism.

Beyond Issues of Brutality: Social Transformation

“What we’re seeing is the radicalization of a new generation,” said Ajamu Baraka, an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report and fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Through struggle, Black youth will learn that “what is absolutely required is a fundamental transformation of social relationships, and of the entire structure of oppression in this country.” Baraka was a co-founder of the U.S. Human Rights Network.

America’s “Unworthy Victims”

Activist scholar Paul Street, author of the recent article, “Worthy and Unworthy Victims: From Vietnam and Iraq to Ferguson and New York,” said the United States lauds its soldiers and cops as saints. The message is: “They’re policing the world and keeping chaos at bay; they’re nobly sacrificing themselves for the common good.” Meanwhile, “the folks on the other end of our guns” die in far greater numbers: millions killed in Vietnam and Iraq and untold numbers murdered under color of law in the “homeland.”

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Download the show here. Length: One hour.