The Struggle of Many Faces
The intersectionality in our struggles
Afeni an activist out of DC a member of Black led abolitionist community defense hub in DC called Harriets Wildest Dreams was victim of police brutality. She was physically assaulted and pepper sprayed while filming group young black kids getting harassed by DC metro at a train station. She was later arrested for alleged fare evasion. She was released the next day to a crowd of people awaiting for her release. That energy she was met by was beautiful, however, Afeni says it herself in this video that she will be alright, but the kids being taken away over this DC curfew will not.
We are all in this struggle whether boots on the ground or attempting to hide. The struggle caused by these oppressive governments cannot be escaped. There is no one face to this struggle because this is a struggle of many faces and every victim deserves a voice.
Afeni's story isn't isolated—it's part of a larger system of oppression that connects DC's streets to Gaza's occupation. This brutality isn't random—it follows a playbook.
The occupation of DC because of the crackdown on "crime", the ICE deportation centers, and genocidal governments giving training and surveillance technology to law enforcement. These issues have intersectionality with Gaza, the IDF, and the prison industrial complex. We have to lock in whether you are Black Americans or Black in America we have to recognize the intersectionality of 3 issues. Then we all must realize without the liberation of one we will not get liberation that is currently affecting us right now.
Afeni's story isn't isolated—it's part of a larger system of oppression that connects DC's streets to Gaza's occupation.
The Playbook:
The IDF and US Law Enforcement
The IDF and US Law Enforcement The practices that are going on in Gaza by the IDF should terrify all of us. The same military force that are killing children in broad daylight are training our law enforcement. Since 2002 the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee's Project Interchange and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs have sent US police officers to Israel to train(source: Amnesty International USA, 25 Aug. 2016). The increases in police brutality and state sponsored violence can be tied to the IDF. The IDF is a human rights violator they are not equipped to train on safe policing practices for our communities.
There is another instance where leaked documents in 2017 from BlueLeaks showed that police received domestic training against "Muslim extremist". The leak shows unchecked information getting fed to US law enforcement stating that there were increases of "terrorist attacks" in the Gaza Strip. With no backstory of the region and how the exact area where tension were rising was an area illegally being occupied by Israel. At that very location Israel was on the Human Rights Watch report for stealing land, raiding Palestinian villages and extrajudicial killings (source: The Guardian, 8 Dec. 2023). A human rights violator is training our law enforcement and giving them unchecked propaganda. Occupying a location in the name of terrorism sounds an awful lot like occupying a city because of high crime based off no sources and data saying otherwise. It is state aggression in the name inflicting dominance over the people.
The brutal and genocidal practices from the IDF are being used against us in 2 major ways right now. This same playbook appears in two major ways: the occupation of Washington DC and the crackdown on immigration through ICE.
We have to lock in whether you are Black Americans or Black in America we have to recognize the intersectionality of 3 issues.
The Occupation of DC
That peckerwood in office has thrown every agency and brought in the national guard to occupy DC in order to displace and incarcerate Black people. In the name of "crime" we are being scooped up and taking to holding cells for being outside and Black.
This is clearly a way to feed the prison industrial system and gentrify black neighborhoods. They are putting curfews on the youths of DC and racially profiling everyone Black and brown in DC. This feeds the prison industrial complex. The DC system is already being pushed to capacity and that is by design. Pretty soon that peckerwood will start moving and placing Black people in prison systems in different cities where they will get lost in the system. Cases will be delayed and we will not get justice in a timely manner. While things drag on what is going to happen to the homes to our brothers and sister getting dragged through the system?
The facts of the matter are that people will lose everything because they were unconstitutionally detained by the fascist party in rule, lead by the peckerwood in chief. The feds will leave, but only once they have successfully displaced Black people causing a vacuum for private investors and white folk to come and move in the neighborhood. The city of DC has been for years putting in the work to lower their crime statistics which were at decades lows before the peckerwood in chief sent in the military. They do not want to stop crime they want to enslave Black folks to the prison Industrial complex and break up black neighborhoods by offering it up to subscribers of white supremacy. The intersectionality of the how these evil practices by the IDF that are displacing and killing innocent Palestinians are now being used by the US government on their minority citizens.
The facts of the matter are that people will lose everything because they were unconstitutionally detained by the fascist party in rule, lead by the peckerwood in chief.
ICE and Immigration the Crackdown
ICE and the Deportation Centers This same playbook also appears in immigration enforcement.
The US government gave ICE the biggest spending increase in recents decades. The untrained violent divorced dad demographic that are ICE agents are now being trained by (shocker) US law enforcement who use the unethical practices of the IDF. After brutally assaulting our down south cousins they throw them in detention centers. Detention centers are currently the cash cow of the private prison system. That is right; the most money to be made in the prison industrial complex comes from locking migrants away in cages. the lines of intersectionality can clearly be seen when it comes to ICE and migrant holding centers. We are all connected.
If we can't see our faces in the struggles middle eastern and latino cousins then we might be cooked. We have to progress and pick up where our elders and ancestors left off. From Malcom X to Angela Davis; the importance of a free Palestine can't be overstated. We share an oppressor and we can teach, help, and learn from one another. If Palestine is not free then we can't be free. If migrants are be detained in cells then we can't be free. Period.
Stay woke,
Loc
Ways to stay up to date:
LA Taco: This instagram account has become a resource for updates on ICE raids in LA.
Harriets Wildest Dreams: A Black led abolitionist community based in DC. They give updates and guidance on what is going on with the occupation of DC.
Are.na
Wake and Think Collective: Our Are.na group has a channel called Palestine news/history where you can find a block called Palestine by Roberto Greco who updates it multiple times a day with updates on the Genocide on Palestinians.
References for the piece:
Books
Davis, Angela Y. Are Prisons Obsolete? Seven Stories Press, 2003.
Davis, Angela Y. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Haymarket Books, 2016.
Khalidi, Rashid I. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017. Metropolitan Books, 2020.
Internet Resources
“With Whom Are Many U.S. Police Departments Training? With a Chronic Human Rights Violator—Israel.” Amnesty International USA, 25 Aug. 2016, www.amnestyusa.org/blog/with-whom-are-many-u-s-police-departments-training-with-a-chronic-human-rights-violator-israel/.
Cobain, Ian, et al. “US Police Agencies with Ties to Israel Were Involved in Attacks on American Citizens, Leaked Files Show.” The Guardian, 8 Dec. 2023, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/08/us-police-agencies-idf-files-blueleaks.
