Newark, NJ – On May 15, 2009, Basire Farrell, 30, was mercilessly beaten to death on the street at 2:00 a.m. by five Newark cops. He was dead, murdered, at the scene. Nothing has happened since to the killers because they are cops.

“He was calling out to everyone to come help him,” said his aunt, Sharonda Smalls. “He was calling out, Mommy, Rhonda, come help me. When he died he had a look on his face like he was in pain. He wanted justice.”

She was speaking to a May 15 protest to commemorate the second anniversary of the murder, called by the family of the victim and the People’s Organization for Progress. The family of Dawoo Culver, 16, killed by a Newark policeman on April 2 of this year, also spoke. With extraordinary courage, Cynthia Johnson told of being raped by a Newark police officer, only to be treated as a criminal when she sought justice.

“This makes two years,” said Sharonda Smalls. “We need to fight back. They want us to give up. They want us to live in fear. Don’t give up because that’s what they want.”

The rally then marched to Newark’s infamous Fifth Precinct station house. Cynthia Johnson told of the assault on her by a police officer. “I feel sick to my stomach to stand in front of a police station knowing my rapist is free,” she said. She told of going to Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Councilman Ronald C. Rice, who represents the ward where the assault took place. She went to Internal Affairs, the police agency responsible to look into police misconduct. Nothing came of any of it, she said.

She was herself charged with resisting arrest and other charges. She had to hire an attorney to get the charges dismissed. Courts would not listen her complaints. “I have PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” she said. “It’s easy to say I’m crazy.” She vowed to “put on my big yellow POP shirt” and continue the struggle. During the day other victims said they were only able to survive and continue the struggle because of the support of POP.

“Once we rise up and take charge of our community we will not have another Basire Farrell or Cynthia Johnson,” said Bertha Smalls, who raised Basire Farrell. “We got to hold Obama accountable,” she said. “We put him in there but he hasn’t done a damn thing for us.”

Fuquan Culver told of the killing in the West Ward of his nephew, Dawoo Culver, 16, on April 2 by a Newark cop. He said no other people are brutalized by police the way Black people are brutalized. “Our leaders when they get to a certain level get pacified,” he said. “We’re headed in the right direction now, but we need to get more people,” he said. He announced a protest march around the killing of his nephew for May 20.

POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm said the Department of Justice needs to come in and investigate the Newark Police Department, noting that the ACLU has filed a case for an investigation. He said the development of modern police forces parallels the experience of black people after emancipation. They were based on state militias that existed to protect against slave rebellions in southern states. “That’s why it’s so hard to break police brutality, that’s why we need to keep up the fight,” he said. “This wicked system is held in place by the most naked brutal force imaginable. We need a revolution. There’s a time for thunder and lightning in the United States of America in the struggle for justice, and the time is now.”

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He was “unarmed, brutally assaulted and murdered, kicked and beaten on the ground while he was handcuffed, tasered, placed in a body bag but not zipped up…”

Is this a story from the Third Reich? The old south? Iraq’s occupied Abu Ghraib? No: it was the May 15 killing of Basire Farrell, 30, African-American, by white officers of the Newark Police Department, as related by the aunt of the deceased, Sharonda Smalls. She spoke at an Aug. 8 street protest outside the headquarters of the Newark Police Department. The protest was called by the Farrell family, the People’s Organization for Progress and the New Black Panther Party, among others.

Sharonda Smalls raised demands for an investigation by the New Jersey attorney general, prosecution of the killers, creation of a civilian police complaint review board and an end to genocide and police brutality against black people.

The protest reflected a volcanic anger rising in Newark’s African-American community. Speaker after speaker compared the situation today with the conditions that led to the great Newark Rebellion of 1967. They demanded that killer cops be jailed and raised the cry, “Power to the people!”

People’s Organization for Progress Chairman Lawrence Hamm said, “You talk about Guantanamo, we got torture and murder right here. Cops think they are judge, jury and executioner. Nothing in the training manual says when you arrest someone you have to hit him with a car, beat him so bloody you have to wash his blood off your hands.”

He recalled the savage beating in 1967 of cabdriver John Smith by Newark police. “The Fourth Precinct is notorious for torture and murder,” he said. “People thought he was dead. That’s what touched off the Rebellion. If you’re serious about preventing future rebellions you got to fire those cops right now.” He added that Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy also needs to be fired.

Earl Williams, the father of Earl Faison, also spoke. The killing of Earl Faison, 26, by Orange, New Jersey cops led to an epic five-year struggle that finally sent five of the killer cops to jail for civil rights violations.

Speaking rhetorically to the police, Williams said, “We used to look up to you and respect you, but who knows the pain especially if it’s someone right in your family who’s been killed and it’s been done by those who are supposed to protect you. How can we look up to you now?”

Of the 1967 events, Williams said to call it a ‘riot’ is a “word game – it was a rebellion, but just a dress rehearsal of what is to come if this continues. This ain’t no game and people are getting tired of it. I got mad love for some of you guys but there’s a flip side and it’s a rifle with sights on it. You don’t know what can happen. Newark 67 signs are all over the place. Things can get a hell of a lot worse very quick – to this day there have been no murder charges against the cops who killed my son.”

“We ask why life in the black skin is worth less than life in the white skin,” said Sharonda Smalls.

Long ago Karl Marx raised the same question to the entire working class when he said, “Labor cannot emancipate itself in the white skin while in the black it is branded.” The working class and all progressive people must unite in the struggle to end racism and police brutality. Only then can a better society for all be built.

#NewarkNJ #Commentary #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #BasireFarrell #NewBlackPantherParty