It is no societal secret to anyone with a beating heart, that America's criminal justice and other legal systems are in need of a serious overhaul. In a world where cellular phones receive more updates than a living, breathing document (i.e., the American Constitution) which houses the source of all governmental powers and freedoms is absolutely appalling. Unfortunately, like this antiquated document, not a lot has changed since the signing of what James Madison affectionately dubbed, a "bundle of compromises". Needless to say, not a lot of compromises were made either. Once the ink dried inside Independence Hall on September 17, 1787, slaves and women were still not considered to be actual people and the right to vote was a power vested only in rich, white male landowners.
This should come as no surprise considering the Constitution came into effect as a means for the country's elite to put down future uprisings by strengthening the powers of the federal government. A not so novel idea presented by none other than founding father and man who wears dentures derived from the teeth of slaves, George Washington. In August 1786, Revolutionary War veteran and farmer Daniel Shays, led a rebellion in Massachusetts against the high taxes being levied by an unsympathetic government. Farmers returning home from the war received none to very little compensation for their services, and had to purchase goods on credit upon their return from action. As a result of the economic crisis, sheriffs seized farms from veterans who could not pay taxes, or in many instances, imprisoned them. Sounds familiar right? This is the exact issue that caused the American Revolution, high taxation! Shay's Rebellion revived American Revolutionary debates, and matters concerning proper scope of the federal government.
After attending several townhall meetings and debt-relief talks with rich, merchant elites failed, armed rebels took action. Rebels began seizing and returning confiscated lands to their rightful owners, physically preventing debtors courts from convening, and stopping tax collectors from collecting debts by force. Debtors' discontent was widespread and extended well beyond Massachusetts. Unrest spread throughout the states in places including Connecticut, Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania. The significance being that the Articles of Confederation were no longer an effective means of governing the states and the rebellion served as the perfect catalyst for the Constitutional Convention. Ergo, the formation of the new government following the conclusion of the Revolutionary War. Even in the 1700s, people saw a significant need for change which did not equate to being anti-patriotic. In fact, the opposite held to be true: These military veterans loved America so much, that they were willing to bear arms in order to fight against socioeconomic and civil injustices.
All this to say, it is not an act of terrorism to fight vigilantly for what you believe in and against injustices. There is a serious need today for people to begin separating America from its government, and elected officials. Contemporary policing practices have fared no better despite contemporary unrest in addition to violence by the state against citizens for having an opinion contrary to that of local governments. Another advent of the 1700s, is the formation of slave patrols. In 1704, the colony of Carolina became the first to establish patrols designed to wrongfully maintain economic domination by returning victims of slavery back to wealthy landowners, and punishing victims because these human-beings were literally considered property. Similar to the militias organized by James Bowdoin (i.e., governor of Massachusetts) and the wealthy merchant class during Shays Rebellion, slave patrols were designed to control slave populations and protect the interests of the rich. Reverting back to the rebellion briefly, it is worth mentioning that Shays Rebellion was quelled by well-organized militias funded once again by the wealthy. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun because the taxation issues and socioeconomic class wars of the past rage on to this very day. The similarities between slave patrols and modern American policing are uncanny.
Both were created to control the behaviors of minorities and other disadvantaged groups (i.e., modern day slave populations). The more than 150 slave statutes enacted by Virginia between 1689 and 1865, are proof of legally sanctioned law enforcement organizations dating back before the civil for the express purpose of protecting the interests of slave owners via state sanctioned control of peoples being held captive against their own wills. Modern policies are a mirror image of the past and still rest firmly on the erroneous, racist rationalization that we as Black people are subhuman. Racist have gone as far as to murder, disenfranchise, and defame Black people on a global scale using cheap, multi-colored mass printing innovations achieved during the Gilded Age. Despite the Reconstruction Era giving way to the Gilded Age, not everything was covered in gold. In 1865, two years after the beginning of Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan was founded. By 1870, the organization had spread across majority of the southern states and utilized as a mechanism for RACIST white southerners to terrorize Blacks and resist Republican Party Reconstruction policies aimed toward establishing economic and political equality for Black Americans. Notably, The Republican Party is the original party that championed economic, political, and social equality for Black people.
In fact, it was the Whig Party that was formed in 1834 primarily to oppose Andrew Jackson's slavery and banking policies. After the Kansas-Nebraska Bill dissolved the terms laid out by the Missouri Compromise and allowed for slave or free status to be chosen by states, the Whig Party dissolved. They later emerged as the Republican Party in 1854. The issues and elites have not changed, the nature of the political landscape has merely evolved over the centuries. Today, the rule of law is not set into place for the safety of the American people, the objective is still all about control. There are so many laws in place to regulate the behavior and activity of people that as an American on American soil, there have been times where I have feared going outside unless I had a specific purpose or place to be for the reason that I am being constantly followed in my own neighborhood. I have lived in the same area for over three years, and each time I show up to exercise in broad daylight in my own neighborhood, a patrol car will materialize out of nowhere and watch me. The police will argue that this is for the safety of the residents, but I will make a strong argument that this is an overreach of power and blatant intimidation.
There are over [insert number of laws] on the books that are specifically aimed at controlling the behavior of people. In a world where reasonable suspicion, probable cause, and consensual encounters have been thrown out the window, being Black is reason alone to effect an investigatory stop. The media campaigns depicting Blacks as uneducated degenerates has emboldened Whites to treat us with complete and utter disregard. People will purposely move to the other side of the sidewalk when they see me, refuse to treat me with the most common of human decency, and of course systematic racism stemming from legally sanctioned discrimination all serve as types of oppression that negatively impact the advancement of Black people. I am essentially a second class citizen in my own country. As James Baldwin so eloquently stated, "To be African American is to be African without memory and American without privilege". This statement is a loud echo of how exactly how I feel.
The modern prison industry has reinstated the ownership of chattel by allowing the elite to purchase prison stock. In other words, local governments agencies are funding de jure racism, cutting costs associated with racial oppression, and creating a modern day slave trade trade by allowing wealthy individuals who are disproportionately White undue to any kind of personal merit, to own stock shares in human livestock.
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