Hey, this is comrade Pitt.
So after watching a video of Jayland Walker’s execution by Akron police, to say my blood was boiling is an understatement. He did evade police, but that is not a death penalty offense. This kid should be alive today. His family should not be grieving his death.
Each time I see that video and hear the police conference. You know, first they claim they attempted to use a taser, but missed. Now, if they attempted to use a taser, then it’s clear their lives were not in imminent danger. But after they missed them, their next option was to execute this young man because the pigs were too lazy to chase him on foot.
After the first or second shot hit him, he undoubtedly went down, and yet the pigs kept shooting, and after a few shots, it’s a safe assumption to believe that he had deceased. Yet these eight pigs continued shooting him even after he was dead. Sixty shots altogether. Think about it. 60 shots enter his body, and he was unarmed.
We have seen this far too many times: how the police have to use deadly force as a first option even when in many cases, the use of deadly force isn’t warranted. Meanwhile, a white kid shoots and kills seven people over the 4th of July weekend, and he’s taken in alive. Countless other kids who, hate to stay the obvious, but are white shoot up their schools and are captured alive.
The so-called white supremacist who murdered black people at the church in South Carolina, he was taken in alive. The pigs in that case even took him to McDonald’s and bought him something to eat. What’s obvious is that justice is most certainly administered differently based on race. When it comes to white citizens who have committed horrific crimes, somehow the police are able to apprehend them without using deadly force.
Deadly force is always the first option when they encounter black and brown people. My point is racial inequality and racial profiling is at the core of how police police minorities. Most people were optimistic after George Floyd’s murder that things would change, but not I.
So long as the system which perpetuates racial inequality and racial profiling is intact, there will be other George Floyds, Tamir Rices, Jayland Walkers, Sandra Blands, Breonna Taylors, Amadou Diallos, Sean Bells, Mike Browns, Freddie Grays. Outside of being infuriated at Jayland Walker being shot 60 times, it pissed me off to hear the Akron police chief saying that Jayland Walker’s family asked everyone to give peace a chance.
Why do people who are subject to violence every day be the ones to give peace a chance when we are not the ones who initiated any violence? It’s just ironic how we should give peace a chance as we are systematically and socially murdered.
One has to wonder, what kind of country is this where black people are constantly under attack, guns have more right to women, a country where a mob of white people can break into the U.S. Capitol building, most not held accountable, and those who are charged are issued a slap on the wrist—whereas peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters are men with brute force for exercising their right to protest.
And now we have a Supreme Court hell bent on taking away more constitutional rights from people: life, liberty, and the so-called pursuit of happiness, the so-called land of the free, liberty and justice for all, I could go on and on, but the point here is that the so-called values of this country don’t match with the reality that many of us face.
It’s indeed a struggle, but as my fellow comrade Mumia Abu-Jamal stated, “Tomorrow belongs to those who fight the hardest today.” So long as we continue to fight and resist, then the world which we fight for shall eventually become a reality.
It may seem impossible, unachievable, make progress only to be pushed back. The key here is to never give up. All power to the people, rest in power Jayland Walker and the countless other black and brown lives taken by those who took to an oath to so-called protect and serve.
All power to the people, this is comrade Pitt, Peter Kamal Mukuria, currently confined at JCI, Jessup Correctional Institution in the state of Maryland, formerly incarcerated in the state of Virginia. Thank you for your time, have a good one.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
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