The Stop and Frisk Policy put forward by Mayor Michael Nutter is another violent tactic in the unjust war the city of Philadelphia is waging against the African community. It is always impoverished black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods that are targeted for Stop and Frisk, which violates basic democratic rights by allowing the police to treat every person walking down the street as a criminal suspect.
Can you imagine the outcry if they Stopped and Frisked people in Rittenhouse Square or on the Penn campus?
This divisive policy was cynically put forward by then candidate Michael Nutter to show the white community that he would lock up more black people than any other candidate. The reality is that Philadelphia already has the highest rate of imprisonment in the entire country, and the US has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world! Philadelphia also has the highest poverty rate of any major US city. The mass imprisonment of an impoverished population not only does not solve any social problems it create terrible new ones. The African community in THIS city is living under the same military occupation experienced by the Iraqi people! This is a terrible human rights violation that every citizen should be outraged by. We have a responsibility to speak out when the people in power are the ones committing the crimes.
Over 1 billion dollars, an astounding 35 % of the budget of the entire city goes to the police and the system of locking up more and more young black men in prison. The Uhuru Solidarity Movement (USM is an organization based in the white community) unites with the In ternational Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement’s program for real change. We support the call for an immediate end to the Stop and Frisk Policy and that reparations be paid to the African community which has lived under this policy of police containment.
The African community is calling for the billion dollars to be used for positive economic development in their own hands. That would solve community problems by upgrading housing conditions, making quality health care available, and putting resources into libraries and schools.
The Uhuru Solidarity Movement calls for an end to the anti-African Stop and Frisk and the divisive social policy that which creates jobs, condos, wealthy universities and a prosperous lifestyle for white people at the expense of oppressive conditions of povert y and police terror in the African community.
The only way forward to a united Philadelphia is through justice and reparations to the African community.
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