MXGM Self-Defence Manual

Proposal to Launch a Mass Campaign for Community Control of the
Oakland Police Department
Drafted by Arlene Eisen from the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee
Urgent Need for Political Action:
For decades, the Oakland Police Department has served as an occupying army to prevent
and suppress resistance in the Black and Latino communities of Oakland. Unfortunately
many well-meaning people in the community have given a green light to police
repression out of fear of violence and in support of “getting drugs out of the community”.
In the last ten years, with massive funding and personnel from Homeland Security, the
occupation of communities of color has turned into a one-sided war.
This war is waged with:
• Mounting body counts of Black and Latino people executed by police without
trial or any due process. 1
• Saturation surveillance promoted and coordinated by Homeland Security in local
“Fusion Centers”. The SF Bay Regional Fusion Center has received millions of
dollars to work with OPD “to empower front-line law enforcement, public safety,
emergency response, and private sector security personnel to lawfully gather and
share information to identify (and act on) emerging threats.” 2
• Police Department policy that promotes extrajudicial killings, brutality stop and
frisk, gang injunctions, and mass incarceration.
This war by the OPD has not brought peace or security or the end of the ravages of the
drug trade and addiction. Rather, it results in grief and separation of families,
disintegration of communities and more violence and more drugs. The “war on drugs”
not only escalates police violence and mass incarceration, it also results in more drugs
and drug-related violence. The government, including the OPD, ultimately control drug
markets and employ direct (the spreading of rumors and lies, set up operations and
killings, jailhouse snitches, market deals that favor one set over another, etc.) and indirect
(such as various forms of market competition that appear to be market driven) means to
provoke and stimulate violence amongst our people. So, in all reality, both violence by
police and “fratricidal” violence are not as separate and distinct as they are often claimed
to be.
Clearly, despite the demonization of our young people, despite the lost and incarcerated
lives, despite the waste of millions of dollars on militarization of the OPD, no one in
Oakland is safer. We need a political campaign that relies on the community to solve
problems; a campaign to overcome fear by educating and mobilizing community
members to rely on community self defense and not rely on the oppressor. We can hold
1 For details on Extrajudicial Killings by Police in the first half of 2012 see http://mxgm.org/report-on-the-extrajudicialkillings-of-110-black-people/
2 (From Homeland Security’s website) http://www.dhs.gov/state-and-major-urban-area-fusion-centers
Referendum on Community Control of OPD (First Draft of Proposal for limited discussion only 9/12/12) 1 of 4