Too many killings in the Bayview Huntes Point Area

Okay I am ready to demonstrate aggressively against the City and County government. We the people need to go to City Hall and 850 Bryant street and protest non-violently and using direct action or Civil disobedience. This city cannot afford to lock up protesters so we have the edge. Lets take control of this corrupted bunch of politicians, and take back our city.

To Whom It May Concern;

My name is Mathias Leroy. I am a volunteer with Bay Area Police Watch (B.A.P.W.), a project of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights ( E.B.C.), located in Oakland, and which is one of the organizations which has been very active in responding to these videos. You may or may not know of the Ella Baker Center or of B.A.P.W.
B.A.P.W. is a watchdog group which organizes against police misconduct, abuse, and brutality- an issue which is an ever growing problem today, especially in working communities and communities of color. While police forces become more and more militarized, while our society grows more and more capitalistic, individualistic, and orientated toward individual wealth, " free" market economics, corporate domination, and imperialist policies, while as a result of this the poor get poorer and struggle to make ends meet and the wealthy get wealthier and have more than they need, while racism and discrimination are a base and an intricate part of this system, and while the police are protecting the assets of the wealthy from the poor, police forces are increasing and becoming more and more of an overwhelming, armed presence especially in poor communities and communities of color and are controlling communities through violence and repression. As laws become strickter, and the prison industrial complex grows and becomes more militarized, racist, and capitalistic, punishing the poor and people of color for crimes ( mostly non-violent drug offenses) which they commit to simply make ends meet because the honest living and base for it are robbed from them by the wealthy and the government, police brutality and misconduct are rapidly increasing while the police violently patrol communities and send the message to people that they can either allow themselves to be dominated and learn to live in poverty and slavery, or they will be imprisoned ( where they will be used for extremely cheap labor and seriously abused), or they will be violated, beaten, tortured, and killed. The argument is commonly made that this militarized police state is a deterrent to violent crime by individuals and groups who commit such crimes because " they feel like it." While B.A.P.W. does not condone violent crimes, we believe that this argument is an extremely flawed and wrong argument and understanding of our society. People who commit violent crimes do not do so out of a vaccum- they do so out of trying to survive under a government and system which is robbing them of a decent living, the base of a decent living, and of freedom, equality, and human rights and dignity. In response, the government and police react through violence, force, and repression, which does not deter violent crime, but provokes more of it. When the police act with violence and repression, more violence is provoked, contributing to a never-ending cycle of violence on all sides. The police and government are not above the law, and they must be held accountable for their actions, and given the society and history of European, Europeanized and European-American countries, the governments, police, and wealthy, are prime instigators of violence.
The Bay Area is a prime example of all of this. The gap between rich and poor is growing, unemployment is rife, as is racism and discrimination, capitalist domination, imperialism, human rights abuses and erosions of civil liberties, and environmental destruction. Police are violently repressing communities, especially poor communities and communities of color, and are killing and abusing people constantly, in many cases, because the victims are poor or people of color. B.A.P.W. is working to end this repression in the Bay Area, with our focus being primarily in Oakland and San Francisco. We are a resource for victims and families of victims of police abuse, and we stand behind them in their campaigns and often assist them in their organizing. We assist in campaigns, and we also have a legal clinic where individuals who feel that they have been violated by police can come to talk about their incident(s), get legal advice, and maybe be referred to an attorney. We also have a hotline where victims of police abuse may call, and we also do Know Your Rights trainings, where people can come to learn about their rights under the law in situations involving the police.
B.A.P.W. wishes to become more involved in individual communties, to work with people in the communities and assist them in organizing against police repression in their communities, and be a presence in the communities. To that end, we need help. Most of the people in B.A.P.W. are volunteers/interns, and in order to do what we want to do, we need a LOT more interns/volunteers to join the group and help us do this. We must put an end to this repressive police state and this horrible, violence, and we must take direct action and take assertive action to stop it. We need to do this, especially by being a permanent presence in the communities and by assisting the people in organizing firmly and strongly, in their communities, against this repressive policing system. We must be an expanding, permanent, effective community presence and this can only be achieved through a very large volunteer/intern base. If you are part of an organization, we would like to work with you on these issues as well, as we seek to work together with organizations, especially community organizations, on these issues. If you would like to join this movement and volunteer/intern with us to stop this repression, or for more information about B.A.P.W., or E.B.C., you may visit our website at http://www.ellabakercenter.org . I may be reached by telephone at (510) 428-3939 ext. 299, on my cell phone at (415) 309-2235, or by e-mail at Yeshuakid [at] yahoo.com . Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,
Mathias Leroy
Bay Area Police Watch