Enshrining Property, Murdering Black People

November 24, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

When Missouri Governor Nixon issued a fascist “Declaration of Emergency” on November 17—canceling basic rights supposedly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and mobilizing the National Guard to violently suppress protests demanding justice for Michael Brown—he invoked the sanctity of “life and property.” And that message—the need to "protect life and property” is run in a constant stream from politicians and the mainstream (ruling class’) media. What does that really mean?

Look, nobody is calling for wanton destruction of property. Small businesses are not, in the grand scheme of things, the problem. They should not be damaged in protests.

But this is a system that enshrines property, and kills people. And for this system, Black lives in particular have never mattered.That was true when slaves were literally the property of slave-owners. It was true when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Black people had no rights a white man was bound to respect. And it is true today. A Black person can be murdered by police or a racist vigilante for wearing a hoodie, like Trayvon Martin…for supposedly selling loose cigarettes, like Eric Garner…for standing in the street unarmed, like Michael Brown. Or for walking down the stairs of a jail-like housing project, like Akai Gurley in Brooklyn.

The obscene worship of property goes hand-in-hand with oppressive violence and contempt for human life that is both the economic logic, and essential immorality, of this whole setup—and has been ever since the “Founding Fathers” situated “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” in a system of slavery and genocide against the Native peoples.

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