NEW YORK CITY, November 5—People suffering from mental health need support. Instead, they are being killed by the cops, especially if they are Black or Latin. Communists and friends at a local church have organized a fightback against racist cop killings since the murder of Deborah Danner in the Bronx. On October 18, 2016. The forum “Fight for a Safe Response to People in Mental Crisis” built multiracial unity to fight racism and protect mentally ill workers and youth.
Build movement vs police murder of mentally ill
Back in January, along with other churches and organizations, we mobilized to pack the courtroom to demand that killer kop Hugh Barry be convicted of Danner’s murder. Many expected a victory. Members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) pointed out how the whole proceeding was a racist sham. A number of our friends began to understand fascist “justice” better and gained deeper respect for our Party work when Barry walked free.
More and more of us see the need to link up with the families and friends of these victims to build a broad, ongoing movement to push back against police murder of those in mental crisis. We continued to work with a number of church people who had known Ms. Danner well and were not surprised that this atrocity had prompted Mayor de Blasio to form a “Crisis Prevention and Response Task Force” in the late spring following the sick farce of Barry’s “prosecution”!  Immediately we saw the need for a citywide response to build a campaign fundamentally to fundamentally change how people in mental crisis should be treated.
Over forty attended our forum, representing thirteen congregations or organizations, and all five boroughs. We heard from a victim’s family, a psychologist on de-escalation techniques, a psychiatrist on what community services need to be funded, and a police reform activist. A member of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) blamed the entire capitalist system. As the imperialist powers compete around the world, fascism is growing and police killings are increasing.
We broke up into three work groups to develop our demands and plan strategy going forward. The bottom line is that no uniformed, weapon wielding cops should appear at any scene and provoke mentally compromised people into confrontation. Rather, the city must fund clinically trained first responders to be available round the clock in every neighborhood.
Racist police killings on the rise
Police kill at least 1,000 people throughout the U.S each year. Almost half are Black, Latin, or indigenous. Fully one fourth are suffering from a mental crisis (Vox, 5/30). This current Klan-in-blue murder rampage surpasses the many decades the KKK lynched “only” 50-60 victims per year (Berea College study). The ruling class promotes this kind of racist carnage to intimidate and control the working class from fighting back against sharpening racist and sexist exploitation.
In New York City many of us remember the murders of Eleanor Bumpers, Gidone Busch, and Mohamed Bah. In the past three years, however the pace of these killings has tragically picked up with 13 victims dead, all but one Black or Latin (Washington Post, 10/1). Indeed, no working class family is safe. Who among us does not know someone we love who has in one way or another suffered from permenant or temporary psychosis by addiction, stress of life under capitalism, or untreated mental illness.
Expose bosses’ phony commissions
Each of these abominable killings has been met with a mass, outraged response demanding justice. Only the family of Mohamed Bah has finally prevailed in a civil suit. But now NYC’s racist mayor is appealing this judgment to establish that any cop who still “reasonably” believes he/she is in danger may execute a victim, even as he lies already gravely wounded on the floor.
At our forum, one of the involved clergy has challenged us to form a “Shadow Task Force” to counter DeBlasio’s phony task force. It would continually monitor where the actual deliberations are leading and put forward our demands in every way possible. A more recent proposal is to organize a news conference at City Hall in November to sharpen the fight. As communists we must expose the fake “caring” facade of deBlasio and of all liberal politicians who set up task forces and commissions as safety valves to divert and coopt struggle. As we fight for a safer New York City for the mentally ill, we must also fight for a better world for the entire working class. That’s communism. Join the struggle!