[Nettime-bold] One day/ All day: April 27

[Trebor Scholz <treborscholz@earthlink.net>]

Title: One day/ All day:  April 27

>

(apologies for cross-posting)

Right2Fight

A cross-disciplinary initiative on the theme of police violence.

One day, all day.

Sarah Lawrence College, New York

27 April 2002

http://www.molodiez.org/right2fight/slc.html


BROOKLYN, NY: A Haitian New Yorker named Abner Louima is tortured by members of the NYPD.
A broken broomstick is shoved into his rectum and mouth while his attackers scream racist epithets. The crime takes place on August 9, 1997. Four officers are convicted. On February 28, 2002, three of the four convictions are overturned. One officer is granted a new trial; two others are set free outright.

As weapons and methods of surveillance become more sophisticated and grass roots dissatisfaction with political and economic systems grows, in many parts of the world policing is becoming increasingly brutal and intrusive. From 80s video surveillance, alarming in its own right, we have moved on to far more invasive forms of policing:  automated face recognition technologies in use on the streets of London; iris scans imposed on Hadj pilgrims arriving in Mecca; techniques elaborated to spy on the most private exchanges online and off; “Echelon,” an espionage system devised to scan vast quantities of e.mails and telephone calls worldwide, in real time…

>From a world best described as an analog panopticon, we have moved into what independent curator Inke Arns calls a pancodicon* :  a world of digital surveillance and electronic space in which our most intimate thoughts can be charted. In this world, what few protections were afforded those who stand in opposition to the status quo are lost, snatched back by systems of policing -- local, national and global -- bent on breaking all but the tamest forms of resistance.

Such attacks on liberty are, needless to say, not new. Entire systems of economic and political domination have been built upon policing at once extraordinarily violent and intrusive. Among these, one might cite the very system on which the country we live in was founded. From the arrival of the first slave ship at Jamestown Harbor in 1619 to the contemporary streets of our largest cities, from the era of Jim Crow lynchings to the beating of Rodney King and the killing of Amadou Diallo, the United States has been a place of violence meted out at the hands of a few bent on controlling and silencing the many.  

Once, men and women of African descent, in this land, were deemed 3/5th of a human being; today, so many men of African heritage -- one in every ten -- are behind bars or otherwise ensnared in the criminal justice juggernaut**  that one can legitimately speak of a genocide under way. In Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, women and men of Native American, Latino and, increasingly, Asian heritage are questioned, arrested, incarcerated at rates in no way commensurate with their representation in the population at large. Post 9/11, over a thousand Arab men are in US jails, still waiting to be charged with a crime; in many cases, their own families have not been told where they are.

Elsewhere too, state violence has broken and continues to break lives, spirits, entire peoples. Violent repression was the cornerstone of the colonial project, in Africa and Asia alike.  Patrice Lumumba of Congo, murdered by Belgian-trained gunmen mere months after his country gained independence; Ruben Um Nyobe, heartbeat of Cameroon’s struggle for self-determination, killed in a French ambush in 1958;  Steve Biko, beaten to death by South African police in 1977... Theirs are but the best known names -- a paltry few “history” deigns to recall among those of hundreds upon hundreds of thousands who died, many resisting, killed by authorities in power only because they had the means to destroy.

In Europe, as the industrial age emerged, workers died by the thousands. In Napoleonic Paris, boulevards were cut through the city in wide swaths to make the task of shooting discontented factory hands easier, should they take to the streets en masse. As the 19th century drew to a close, in the UK and US, strikers seeking better wages were clubbed and shot. In the wake of a May Day protest that brought 80,000 workers to Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, police violence exploded. Within days, eight men were arrested.  A  trial was held, centering on a bomb all agreed none of those indicted had planted. Five of the men were sentenced to death; the three others were remanded to prison for life.

One would like to think that such excesses are a thing of the past. They are not:

ABNER LOUIMA

AMADOU DIALLO (1)

LUC BENOIT BASILEKIN (2)

SUSANA GOMEZ, RONALD RAUL RAMOS (3)

SEATTLE, QUEBEC CITY, GENOA (4)

SEOUL, JAKARTA, BRISBANE (5)

JOHANNESBURG, PARIS (6)

BULGARIA, ALGERIA (7)

VIRGINIA (8)

(1) THREE YEARS AGO, A GUINEAN IMMIGRANT NAMED AMADOU DIALLO WAS STRUCK DOWN IN A HAIL OF BULLETS FIRED BY NEW YORK CITY POLICE. HE WAS REACHING FOR IDENTIFICATION; THE OFFICERS ASSUMED HE WAS REACHING FOR A GUN. THEY FIRED FORTY-ONE BULLETS. NINETEEN HIT THE TARGET.

(2) IN FEBRUARY 2001, THE GOVERNMENT OF CAMEROON INSTITUTED THE OPERATIONAL COMMAND, A PARAMILITARY TASK FORCE BRINGING TOGETHER MEMBERS OF THE LOCAL AND NATIONAL POLICE AND THE ARMY. THE C.O.’S OFFICIAL PURPOSE WAS TO END A CRIME WAVE IN THE CITY OF DOUALA; IT WAS MEANT IN FACT TO BRING TO HEEL SECTORS OF THE POPULATION OPPOSED TO THE REPRESSIVE RULE OF THE GOVERNING PARTY. IN ITS FIRST SIX MONTHS, THE C.O. PERPETRATED 500 EXTRA-JUDICIAL EXECUTIONS; BY YEAR’S END, 1000 PEOPLE HAD DIED.  ONE OF THE FIRST WAS LUC BENOIT BASILEKIN.

(3) IN APRIL 1996 IN GUATEMALA CITY, SUSANA GOMEZ WAS RAPED BY TWO NATIONAL POLICE OFFICERS; SHE WAS SIXTEEN YEARS OLD. IN SEPTEMBER 1996, RONALD RAUL RAMOS WAS SHOT AND KILLED BY A TREASURY POLICE OFFICER; HE TOO WAS SIXTEEN. MORE THAN TEN OTHER STREET CHILDREN WERE MURDERED THAT YEAR, LIKELY BY POLICE. TWELVE MONTHS LATER, NONE OF THE PERPETRATORS IN THESE CASES HAD BEEN APPREHENDED.

(4) IN SEATTLE, QUEBEC CITY AND GENOA, OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, UNARMED WOMEN, MEN AND CHILDREN CALLING FOR A MORE MEASURED APPROACH TO GLOBALIZATION THAN HAS BEEN PROPOSED BY SUCH BODIES AS THE WTO AND WORLD BANK WERE ATTACKED BY POLICE WIELDING BATONS, RUBBER BULLETS, WATER CANONS AND TEAR GAS. SIMILAR VIOLENCE GREETED UNARMED PROTESTERS AT MAY DAY RALLIES THROUGHOUT ASIA AND THE PACIFIC IN 2001, FROM SIDNEY AND BRISBANE TO KARACHI, SEOUL AND JAKARTA.

(5) IN FEBRUARY 2002, A COLONY OF SQUATTERS WAS VIOLENTLY DISPERSED IN CENTRAL JOHANNESBURG. THE POLICE LEVELED THE INHABITANTS’ MAKESHIFT HOMES AND DESTROYED THEIR BELONGINGS. THE SQUATTERS WERE MADE TO BOARD BUSES AND WERE DRIVEN OUT OF THE CITY, WHERE THEY WERE UNCEREMONIOUSLY DUMPED, MILES FROM FRIENDS AND FAMILY. THE METHODS EMPLOYED IN THIS DISPERSAL WERE SIMILAR TO THOSE USED IN FORCED REMOVALS OF THE APARTHEID ERA.

(6) ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 17, 1961, ALGERIANS LIVING IN PARIS ORGANIZED A PEACEFUL MARCH TO PROTEST A CURFEW ON PERSONS OF ARAB DESCENT. THE POLICE MOVED IN. THEIR COMMANDER WAS MAURICE PAPON, WHO DURING WWII HAD OVERSEEN THE REMOVAL OF 1560 FRENCH JEWS TO GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS. TWO HUNDRED UNARMED ALGERIANS WERE SHOT, BLUDGEONED AND DROWNED.  PAPON REMAINS FREE.  DAILY, FOR NO REASON BUT THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN, PERSONS OF NORTH AFRICAN DESCENT ARE DETAINED, ARRESTED, BEATEN AND SHOT ON FRENCH STREETS.

(7) SINCE 1994, RACIALLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE AGAINST ROMA GYPSIES IN BULGARIA HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY. MUCH OF THIS VIOLENCE IS PERPETRATED BY POLICE AND PRIVATE SECURITY FIRMS. IN THE COURSE OF ONE WEEK, IN APRIL 2001, EIGHTY YOUNG PEOPLE WERE KILLED BY THE POLICE IN KABYLIA, IN NORTH-EASTERN ALGERIA.  ALL WERE MEMBERS OF THE MINORITY BERBER ETHNIC GROUP.

(8) ON MARCH 1, 1999, A SEVERED HEAD WAS FOUND IN A RICHMOND, VA PARK.  THE VICTIM WAS A GAY MAN. THE PARK HAD BEEN THE SITE FOR SEVERAL MONTHS OF A POLICE “STING”:  UNDERCOVER OFFICERS HAD BEEN APPROACHING GAY MEN, PROPOSING SEX, THEN PROMPTLY ARRESTING THOSE WHO SHOWED INTEREST. THE ARRESTS WERE WIDELY REPORTED. THE PUBLICITY GIVEN THEM MAY WELL HAVE ENCOURAGED THE MURDERER.  WHY THE MANY PLAINCLOTHES OFFICERS PRESENT IN THE PARK ON THE NIGHT OF THE MURDER FAILED TO SEE ANYTHING IS ANYONE’S GUESS.

IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA, IN NORTH AFRICA AND EUROPE, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND THE INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION REPORT CASE AFTER CASE OF RAPE, TORTURE AND MURDER INVOLVING TRANSGENDER AND BISEXUAL, LESBIAN AND GAY PERSONS, ALL TOO OFTEN BY POLICE.

>From Cape Town to Ramallah and Queens, this state of affairs is drawing the attention of artists. In an age of mass media and cleavage to the status quo, voices, images, sounds are emerging that speak of this violence with power and outrage. Right2Fight showcases an important international group of cultural producers whose work stands at the forefront of this movement.

Right2Fight is an emphatically cross-disciplinary undertaking: from web-based projects to graffiti, from sculpture to video, installations to street wear, Hip Hop to posters, experimental music and photography to performance poetry. The event's contributors speak as few can to the social and ethical costs of police violence, to the dangers inherent in  allowing such violence to proliferate, and to the responsibility we share, as individuals and communities, to denounce and battle it in all its manifestations.

Right2Fight is not a symposium. It is a constellation of spoken word interventions, performances, film and video screenings, installations, showings of net art and web-based pieces intended to prompt dialogue and questions.

This day-long collision of ideas, technologies and images seeks to transcend mere catharsis. The goal is not to satisfy neo-liberal guilt but to engage in concrete action. Activists and representatives of human rights organizations dedicated to ending police violence will be present to explain their work. Those who wish will learn, here, how they can become actively involved in the fight, channeling their emotions into actions, their words into deeds.

Right2Fight is not an indictment of all police officers. It does, however, condemn the brutality to which more than a few law enforcement communities resort. In light of recent events, the organizers hold, it is more important than ever to address issues of intolerance, prejudice and violence.

In the US and abroad, these have a disproportionate impact on the poor and marginalized. Millions suffer, die, are broken daily. Against this, its dehumanizing effects and causes, Right2Fight takes aim.

Contributors include:

Pam Africa (Philadelphia)

Chris Bratton (Chicago)

Camerata New York

Robbie Conal (San Francisco)

Adam de Croix (Brooklyn)

Dee Curry (NewYork)

Graff (New York)

Ashley Hunt (Brooklyn)

Emily Jacir (Bethlehem/Brooklyn)

Carol Jacobsen (Ann Arbor)

Richard Kamler (San Francisco)

Jared Katsiane (Boston)

Deborah Kelly (Sydney)

Goddy Leye (Amsterdam/Yaounde)

Mr. Lif (Boston)

Malam (Douala)

Brad McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry (Brooklyn)

Julia Melzer and Liz Canner (Los Angeles/Boston)

No One Is Illegal (Germany)

Sally O’Brien (New York City)

Pass-Fix (Munich)

Horit Peled (Tel Aviv)

Jenny Perlin (Brooklyn)

Picture Projects (New York City)

Lesego Rampolokeng (Soweto)

Oliver Ressler (Vienna)

Martha Rosler (Brooklyn)

Jayce Salloum (Vancouver)

Dread Scott (Brooklyn)

Sara Scully and Jessica Rockstar (New York City)

Trebor Scholz (Berlin/Brooklyn)

Gregory Sholette (Chicago)

Merian Soto and Pepon Osorio (Bronx)

DJ SKI HI (Bronx)

Stolen Lives Project (USA)

Herve Yamguen (Douala)

Herve Youmbi (Douala)

The event's organizers are an urban historian who works in Central Africa and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College (Dominique Malaquais) and a Brooklyn based, East Berlin-born interdisciplinary artist whose work has been extensively shown in Europe and the Americas (Trebor Scholz). The two share a commitment to tactical media, street activism and visual culture. Both curate, speak and publish widely, focusing on issues of social concern and the everyday.


*   Inke Arns, posting to the “Spectre” online mailing list, 3/9/02.

** Neil Websdale, Policing the Poor.  Boston:  Northeastern University Press, 2001.

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Contact: Dominique Malaquais <malaquais@yahoo.com>

              Trebor Scholz <treborscholz@earthlink.net>