Police Brutality. (Page 9)
POLICE BRUTALITY
THIS WAS THE SCENE April 27, 1962, in Los Angeles, California, as Ronald
T.X. Stokes (foreground) his hands handcuffed behind him, lies dead along
with two other wounded and handcuffed Muslims. These men were among seven
unarmed Muslims brutally shot down by white supremist Los Angeles
policemen in front of their Temple. Although they were the victims of the
cold-blooded attack, 14 Muslims went on trial on trumped up charges of
assault amid an atmosphere of tension and hate created by the white press.
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Were Muslims Framed To Whitewash the Guilty?
By Messenger Elijah Muhammad
Reprinted from page 211 of Message To Blackman in America
You may know of the incident that took place on April 27, 1962, in Los
Angeles, California, between the Los Angeles Policemen and my followers;
one of my followers Ronald T.X. Stokes was killed out-right while his
hands were raised and with nothing on him to do anyone harm.
Every one of the Brothers was unarmed when nearly one hundred
policemen swooped down upon them, well-armed, out of the darkness of the
night to kill the Believers of Allah and His religion (Islam) and to stop
the spread of Islam.
On that fateful night, one of the policemen’t bullets paralyzed one
brother for life and others received serious wounds in the chest and
private areas. They were all shot down for no reason other than the
devils wanted to kill the righteous as they have done in the past to the
Prophets and followers, from Moses to Muhammad.
And after shooting down six unarmed worshipers of Allah and with one
dead, they felt happy to boast that they had killed one of my followers.
The same devil policeman who killed that follower said he shot the others
and was trying to kill them all.
Again, this same devil was not wounded or even scratched by any of
the Muslims, who were not armed and had nothing with which to retaliate
against such a sudden attack by the murderers of our fathers and mothers
and now the murderers of us.
For thirty-two years, I have been trying to teach my people, the
so-called Negroes, the way of peace with our open enemies. I have even
warned my followers never to be the aggressors, as the religion of Islam
teaches us that we cannot teach peace and then be the first to break
peace with carnal weapons. I know who the fight belongs to. It belongs to
Allah (God).
Allah wants to make Himself known in the Western Hemisphere that He
is our God and has come to save us from the hands of our enemies and
place us again in our own country and among our own people. He has said
that He would do this job of delivering us and destroying those who have
destroyed us. This is prophesied almost throughout the Bible.
He further said that there is no way of getting along with the white
race in peace. They have been found by the Scientists of Islam to be
disagreeable to live with in peace. The twelve Scientists met to confer
over the possibility of returning us, the lost-founds in the wilderness
of North America, to our own.
This can and will be done or the Prophets could be called liars, and
liars they cannot be made, for they deliver the words of Almighty Allah
(God) or his message, and that message is from the Lord of the Worlds
(Allah) who cannot lie.
In Detroit, Michigan, where we were first attacked outright by the
Police Department in April, 1934, we were also unarmed. There were no
deaths on the part of the Believers, however. They fought back against
the policemen who attacked them for no just cause whatsoever but that
they wanted our Muslim children to go to their schools. We refused to let
children take their first courses in the public schools, although the
high school children in their upper teens could do so. But let us shape
our children first.
This was the cause of the attack at that time and Allah was with us
and we had been peaceful there all the while. However it was said after
the battle with my followers who had nothing to fight with but their
hands, that there was hospitalization on both sides.
There was no loss of lives on the side of the Muslims and not a gun
was fired by them. The Lieutenant of police, the Captain and Commissioner
of Police, had warned them to not use firearms against us because we were
not armed — this was true. But when the battle was over there were more
of them hospitalized than there were of us.
One year later, here in Chicago, Illinois, in the Police Court on 11th
and State Streets, there was a complaint made against one of my
followers, concerning his children going to our school, the University of
Islam. As the courtroom began to fill with spectators, two court deputies
showed disrespect for the Muslim women. They started pushing them around
and the Muslim brothers resented this harsh handling of the women. The
police officers then began beating the men and almost within seconds the
entire courtroom was in confusion and fight.
When the battle was over, the Police Captain lay dead from a heart
attack and others were wounded by their own gun fire. They opened fire
upon my followers point blank in the courtroom because of their (Muslims)
seeking justice in the charge against us and our school as in Detroit,
Michigan, the previous year.
In Detroit, Michigan, the Police Department charged us with
“contributing to the delinquency of minors,” involving one of our
students, Sally Allah, who had left the public school and had come over
to the University of Islam. They charged us with going around to the
various school grounds, begging our poor black children to leave the
white schools and come over to their own.
This is when they made the charge of contributing to the delinquency
of minors. The records are in Chicago to date for anyone to read. Now,
one year later (1935) here in Chicago, Illinois, they attack us on nearly
the same charge. They wanted to school our children, they wanted them to
go to their public schools.
We know that kindergarten children and first graders once in Islam
cannot be taken into Christian schools without having to suffer mockery
and attack from the Christian children and from the Christian teachers
who hate Islam, the God of Islam, and the Prophets of Islam.
Therefore, we believe that to keep peace with the Christians, we must
teach our children in their own schools although they may study the same
textbooks. And this will prevent clashes between the Muslims and
Christians over the truth of the history of the people and the spiritual
guidance and message that Allah has revealed to me.
The message of Islam is bringing about one of the greatest reforms,
for a better life to the American so-called Negroes, greater than it did
ever to Arabs fourteen hundred years ago. I would compare his reform here
with that of the Israelites under Moses four thousand years ago, to prove
the teachings of Almighty Allah (God) of the white race being made the
devils from the beginning and that they are not ones who seek peace. They
only use the word peace to deceive the black people, to get a chance at
making mischief among them, and causing bloodshed.
Know that by nature the black people are for peace and know by nature
that the white people are for war, bloodshed are destroyers of high
morals. They refuse to show any respect to their peaceful, free slaves in
America today. They know that we are not armed — in thirty-two years
they have learned that my followers are not armed. They have learned that
the God of peace is with us by watching great mass meetings of our and
never seeing even a dispute arise.
If the white race were for peace they would thank God for raising up
in their midst a peaceful people who do not desire to make any mischief
among them. Here we have the NAACP, CORE and various other organization
before our eyes, who attempt to try achieving their aims of asking for
freedom, justice and equality with the slave-masters’ children without
weapons, without anything harmful. They lie down at the feet of the
vicious, weakened, human-like beast only to be kicked and stamped upon
and have dogs sicked upon them to rip their flesh apart and poison them
with rabid teeth.
They have no respect for people who want to be a peace with them.
They have no respect for the laws of justice. they have made trouble all
over the world with people who were at peace among themselves until the
white shadows of the trouble-makers spread out over them.
We have history that they, themselves, have written of self, bearing
witness to what I am teaching today. What must be done since we cannot
get along with them in peace
The Black Policeman and What He Polices
reprinted, in part, from Muhammad Speaks, December 13, 1968
By Messenger Elijah Muhammad
The Black man, who has been a servitude slave and now a free slave of
white America, can never hope to enjoy peace, freedom, justice and
equality under the control of a mixed law enforcement agency (Black and
white), because of the Divine Presence of Allah (God) Who Came in the
Person of Master Fard Muhammad, To Whom Praises are due forever, Who
Desires nothing else but peace for the Black Man.
In the past and maybe present, the white officer chooses from among us
the “uncle-tom-like” men to serve as law enforcement officers over us.
This type of Black officer makes more trouble in the community than
the trouble that is made by the community, because he wants to be loved
and honored by the white officer at the expense of mistreating his Black
Brother. Surely he does not want to place on the force a Black Man who
loves his Black people and wants to see them at peace with each other.
He rides with the Black officer over the Black section or community of
the Black people to see to it that the Black officer mistreats his
people, as he would do himself.
The Black policeman, hoping that he will keep his job as policeman,
follows the instructions of his white officer which causes him to lose
all love and respect of his people for him as their peace officer.
First, the Black policeman fears his job, because he does not have the
co-operation of his Black brothers in their community that he polices.
The two are divided by the thrid man (white man).
Unity among the Black Man, love for himself and the Black officer can
assure the Black officer of his job to police us as long as he is
enforcing the law of justice among us. We should obey the law enforced by
the Black officers who have been commissioned to police us.
It is nothing but right that is due us by the city’s government or
the U.S.A. government in general to have what ever law of justice put out
that we may obey enforced by Black officers. Especially when we number
between twenty and thirty million people in this country.
Surely we have plenty of “uncle toms”, who wish to live off the white
man’s shiny dollars to keep the Black man under a law of injustice; who
preach the doctrine, “let the white man do it.” But, unity of us, the
Black people, could get an answer in our favor overnight.
We desire to obey a good law.
Second, to keep our brother policing our community, we must cooperate
with him. But, he, himself, must be worthy of this position. I do think
that a Black officer who is to have such a high and honorable position
should have at least a high school education and not just eighth grade
education. College education would be still better, but I will even say
here that sometimes an eighth grader makes a better policeman than a high
school or college educated person in the way of getting along with people
and people getting along with the officer.
We can never have peace in our community
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Detroit, MI 48244
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