#AdrianMcDonald #BlackLivesMatter

When black people die in police custody nobody hears their screams, most don't give a damn and the Police just sit back and laugh at those of who complain and agitate for justice. Here's the case of Adrian McDonald who died in horrific circumstances in Stoke last year

Community/public response are all full of fury in the first weeks and by the end of the first month, everybody's moved on and forgotten about these horrific abuses, until it happens again, or it happens to someone they know.

Bottom line is, they are killing us with impunity because they do not fear or respect us. we are too weak and divided or more interested in killing each other. To obtain justice you must be either feared or respected, we are neither.

The majority of organisations we rely on are black organisations dependant on the state for funding from the Home Office or from local authorities. To many charities see fighting racism as "too political" and therefore conduct discrimination research studies that prove what we already know, that racism is real. They get PHD's we get nothing.

They're fearful of building mass movements for justice and prefer to to 'study' the problem through academic research rather than empowering communities to confront power.

Truth is we, need to go back to the tradition of non violent direct human rights actions if we are to obtain equality and injustice.

In the 1980's and 90's when we suffered these attacks, we fought back. I remember the times when all police officers had to walk in pairs in black areas for fear of attack.

No police vehicles could be left unattended anywhere in our areas or it risked being vandalised, the keys would be stolen,  tires slashed and/or a pile of dog shit, emptied rubbish bins on the seat. Back then we had 'front lines' that were defended. These have all now been "gentrified" of course.

When things with police got heavy, we'd block of roads for days at a time, we'd organise what we'd call Blockorama street protest parties, and put sound sytems on the streets to warn the people. We'd surround the police station, we'd do something.

And of course we exploded with political fury in 1976, 1981, 1986. The focus of our attacks back then was the police not Argos, Yes they got done over, of course they did, but our main focus was the police.

We didn't seek to complain to the Police Complaints Authority, we knew they were a cover for corrupt cops, what we did do is physically fought back and kept the police in our areas on a permanent war footing.

Our mantra was "one punch will do" as young men, we use to practice that one punch all day long, that and sprint running, you had to be able to knock a man out, get away clean by knowing every nook and cranny in your ends.

Once we perfected our technique, the next time we met a racist policer officer with his golliwog or National Front badge hiding under his lapel, he'd get knocked out. Of course many of us went to jail in the backlash that inevitably came, but those sacrifices led to the abolishment of SUS laws and the other important concessions.

There can be no progress without sacrifice, its impossible and today we have forgotten what ts like to sacrifice for a bigger clause. Think of the first enslaved African who said "hell no" and walked of the plantation. That African choose to take the first blows for black freedom.

Today, we fight back with a tweet or a hashtag, we go on demonstrations to march hither and thither. we sign protest petitions, have a conference.

Let me be clear, for the avoidance of doubt, I'm not arguing for a return to a 'war footing', we dont have the neighbourhood solidarity or collective unity to do that today, and in any event such violence is ultimately futile.

We've been localised to post code wars between ourselves, so the strategies of yesterday year cannot work today and in any, event wanton violence is ultimately both self defeating and costly.  No... Im suggesting a return to the first stage of any effective struggle for justice, and one we haven't tried here in Britain, at least in any menaingfull way, with any degree of consistency or focus, and that is non violent direct action. #NVDA

Today's reality is that they know we don't have the stomach for that kind of action. In a strange way we have become more culturally British than black, in so far as we've adopted the quintessentially British attitude of "Im alright Jack. Every body for himself and no one else".

Imagine if one thousand of us set out to get arrested and filled up the police cells, crammed with people arrested for taking non violent direct action against police racism? We'd have the Government weak and the police begging for a cessation in an instant. One action such as this would be enough to push them back.

In the 70/80/90's we knew who the 'enemy' was. Our focus was racist police and whatever our beef personally, we would always unite in fighting the common enemy. Today police racism, although not as crude and in your face as smacking you in the mouth and calling you a nigger, in terms of both its scale and effects, police racism today is much, much worse.

Let me tell you why, the extent to which the growth of insidious police racism has become institutionalised, systemised and pervasive cannot be underestimated. The police are racially profiling and racially charging black people for crimes that whites receive a caution for, at ten times the rate of that they were doing back then.

Today the rate of criminalisation of our people has reached industrial and epidemic proportions.

Most of our many black churches stay silent. The Pastors say "leave all judgement to God" close the church doors and take care only of their bank accounts and their sheep like congregations.

The failure of parenting and leadership. means many of our young people are consumed with self hate and murderous intent for each other, Family breakdown comes as a direct result of the highest long term unemployment rates in Europe, massive increase in real poverty, huge levels of education failure and school exclusions, then add to that the illicit drugs economy, c criminal violence, systemised and pervasive police and judicial racism, and you can see why our communities have become so criminalised, so fragmented and so disempowered.

Ethical leadership in our community is rare, tokenism and sticking plaster solutions are everywhere preferred to actively challenging racism. Our people prefer to spend their money on other things rather than invest in building an independent civil rights movement capable of defending our communities. There are new organisations like the new social movement Blaksox alongside others that are carving out a new course for the struggle for race equality in the 21st Century. They strive hard to provide the critical elements of a British black renaissance, financial independence, accountable, transparent and ethical leadership

We have to step up our struggle and learn to do things differently. We need to break out the old 'protest paradigm' and think in terms of economic indpendance, mass non violent protests and the development of a legal strategy that challenges racism in the courts and on the streets. Sound familiar?

These two strategies were developed during the US civil rights movement led by Dr King. They are the most effective strategies of politcal empowerment of the disenfranchised, employed by any African diaspora anywhere in the Western world.

Today, the sad truth is that any people who will not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it.

The recent surge in black men dying in police custody is the final signal that black people in Britain are neither feared no respected. Time to talk truth to power and stop being afraid. Our children's future is at stake.