FTP Emergency Action
Black Gatekeeper Shook After Brooklyn Protest
The legacy of liberal moderates who criticize Black social movements is riffe with cringe worthy examples of condescending paternalism. Errol Louis’ response to the recent police abolitionist protest in Brooklyn is only the latest version. Mr. Louis clearly reveres the institutions of law and order which comprise our current criminal justice system. His fealty to the system and moderate reformism have no doubt, granted him insider status. He hosts a weekly program about City Hall, and has been lauded by elite institutions as one of the most important journalists covering New York City.
It is this status which appears to have brought him so much dismay at the recent protest organized in part by us, NYC Shut It Down. In his pearl clutching opinion piece he appears to have foregone any of the standards of truth and journalism which his Harvard and Yale education should have afforded him, calling the protesters “outsiders” and suggesting that we “hijacked” our own movement. He even goes so far as to refer to our banners and signs as “machine produced” with the apparent implication that there is some larger interest funding our work.
If he had taken the time to look into the publicly available information on the radical grassroots organizations who organized this event he would have seen that we have been organizing for police and prison abolition as part of the Black Lives Matter movement since 2014 and are firmly rooted in New York City. In fact he could have even seen photos from our banner making workshop where Bronx artists made the banner he refers to by hand. What his piece actually amounts to is a member of the elite using their influence (Errol was a former member of the Daily News’ editorial board) to act as gatekeeper for political ideas and power, casting any fundamental challenges to the status quo and demands for people power as “outsider.”
In this way he takes on much the same role as the political establishment of the old south in branding civil rights activists as “outside agitators.” Much like his prediction that prison abolition will “never happen” segregationists imagined that their system would last for forever. But abolitionist politics is gaining strength.
Just recently Angela Davis, one of the founders of the modern abolitionist movement, issued a statement of support for the same No New Jails proposal which Louis discourages in his piece, stating that the plan, if adopted, would “demonstrate that abolitionist pathways can help create more sustainable futures.” Something that Mr. Louis would rather not happen as that would apparently threaten his position within the status quo.
He deliberately mis-characterizes our strategy by harping on our slogans. Of course our political strategy is not to “duke it out with the police.” If Mr. Louis had wanted to give an accurate portrayal of our strategy and platform he could have simply visited our website. Our banner was a show of solidarity with the criminalized Black youth who were forced to defend themselves from brutal and unhinged NYPD officers. We affirm the right of Black people to defend themselves against racist attacks, which the Harlem born Mr. Louis I’m sure understands, has a long history in New York City, most prominently espoused by Harlem revolutionary Malcolm X.
Perhaps Mr. Louis' greatest mischaracterization was framing our action as a protest of the subway fare. In his hand wringing over minor acts of vandalism, he failed to mention the four people the NYPD summarily executed in the preceding eight day period. We were protesting the use of violence and the real threat of death against people of color for the sake of a two dollar and seventy five cent fare. We refuse to police the righteous anger of our people because we value people over property.
Mr. Louis may not agree with our radicalism, but his attempt to cast this radicalism as somehow outside of the radical Black tradition exposes his position as a gatekeeper. A position made all the more insidious by the fact that Mr. Louis is a highly educated Black man himself. He should know better.
The truth is that we are neither “outsiders” nor are we “crazies” as Mr. Louis has referred to us on twitter. Abolitionism is an aspect of the Black liberation movement in the Americas that pre-dates the establishment of the United States itself. The strategy of slavery abolitionists was not to reform slavery and make it more palitable to the American public but to end it. Similarly police and prison abolitionists today seek revolutionary strategies that do not give prisons and police more resources but to end these institutions altogether by building radical alternatives. We should not let Mr. Louis, or anyone else, limit our imagination in building those alternatives.
see you in the streets!
The second FTP! emergency action will happen Friday, November 22 at 5:15 pm starting at the Harriet Tubman memorial in Harlem (122nd St. and Frederick Douglas Blvd.) Find out more here.