A special edition in solidarity with the Black Lives uprising Peace Planet News Dedicated to Abolishing War, Establishing& Justice, and Fighting Climate Disaster Number 3 Published Quarterly by Vietnam Full Disclosure and New York City Veterans For Peace Fall 2020 Police and Pentagon Bringing Our Wars Home After years of hypermilitarization, U.S. police departments are recreating our global war zones here at home. With these weapons on our streets, our history of structural racism becomes that much deadlier. By Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Phyllis Bennis Mo., in 2014, an armored personnel carrier stalked the agonized protesters who filled the streets. U.S. military helicopter hovered over crowds of un- Throughout U.S. history, policing has always been armed civilians, its down-drafts whipping debris bound up with racism—and the military. Aand broken glass into their faces. Was it Mogadishu Organized police forces in the United States trace their or Washington, D.C.? roots to the slave patrols organized to capture and return Armed, uniformed men surrounded unarmed civil- enslaved people who managed to escape bondage. Meeting the ians. One of them shouted “light ’em up” and began fir- After reconstruction, when a pandemic of lynching ing projectiles. Was it Baghdad or Minneapolis? spread across the country, police stood by and in many Armor-clad, armed U.S. officers targeted and fired on cases initiated or assisted the kidnapping, torture, and Moment journalists. Was it Iraq or Louisville? murder of people in their custody. Fifty-four years ago, three In every case, it was both. Thanks to years of hyper- In the 1950s and ’60s, brutal police attacks against militarization, American police departments are re- civil rights activists and African Americans trying to courageous Army draftees creating our global war zones here at home. With these register to vote continued the pattern. So did police and weapons on our streets, our history of structural racism National Guard violence against antiwar protesters at refused to participate in becomes that much deadlier. Kent State, Jackson State, and the Chicano Moratorium In recent weeks, overwhelmingly peaceful demonstra- in Los Angeles in the 1970s. the illegal war in Vietnam. tors protesting police killings and racism have been met This militarism at home is linked inextricably to U.S. by riot police, National Guard troops, and armed fed- militarism abroad. The troops that Trump called in to What are the lessons for eral officers wielding tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber- deploy against protesters in Washington, for example, active-duty military today? coated metal bullets. Armored personnel carriers prowl had just returned from duty in Iraq. the streets, turning U.S. cities and towns into war zones. Today’s “global war on terror” is less visible than in It’s shocking, but it’s not the first time. When a police earlier years. But those wars continue—and it’s mostly Page 20 officer killed 17-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, continued on page 17 … must say, ‘Wake up, America! Wake up!’ for we cannot stop, and we will not and From the Editors cannot be patient.” Rev. James Lawson Jr. in a passionate and profound eulogy, said this at John Lewis’ funeral at the Ebenezer Baptist church: “[L]let all the people of the USA deter- mine that we will not be quiet as long as any child dies in the first year of life in the United States. We will not be quiet as long as the largest poverty group in our nation are women and children. We will not be quiet as long as our nation contin- ues to be the most violent culture in the history of humankind. We will not be quiet as long as our economy is shaped not by freedom but by plantation capital- Photo: Ellen Davidson ism that continues to cause domination and control rather than access and liberty and equality for all!” In a commencement address to the 2016 ‘Getting in Necessary Trouble’ graduating class at Bates College, John Lewis told the graduates, “You must find a s we were producing this special is- I saw Death.” be patient. We do not want our freedom way to get in the way and get in good trou- sue, focusing on the Black Lives up- When asked what kept him moving gradually, but we want to be free now. ble, necessary trouble. … You have a moral Arising resulting from the murder of forward on that day at the bridge, he re- We are tired. We are tired of being beaten obligation, a mission, and a mandate, when George Floyd and over 400 years of un- plied, “Well, my mother, my father, my by policemen. We are tired of seeing our you leave here, to go out and seek justice ending racial oppression, we lost two civil grandparents, my uncles and aunts, and people locked up in jail over and over for all. You can do it. You must do it.” rights icons, Rep. John Lewis and Rev. people all around me had never registered again, and then you holler, ‘Be patient.’ As I write this, in Portland, the battle C.T. Vivian. This issue is dedicated to the to vote. I had been working all across How long can we be patient? We want our for truth and justice rages. Mike Hastie, memory of these two, who, as young men, the South. The state of Mississippi had demonstrated grace and courage in the a Black voting-age population of more face of racist violence, and to the heroic than 450,000, and only about 16,000 were young men and women of the Black Lives registered to vote. On that day, we didn’t Matter rebellions going on in America have a choice. I think we had been tracked and all over the world. down by what I call the spirit of history, John Lewis was beaten almost to death and we couldn’t—we couldn’t turn back. by Alabama state troopers and was ar- We had to go forward.” rested over 40 times while standing up for A month before the march on Selma, racial justice. As King was, so were John Rev. Vivian led a group to the Dal- Lewis and C.T. Vivian, true nonviolent las County courthouse. Confronted by revolutionaries. County Sheriff Jim Clark, he adamantly John Lewis and C.T. Vivian, whom said, “You can turn your back now and MLK Jr. called “the greatest preacher that you can keep your club in your hand, but ever lived,” took the blows for justice as you cannot beat down justice. And we we see thousands these days in the streets, will register to vote, because as citizens willing to risk their health and safety for of these United States, we have the right justice and an enduring freedom. Lewis to do it.” Clark then punched Vivian in John Lewis on the ground about to be clubbed. and Vivian showed the way. the face so hard he broke his own hand. Rev. Vivian said, “There must always These brave men of conscience and ‘You must find a way to get in the way and get in be the understanding of what Martin had many others, men and women, set an ex- in mind. … Nonviolent, direct action ample for all of us. good trouble, necessary trouble. You have a moral makes us successful. We learned how to As actress and producer Rhodessa solve social problems without violence. Jones says in a remarkable interview with obligation, a mission, and a mandate, when you leave We cannot allow the nation or the world staff writer Denny Riley on page 24, “I here, to go out and seek justice for all.’—John Lewis to ever forget that.” am standing on the shoulders of the gen- John Lewis came close to death in 1965 erations who came before.” at age 25 on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in In 1963, as a 23-year-old with Martin in freedom, and we want it now. photographer, journalist and former Viet- what became known as Bloody Sunday: Washington DC, John Lewis spoke these “We do not want to go to jail, but we nam Army medic, has been out there at “I was hit in the head by a state trooper meaningful words at the Lincoln Memo- will go to jail if this is the price we must night exposing the reality. He writes, “I with a nightstick. I had a concussion at rial to a crowd of 250,000 people. pay for love, brotherhood, and true peace. have been tear gassed multiple times. I the bridge. My legs went out from under “To those who have said, ‘Be patient I appeal to all of you to get in this great am usually drenched with sweat and wa- me. I felt like I was going to die. I thought and wait,’ we must say that we cannot revolution that is sweeping this nation. ter down my chest from the medics flush- Get in and stay in the streets of every city, ing out my eyes. The CS gas is a choker to every village and hamlet of this nation, say the least. I run on adrenaline and caf- until true freedom comes. … We must get feine, because a 75-year-old body needs Peace & Planet News in this revolution and complete the revo- some high-octane mixture.” You can see Peace & Planet News is published quarterly by Vietnam Full Disclosure lution, for in the Delta of Mississippi, in Mike’s photos and his searing commen- (vietnamfulldisclosure.org) and the New York City chapter of Veterans For southwest Georgia, in the Black Belt of tary on page 12.