‘US people rising up against bad cops’

‘US people rising up against bad cops’: McKinley

Press TV has conducted an interview with Paul McKinley, a community activist, from Chicago, to discuss the situation in the United States.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all, how much has trust and confidence in the police force eroded among the American people?

McKinley: First, I’d like to say that in America and most of the police departments in America, they have what they call ‘role police’. What you’re seeing down there in Ferguson is African-Americans rising up, focusing in on role police who are gunning down African-Americans.

And that’s not all that they do – right here in Chicago we have an incident that a police commander by the name of Glenn Evans had a gun in a man’s mouth inside the police station. DNA proved that he did have the gun – and this man has not been fired or even indicted. So that makes people all over the country –

These are several incidents, not just Ferguson. But Ferguson has turned into the lighting rod of the police department. It’s not so much the distrust; it’s disbelief. We don’t believe in the police department. That creates a divide with the white community because that makes it appear that black people are fighting against law and order. That’s not really the same. That’s not really what’s going on. What’s really going on is black people fighting against what you may call ‘role cops’, what you may call people who are defecating on the badge.
Press TV: How far are the protesters going to take their demonstrations, going to take their resentment?

McKinley: The funeral is Monday. Chicago is sending a whole delegation down there. I will be going. Chairman Fred Hampton of the POCC will be going. Teal Hardeman will be going, as other people also.

We’re going in support of the families and the people in Ferguson. I think that there’s going to be people from all over the country coming down there because we really feel that [US Attorney General] Eric Holden was a slight – what’s the best word to use? – was disingenuous in coming down.

He never met the people – you know, he did meet the family but he didn’t come out on the streets and talk to the people who are protesting. It doesn’t mean that he’s for the protests or against the protests. He didn’t want to talk to the regular grassroots, everyday people. That seems to be the problem in the African-American community with black leadership.

This is why, if you noticed, the black people down there have been going off on the name brand Negro leadership. Even some of the black commentaries, if you noticed, they have a certain disdain for the masses. They think that because they’re doing good we should be happy that they’re doing good, you know, living in Malibu.

But this is not what’s going on. What you’re seeing is the tip of the iceberg of disenchantment all over the country. I think that this funeral that most people are going to, I believe that it will not turn into something necessarily violent but I think that it will turn into an organizing opportunity to really deal with, once and for all, the police who are coming into the black neighborhood, murdering people, selling drugs, kidnapping, killing, raping, pillaging our community, and all under the color of law.

Now don’t get it twisted. We’re not against law. We’re not against law and order. But we are against those thugs who use the cloak of blue to use malicious and vicious attacks on our people. That’s what you’re seeing.

But you’ll never find this out by watching the black commentaries. Most of the black commentaries are apologists. They are apologizing. They are simply saying that they apologize for whatever the police did and we should disperse and all go home.

I don’t want to just say this one but especially CNN, you know; there’s been a lot of bias, disrespect and downright racist remarks from black folks on CNN, because a lot of them are not among our people. Although you may see them on TV, and the people who are watching this, you may see black folks who are commentaries but they’re not one of us. They have a lot of disdain. Sometimes they can hide it in their speeches but they can’t even hide it in their faces because they’re upset that the grassroots, the poor, the disenfranchised, the ones that have been kicked, thrown in the garbage can of American society by black leadership, and with the help of liberal whites.

I’m saying to you that I think that Monday there will be a great organizing opportunity and even a greater outcry.

Press TV: The main question is that at the end of the day will justice be served in this case or will the case be treated as the Zimmerman case?

McKinley: That question did come up among the protesters and even up here in Chicago, that the Justice Department, Eric Holden, did not get involved in the Zimmerman case, the Trayvon Martin case. By him not getting involved in that, that meant that Trayvon Martin, none of his civil rights was violated.

That’s why some of the people were very upset with Eric Holden coming down here and not replacing the state’s attorney, because we see that it’s going on the same track.

A lot of democrats are now crying out, ‘well, this is the state’s right, let the states handle it’. But the state is the problem because if the state would have handled it, it would have removed the state’s attorney.

I think that justice may not be served in the courtroom but justice definitely will be served in the streets. That’s where there’s going to be some justice at because most of the people are coming out, even the white people. If you noticed, it’s not just black people out there. There are a lot of white people out there who are in agreement that this cannot go on forever, where an unarmed black man is killed, that when the community raises up and asks for justice, that state that that person was murdered in doesn’t get justice.
I think that there’s going to be a serious problem about getting justice and I want to know, since you brought that question up, if it does go to trial, which I have problems even believing that, if it does go to trial will this police officer choose his peers from the 67 percent African-American in Ferguson? Now that is the real question.