By Comrade Double G
In the midst of a global pandemic, the united snakes have found another way to quench its blood lust. In its final weeks, the trump administration has upped the targeting of colonized people through federal executions; trump has one last message; colonized people deserve to die.
A dormant yet deadly colonial structure has awakened. The federal government has spent the last five months increasing executions of colonized people. Since July, they have executed ten people and have three more executions scheduled before January 20th, 2021.
The statistics regarding this rapid murder scheme are disturbing, showcasing how colonizers often equate their power with the collection of colonized bodies. The trump administration “scheduled more executions than had ever occurred in a presidential transition period in the history of the united states,” reported Robert Durham from the death penalty information center.
In a desperate final attempt to cling to his power, trump has made efforts to dish out death among colonized people. He and his administration didn’t have to do much; the systems are already in their favor.
At disproportionate rates, death row often consumes poor, intellectually disabled colonized people, lacking legal expertise. There are 53 people on federal death row, and 31 are colonized people. This year’s executions are no stranger to being a calculated attack on colonized people, “with almost half of the defendants executed being people of color and 76% of the executions for the deaths of white victims,” tells Robert Durham.
What is even more unsettling is who trump decided to execute. Lezmond Mitchell, a part of the Navajo Nation, was executed this past August, making him the first Indigenous person since the resumption of the federal death penalty in 1994. This action completely ignored the sovereignty of the Navajo Nation.
Brandon Bernard was the youngest person in the united snakkkes in nearly 70 years to be executed. Bernard was only 18 in 1999 when he was involved in the aftermath of a carjacking gone wrong. Bernard was tasked by 19-year-old Christopher Vialva, the gunman at the time, and three others to dispose of two bodies. During the trial, Bernard faced twelve jurors, eleven of whom were white, and sentenced him to death. Despite their heavier involvement in the case, two out of three remaining men are no longer in prison.
In 2018, it was revealed that trial prosecutors withheld information to amplify Bernard’s role that night. When it was made clear he had no involvement in planning the carjacking and was of the lowest ranking among his peers; five sentencing jurors said they would not have sentenced him to death.
After being denied a stay of execution by the Supreme Court, trump not only denied Bernard’s desire to live but did so because he “wasn’t moved” due to the nature of the case. I want to ask trump what about Brandon Bernard’s death moves him? Bernard was 40 years old, a reformed man, and acted as a mentor to prison youth. He was described as “remarkable” and a “go-to guy for help” by peers and even the white power former warden.
High profile cases were sure to get attention; allowing colonizers to flex their authority to the masses in the name of justice. Regardless of major pushback from our people, Bernard was senselessly murdered on December 10th.
State-sanctioned murder is not justice.
Do our people not deserve rehabilitation? We do, and we will get it, but it can’t be through the systems that already disproportionately harm us. Creating power and systems as colonized people, for all colonized people, is the only way to protect ourselves.
Here in the Black Hammer Organization, we are a group of fighters. Our Defense Committee gets you physically, emotionally, and mentally ready to fight colonialism; we have your back. To prepare your mind, we have political education in every single meeting to help maintain our revolutionary confidence.
We also offer colonizer classes that will help aid in our protection and serve as a way for colonizers to pay reparations, and learn how to be an accomplice in Black Hammer’s revolutionary work. Members can build up endurance and strength in weekly workout sessions, which include kickboxing and self-defense. Our mission is one of liberation, and it is our responsibility to free our people from the chains of colonialism; here at Black Hammer, we have the resources to do so!
Land Back.
