Economic System Blamed for Police Deaths in Oakland
April 8, 2009
EX-OAKLANDER BLAMES ECONOMIC SYSTEM FOR POLICE DEATHS
Capitalism, Cautious Politicians, Create Collision of Race and Economic Classes
SPRING HILL, FLORIDA, Wednesday, March 25, 2009: Florida Socialist and civic activist, Brian Moore, who was born and raised in Oakland, California, sent two separate letters of condolences today to the Oakland Metropolitan Police Department for the sudden and senseless tragic deaths of four of their officers; and a second note of sympathy to the family of the individual responsible for the slaying of the four policemen, 26-year old Lovelle Mixon, a young man with a criminal record and in violation of his parole.
All five individuals were killed in two separate shootouts involving Mr. Mixon, who was killed as well. The four policemen were white and Mr. Mixon was black. Several months ago a white BART policeman shot in the back and killed a black youth in a Oakland subway station confrontation. Protests and riots followed the killing by supporters of the dead black youth. Moore believes tensions will inevitably rise now as the situation has reversed itself, with four unsuspecting white policemen being gunned down for an apparent simple traffic stop.
Moore blamed the inevitable collision of the two racial groups “on our country’s economic system” and the “conservative mindset” of politicians and state governments whose “stringent laws” have “created the resulting tragic social combustion.” The black shooter was young, unemployed and reportedly frustrated with not finding work. Furthermore, newspapers reported that the parolee, Mr. Mixon, had missed three consecutive parole visit requirements, thereby, as a person on probation, would be bound for prison again, possibly for life, due to his failure to report regularly.
Moore contends that this condition may have led Mixon to “take such suicidal actions,” thereby tragically taking the lives of the four police officers. Moore sees capitalism not only collapsing economically, but also “leading the nation to inevitable social clashes and chaos.”
The active socialist quoted a recent New York Times article by Solomon Moore (no relation) that California has had 13 years of a “three-strike” laws, which doubles sentences for second-time felons and life sentences for even nonviolent third-felony offenders. The writer wrote that “as of March 2008, there were 41,284 prisoners in California serving time under the three-strikes law,” and that “It is estimated that the law costs the state of California $500 million annually.” Moore contends that what has also contributed to the increasing number of prisoners is decades of “tough-on-crime” laws, plus California, according to the article, is the “only state in the nation that [puts on parole] paroles 98 percent of released inmates, even if they have completed their sentences.”
Moore further added that reports in early February of this year, a three-judge federal panel ruled that the California prison system must reduce overcrowding by as many as 55,000 inmates so that the state can provide a “constitutional level of medical and mental health care [to the overcrowded inmates].”
Moore, a former Socialist Party USA presidential candidate in the 2008 elections, criticized California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown for “pandering to peoples’ fears.” Brown is a former governor of the state, mayor of Oakland, and presidential candidate; and soon-to-be expected gubernatorial candidate in the 2010 state elections. Brown opposes the federal panels’ decision to place the state penal system in “receivership” over its inadequate delivery of health care and prison overcrowding. AG Brown claims the matter is a “public safety” and a “states-rights” issue. California is presently facing a $40 billion deficit, plus Mr. Brown and the state’s lawyers argue that the federal courts “lack the authority to order prison reforms.” Ironically, California’s Republican Governor Schwarzenegger has supported the prison reform issue, and the need to build new prison facilities.
The civic activist blames the global economic system, capitalism, where favored opportunities are provided to a small minority of families who inherit power and money, while the majority of people, black and white, compete against each other, or are forced to take low or minimum wage jobs, which create life-long frustration, loss of hope and “denial of basic economic rights.” Moore contends that the Oakland shootout this week, “is a singular example of what is more to come in our country as the economy worsens and as capitalism remains its dominant economic system.” —end—
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