Honoring Walter Wallace Jr. and the Struggle to Abolish Lodge-5 and All Police. Community Control Now.
Today we are collectively mourning the life of Walter Wallace Jr.
Walter was murdered by the Philadelphia Police Department in West Philadelphia, yesterday October 26, 2020.
Walter was among our many vulnerable community members in need of help, but instead of being met by crisis intervention and support, Walter was struck by almost a dozen bullets by police.
In front of his mother and West Philly residents who plead the cops not to shoot.
The residents of West Philadelphia took to the streets last night in an act of rage and resistance against the racist police and state violence that claimed Walter Wallace’s life. In response, the police escalated the situation, and as a result the community took over the 52nd Street corridor.
Before Walter Wallace’s family could even comprehend what had happened the head of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), John MsNesby took to social media defending the murder and issued prayers for the police officers that killed Walter Wallace.
He offered none for the family of Walter Wallace.
The same day that Walter Wallace was shot and killed, McNesby and his attorneys were suing the city of Philadelphia to prevent public hearings on the new FOP Contract with the City of Philadelphia.
What do the FOP fear? Community Control of the Police and more importantly, accountability for an agency that needs to be reined in, have its budget slashed, its mission curtailed, and be rapidly dismantled.
McNesby has referred to Black Lives Matter protestors as “rabid animals.” He is not an aberration among police officers: he is their leader. Let’s call things by their correct name:
McNesby and the FOP are agents of apartheid, cowardly reactionaries blinded by their own fear, protected and enabled by a political system controlled by capital, un-reformable brutes lacking in even the smallest scintilla of ethical consciousness.
The police must be abolished.
The Abolitionist Law Center recognizes that police abolition is an urgent public health imperative, a requirement for racial justice, and a central objective for the radical redistribution of political and economic power our communities need and deserve. The rage and rebellion of those fighting back against this system must be defended and expanded.
We must organize to win. The political power of the FOP and the existence of the police must be brought to an end.
– October 27, 2020
