On October 3, 2009, Jerald Ard of the Pensacola Police Department, killed Victor Steen, a local youth, then planted a gun in his pocket. The rest of Ard's friends in the department were soon on the scene to harass, intimidate, and threaten patrons across the street who witnessed Ard running over Steen, who had fled on his bike. Police threatened to take witnesses cell phones who were using them to videotape the scene across the street. The ones on Ard's team even made it as difficult as possible to see the scene, parking their cruisers to obstruct view.
These tragedies should shock no one. The police are a trained paramilitary army trained and armed by the government, the State, those who enforce laws. Is it a coincidence that the same ones enforcing private property and economic oppression through corrupt laws, would then give the physical means to harm or kill those who step out of line and ignore or break the rules?
This is not an opportunity to exploit Victor Steen's death to advance an idea or a cause, to win over the reader to "radical" ideas. One must look at the relationship between the poor and the police. It is a relationship of intimidation, aggressiveness, and violence. Such has always been the case, and will continue to be so long as the poor remain powerless over our own lives. Jerald Ard would not have been able to kill in a strong and conscious community that asserts its power and autonomy whenever outside forces try to coerce or harm. If we protected our own, and resistance to authoritarian violence and intimidation were never a second thought, we could avoid future deaths like Victors.
NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE.
ARD PLANTS GUN ON VICTORS BODY:
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