Fascist policing (1962)
“What do they look like condemning Eichman for what he did in Germany or the Nazis for what they did in Germany, and you’ve got some Gestapo tactics being practiced by the police department in this country against 20 million Black people.”
The term “riots.” (1965)
“When the Blacks were rioting—the riots, actually they weren’t riots in the first place; they were reactions against police brutality. And when the Afro-Americans reacted against the brutal measures that were executed against them by the police, the press all over the world projected them as rioters.”
Policing isn’t stopping crime. (1962)
“This makes the Negro neighborhood a police state. It’s the most heavily patrolled, it has more police in it than any other neighborhood, yet it has more crime in it than any other neighborhood. How can you have more cops and more crime? Why?”
“We were born in jail.” (1964)
“We haven't benefited from America's democracy. We've only suffered from America's hypocrisy. And the generation that's coming up now can see it. And are not afraid to say it. If you go to jail, so what? If you're Black, you were born in jail.”
How to wage struggle. (1964)
“Our community must reinforce its moral responsibility to rid itself of the effects of years of exploitation, neglect, and apathy, and wage an unrelenting struggle against police brutality.”