LUMPENPROLETARIAT—As Baltimore police have recently been charged for the death of Freddie Gray in police custody and the corporate media runs defence for police terrorism, we focus attention upon free speech radio.  With all of the ongoing tensions across the nation, as a result of persistent resistance to police terrorism and cops killing unarmed civilians with impunity, Davey D (co-host of Hard Knock Radio on Pacifica Radio:  KPFA, Berkeley, CA), becomes an invaluable boots-on-the-ground asset.  Lumpenproletariat.org will archive (after final exams next week) as much of Davey D’s important interviews from the streets of USA with some of the most dedicated activists around today.

In the meantime, don’t sleep on the following free speech radio broadcasts before they must be taken down from KPFA.org. [1]

—Lumpen

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HARD KNOCK RADIO:  The following audio archives should be available for another day or so because…[1]

• 28 APR 2015:
  • KPFA News Headlines
  • (c. 8:20) Davey D speaks with Baltimore grassroots correspondent and organiser, Dev Rock(sp?), with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, providing real-time coverage of the Baltimore rebellions against police terrorism.
    • Rock describes the importance of independent media:  (c. 26:10) “What’s most important is that we have to have media, like, you, yourself [Davey D], to continue to spread these stories to get in contact with us [locals on the ground in Baltimore], to try to talk to us, to try to get cameras to where we are, so we could show you what’s going on from our point of view.  So, it’s not the mainstream pushing out, all the time, accounts of what’s happening and [we] get to show you people all comin’ together, you know what I’m sayin’, workin’ around this one incident in order to make things better.  That’s what we need right now because the other media is gonna do what they see fit, what they please.”
  • (c. 30:00) Davey D speaks with Jared Ball on police terrorism.
  • sociopolitically conscious hip hop music
  • (c. 40:00)  Davey D speaks with Twilight Bey, who participated in the 1988 peace summit between Bloods and Crips, about gang truces and fear campaign memes being put out by police press relations in the context of police terrorism.  This is part one of an interview series with Twilight Bey.
    • Davey D points out some contradictions with USA’s state/corporate media responses to uprisings around the world:  (c. 46:19)  “When we talk about quote-unquote ‘riots’ is this:  When it was happening in Tunisia, the US was cheering.  When it’s going on in Venezuela, right now, people are cheering.  You know, the US cheers for it.  And, even, tries to support it.  When it was going on in Hong Kong, there was cheering.  And there was help.  And there was a thumbs up.  When it took place in the Ukraine, not only did the US cheer, but the US actually sent aid for it.  But when it happened in Soweto; and you had 3,000 people killed, Henry Kissinger, Gerald Ford, and others were saying:  They should be more peaceful.  They should find another way to resolve their differences.  When there was uprisings in the UK, where you’re based at, they said the same thing.  When it was in France, they said the same thing, when it was involving black folks.  But it seems like there’s this schizophrenia as to when we want to have acceptance, or even cheerlead, or even help people fight oppression.  And, then, there seems to be this double standard.  So, when we’re doing it:  It’s a riot.  We should be peaceful.  And there needs to be some sort of punitive action.  But when others are doing it, it’s cheered on.  And, if you talk about just the riots, that have broken out after sporting events, you will even hear people say:  Those were peaceful riots.“
  • Pacifica Radio news announcement of pending board changes, potentially affecting the future of free speech radio in the USA.
• 27 APR 2015:
  • KPFA News Headlines
  • (c. 8:00)  Live from death row, political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal delivers a report “from imprisoned nation”.  Mumia’s commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
  • politically conscious hip hop music
  • Davey D discusses the labour movement and police unions in the context of police terrorism.
    • Davey D:  “You also have a push to have a nationwide bill passed that would make talking about the police considered a hate crime.”
  • Excerpt of a speech by Sister Souljah.
• 24 APR 2015:
  • KPFA News Headlines
  • Davey D speaks with friends of KPFA’s own Wesley Burton— Fund to help Wesley’s family in the wake of his untimely death.
• 23 APR 2015:
  • KPFA News Headlines
  • Discussion of police infiltration of #BlackLivesMatter and the corrupt criminalisation of activists (and citizens simply trying to invigorate civil engagement [2]) under post-P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act auspices
  • (c. 42:40) sociopolitically conscious R&B
  • (c. 48:10) Black Agenda Report with Glen Ford
  • (c. 53:00) sociopolitically conscious hip-hop music

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TRUTHOUT—Once again, the nation watches as prosecutors deal with the killing of an unarmed black man.

“[The officers] failed to establish probable cause for Mr. Gray’s arrest as no crime had been committed by Mr. Gray … Accordingly, [he was] illegally arrested,” Baltimore state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby declared, as she announced the filing of criminal charges against the six officers implicated in Freddie Gray’s death.

Gray made “eye contact” with Officer Brian Rice. Gray then ran from Rice, and Rice began chasing Gray. It was after Gray surrendered to Officers Garrett Miller and Edward Nero that Gray was taken on his fatal “rough ride.”

A “rough ride” is an unsanctioned technique that some officers use to injure arrestees without physically touching them with their hands or weapons. The driver typically takes intentionally rough or rapid turns around corners or makes sudden stops. Since the suspect is handcuffed, he is unable to brace himself so he falls forward, often bashing his head against the inside of the van.

Like so many African American men before him in this country, Gray was guilty of nothing other than “walking while black.” In his case, Baltimore’s sordid history of racial and class oppression, combined with the war on drugs, made for a deadly combination.

Learn more at TRUTHOUT.

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[1]  Audio archives are routinely taken down after a couple of weeks due to copywrong restrictions.  Thus, 23 APR 2015 Hard Knock Radio broadcast will be taken down on 9 MAY 2015.  The 24 APR 2015 on 10 MAY 2015 and so forth.  Hence, we’ve created Lumpenproletariat.org, as a permanent hub for ghetto life and working class life.  So, we will archive, transcribe, and, hopefully, publish these important grassroots activist reports in book form.  Previously, Pacifica Radio’s Dennis Bernstein (Flashpoints), asked Messina to collaborate on such a book publishing project with him to publish the best of Flashpoints interviews, given the many transcripts Messina has produced of Flashpoints broadcasts.   Hopefully, with Lumpenproletariat, we can produce such contributions for the people.