“Our refusal as Black people to confront the issue of money and wealth is going to end up with our very lives being threatened as a people in this earth.”― Dr. Amos Wilson

The Plan

The United States Department of Justice has initiated a crime fighting program named “Operation Relentless Pursuit” which will be funded through a “surge in federal resources”; according to Attorney General William Barr.   Before you begin to applaud, you need to be made aware that these resources will not be spent on the provision of jobs, education, health care or housing for low income families. All $71 million in funding will go towards “law enforcement” in specific cities that have been identified as “crime hotspots!”

The funds will not go towards better wages or to train law enforcement officers to better execute their mandates, rather, the money will go towards armament and increasing the number of officers in these targeted cities.

To pursue is to follow or chase after someone or something. Buildings and roads are inanimate objects that remain where they are placed, therefore it must be the citizens that will be relentlessly pursued! That being said, we need to look closely at the African-American population of these 7 cities.

• Albuquerque – 3%
• Baltimore – 63%
• Cleveland – 50%
• Detroit – 82%
• Kansas City – 30%
• Memphis – 63%
• Milwaukee –  40%

Are these cities slated to be purged of the ills that plague them, or, are they  to be scourged of the citizens that occupy them?

The first statistic that jumps out at you is high percentage of  African-Americans among the populace in all but one of these particular cities! This begs the following questions: 

• What was the criteria for choosing these 7 cities? 

• Is this mere coincidence that these cities were chosen?

In his book, “Who Needs The Negro” author and sociologist “Sidney Wilhelm”  warns us as to what could happen to African Americans who were brought here as a source of labor when that type of raw energy is no longer needed.  As jobs started to disappear due to automation and globalization in the 1960’s & 70’s, our communities became increasingly ridden with crime, confusion & desperation. Fast forward today, the cities targeted in “Operation Relentless Pursuit” all suffer from violent crimes while also suffering from high unemployment among African Americans.   

$71m Well Spent?

There is no money to assist war veterans, provide quality education, generate jobs, improve social services, but there is enough to arm and increase the presence of  law officers in these cities. The prisons are already filled with young black men and hispanics. The blood of these young people paint the streets and walls of these cities! What does “Operation Relentless Pursuit” hope to achieve? Who will be relentlessly pursued? You starve a lion, turn it loose and then you hunt it. Why do you act surprised when it turns around and attacks you? Isn’t that the reaction for which you hoped so that you may rationalize its slaughter? Wouldn’t everyone be better off if the money was invested in upgrading skills and generating sources for employment?

The Purge vs Operation Relentless Pursuit

If you have not viewed any of the movies in  “The Purge” anthology, and if you live in any of the seven cities selected to benefit from “Operation Relentless Pursuit”,  it would be very educational to either buy or rent at least one of these movies. The last cinematic release; “The First Purge,” sets the theme and the purpose of the purge.   It is particularly important  if you are African-American to see it.  Did the writers of this movie have an insight or premonition of what was to come or did the germination for this “operation” come from the movie? Regardless of which is first, The Purge is a horror film and “Operation Relentless Pursuit” appears to be very symbolic of “life imitating art!” 

“Economics is the centerpoint of any peoples development and survival.”

― Dr. Amos Wilson