The "BRAVE Cave" and Our Colonial Situation
The Brave Cave is Further Evidence of Our Colonial Situation.
Recently, 3 Baton Rouge police have been charged in the creation of a Torture Chamber called the “Brave Cave”. This was a location that the “BRAVE” unit would take its victims to be beaten and raped. The “probable cause” used to justify these arrests was simple drug position. Of course, all police involved are on administrative leave or have resigned pending an investigation. In total, there are 7 known victims of this police black site. This number may increase as the investigation continues. I say black site because these are similar tactics that the US military and CIA used in the occupation of Iraq. Just look at the atrocities committed in Abu Ghraiub and tell me we are not facing similar violence from the state.
The black population of Louisiana is no stranger to violence and death by the hands of the police forces. In 2022 there have been 21 recorded deaths by police and as of August 2023, there have been 16 deaths, one in Baton Rouge. The State of Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate out of any state in the United States, making us the prison capital. Life is shorter here than most places in the US, intra-community violence is high, and drug overdose rates are 3rd in the country. We truly are in a decrepit condition. This condition of ours is not the result of any particular action on our part, but the relationship we have with this country.
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) formulated in this work with Charles Hamilton “Black Power” that the Black Population’s relationship with the rest of the country is a colonial one. We formed an internal colony within this country. The “Ghetto” can be summarized as a sparce colony that is subject to special levels of state violence, coercion, and exploitation not seen outside of it. The “BRAVE” cave is simply further evidence of the violence our people face as a colonized people.
There have been previous “BRAVE” caves (like Horman Square in Chicago) and there will be more. Our relationship to this country and its state makes that an inevitability. The only way to end the “BRAVE” cave is to end the colonial situation that our people are in. This is a fight the best of us have been in for centuries, and it is one that will have to continue if we are truly going to be a free people.
References:
Police Violence in the US:
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
“Brave Cave”:
Abu Ghraiub:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse