Pan-African Community Action (PACA) was born out of the Justice 4 Zo campaign what emerged in response to the killing of Alonzo Smith by private police for hire, also known as special police, as well as in response to other police murders throughout the country. Alonzo Smith was a 27 year old DC resident, VA schoolteacher, and father of three children. On November 1, 2015 Alonzo was killed unarmed at Marbury Plaza apartments in Southeast, Washington, DC. He found by MPD handcuffed on his stomach in the custody of private security guards known as “special police” who are armed, have arrest powers and are licensed by the District.
PACA called for an independent dual track investigation conducted by the United Nations and/or the Organization of American States (OAS) into the death of Alonzo and the into the slew of extrajudicial killing by police and security across the country. PACA attempted our own investigated into the death of Alonzo and also launched our flagship campaign Community Control Over the Police
The campaign calls for a non-elected and randomly selected civilian board from the ranks of the community itself to exercise full community control over police, including the budget that is allocated, setting priorities, policies and the hiring and firing of individual police officers.
Until our communities have power, tools of policing will be wielded against us. The priorities of working class DC cannot be answered by institutions we do not control.
In 2016, at the height of the #JusticeforZO campaign, PACA and other organizations held a town hall meeting in Southeast Washington DC at Union Temple Baptist Church, presided over by the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (UNWGEPAD). People of the DC, Maryland, and Virginia metropolitan area were able to recount their experiences as African descendants in the US for inclusion in the UNWGEPAD 2016 report.
What PACA has brought to the local movement moment through this campaign:
