In the years after the death of Emperor Palpatine in the “Star Wars” saga, the New Republic established itself by the time of “The Force Awakens” after fighting off insurgent Imperial remnant forces and eliminating all oppressive control over former Imperial planets. It can be assumed, from what we know in the novels and the rise of the First Order as a fascist cult, that no original Stormtroopers exist, or the clones from the Old Republic era. General Leia Organa wisely saw the use of ridding planets of Stormtroopers in order to promote democracy and the legitimacy of her new government. The return of these fearsome white-armored soldiers in Episode VII is meant to signal a new and terrifying, but modern, evil. As an explicit reference to the Nazi troops of World War Two Germany, “The Force Awakens” makes a point of gathering thousands of Stormtroopers to hear General Hux speak as Starkiller Base targets the New Republic.

In our own world, we have our own Stormtroopers to keep peace, at home and abroad. In the Middle East, they don flak jackets and fatigues. Here, they wear blue, carry badges, and shoot black Americans with impunity for any perceived slight against them. The anniversary of Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri has come and gone, a full two years that has seen the birth of our own form of the Rebellion, #BlackLivesMatter. The #MilwaukeeUprising this past weekend is another bloody chapter where brave young men and women, mostly black and members of the working class, are rebelling against police control of their city. The usual suspects in the media, such as NBC news and USA Today, are propagating misleading narratives and parroting police accounts of the uprising, all too eerily similar to what we saw in Ferguson and Baltimore. It is unjust and cruel that the United States government, and American whites, choose to ignore the source of the agitation that claims the lives and families of black people – the cops.

For both detractors and allies, some of you may ask what alternative there is to the police as a way of ensuring public safety in local communities, from the city to the rural town. Fascists and liberals alike revel in their privilege, eagerly awaiting people who are victims of crime and have no options. What socialists and activists offer is community self-defense forces, similar to the model that the Black Panthers used to insulate the communities they controlled against the Ku Klux Klan and local police officers. This is not the only mode of crime prevention that is currently being researched, but it is an important alternative to "AmeriKKKan" policing that has historical precedent. Some may cite the non-existence of the Black Panther Party as indicative of their failure to provide a replacement for the police, but that narrative discredits their work without taking into account government infiltration and sabotage of their activism.

Moreover, I would remind my readers that rebellion and revolution are as inherent to the DNA of American thought as is fascism and white supremacy. Curiously, we can find that the Second Amendment, cited by far-right Tea Partiers and conservatives alike, is a constitutional provision to allow local communities to defend themselves against government tyranny (not, in fact, an amendment to be interpreted to allow any citizen to outfit themselves with weapons of mass destruction in the public sphere). For the socialists, and especially the black socialists, the recent uprisings in Ferguson, Baltimore, and now Milwaukee, are some of the most patriotic actions ever taken by any citizen of these United States. However, this is only lauded or defended by prominent and powerful persons when they are white. My article covering the arrests of the Bundy family is one of many documented proofs showing the regard that police have for white lives and not black lives.

If we leftists are to erode empire, then we must abandon the avenue of respectability politicking that suggests the institution of policing can continue to exist alongside black lives. It has been proven that the police are by design, a controlling factor to suppress working class and minority citizens for the benefit of the rich and the powerful, they we derisively refer to as the bourgeoisie. If the alternative frightens you, then you are the problem. You would sacrifice the liberty of others, for your own sense of false security and privileged status quo.

Do not support the Empire. Join the Resistance. Do you not hear it? “There has been an awakening…the light, and the dark.”