Justice for Dwight Hawkins!
The Baltimore police department has executed another Black man. The Black community could not even close out Black History Month here in Baltimore without a reminder of the ever-present oppressive and deadly system we exist in.
Dwight Hawkins was killed by Baltimore Police on Tuesday, Feb. 24, while leaving a bar he frequented. The police instigated the stop, escalated the situation and executed Dwight Hawkins with 16 shots to the back. The mainstream media has been quick to highlight the past of Mr. Hawkins, in an attempt to justify his blatant public execution at the hands of the Baltimore Pig Department.
Dwight Hawkins was a worker, a father, and a family man and his life mattered. The police, just like in the cases of 17-year-old father, William Gardner on Aug. 5, 2024; 54-year-old Robert Phillip Nedd Jr., on Oct. 9, 2024; 26-year-old Jai Marc Howell on May 12, 2025; and Bilal “BJ” Abdullah Jr. on June 17, 2025, claimed that the individuals “seemed or were armed.”
These executions are messages to the Black population of Baltimore. That if you are armed, you have forfeited your life. If you are able to defend yourself and your family, you are branded a criminal and hunted by the pigs. This violence is not isolated. Other than the above mentioned cases, there are still the violent vehicle ramming attacks carried out by BPD, one involving Baltimore Pig Robert Parks, who attacked two men in Park heights and the other involving a yet-to-be-named officer who hit a woman with his car in Lexington Market. Also, 35-year-old Baltimore Pig Curlon Edwards has been charged with multiple felony rape and assault charges for his abuse of a 16-year-old girl.
Violence is the only thing this system is readily able to give us. As Black communities continue to suffer from continued disinvestment, food apartheid, shrinkage, and removal, the powers in charge have responded with the heavy hands of more police and a tighter occupation. The police exist to serve white supremacy.
The first-ever police in this country acted as slave catchers. The very nature of policing in the United States is rooted in the Fugitive Slave Act. In the case of Baltimore, the police were controlled by all different levels of government at different points of time.
In the 1850s, the Know-Nothing Party — a whites-only, anti-immigrant movement that trafficked openly in white supremacist politics in Baltimore — controlled the Baltimore police department and city government. After the Civil War, the KKK and allied white supremacist organizations continued to shape the character of Baltimore’s political and police institutions through the Reconstruction era and beyond.
Following an intervention by the state government, BPD was given to the state to run directly. During state control, BPD continued to be known as a racist and corrupt institution.
The brutal torturing deaths of Freddie Gray, Tyrone West and many others happened under state control. Also, the Gun Trace Task Force was terrorizing the city, planting evidence, robbing people, extorting people, and filling communities with drugs during state control of the BPD. In 2017, the federal consent decree was finalized. However, under this decree, there was the illegal operation of spy planes in the skies of Baltimore in 2020. Also, every person listed above and many others have been attacked or killed during this period of the consent decree and returned city control.
This violence carried out by the Baltimore Pig Department against Black Baltimore is the same violence carried out by Federal Pigs in ICE and other agencies that are currently targeting not just Black and Brown immigrants but also working-class citizens of all communities.
Keith Porter Jr. was murdered by an off-duty ICE agent simply for being armed while celebrating New Year’s in Los Angeles. Dwight Hawkins was killed for possibly being armed in his community in Baltimore.
Following the deaths of both Renee Good and Alex Pretti, eyewitnesses say that the officers were counting their “hits” as they gunned down U.S. citizens. They exclaimed and hollered like they had just won a bet or a game. In the death of Dwight Hawkins, officers are heard on video “whooping” after two officers shot him in the back 16 times.
ICE agents use unmarked vehicles, wear civilian clothes and hide their identities while terrorizing communities. The Baltimore Police who killed Dwight behave the same way. Known as “Knockers,” this unit of undercover officers uses undercover vehicles, civilian attire and unmarked gear while they are out terrorizing communities.
In a video released by Dwight Hawkins’ cousin, she is quick to point out the inconsistencies and failures of the Pigs that murdered her cousin. They never told them which hospital he was taken to, and no clear recounting of the events that led up to the shooting. She points out that Dwight was killed for running. She makes the connection to Michael Brown, a Black man who was murdered in 2014 by the Ferguson Pig Department, all while his back was to them and his hands in the air.
This execution is also the second high-profile murder carried out by Baltimore Police’s Group Violence Unit, and even one of its officers, Baltimore Pig Omar Rodriguez, was one of the gunmen in both shootings. The first case was that of beloved Arabber and family man Bilal “BJ” Abdullah, who was gunned down by the Group Violence Unit and the Pig Rodriguez on June 17, 2025, only two days before Juneteenth. In both cases, the men were going about their lives normally, like any other person, before the police arrived and executed them on arrival.
The Baltimore Pig Department will continue to play judge, jury and executioner as long as there is no structure in place to stop them. It is very clear that this will not come from existing governmental power structures.
In Baltimore, across the nation, and around the world, war has been declared on oppressed peoples. Frederick Douglass said that “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.” Malcolm X said, “Power never takes a back step. … only in the face of more power.”
If we want to see an end to racist police terror, we must demand it and act on our demand. We must commit to a struggle that leaves no tactic or strategy on the table. Marches and rallies, civil disobedience, community patrols, and anything else necessary to bring an end not only to racist police practices, but an end to the current system of policing and occupation that prioritizes property relations and profits over people’s lives and replace it with one that truly serves the people.
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