On Thursday, October 8, at approximately 4:00pm, in Marble Hills, a highly congested area of the Bronx, ICE agents of the Old State, disguised as construction workers, followed a 28-year-old Dominican man, Oscar Belgal, from a nearby Target to the neighborhood where he lives. ICE agents walked up to the car with guns drawn, wasting no time before firing seven shots into his car in which his 5-year-old son was a passenger in the back seat. Oscar Belgal was shot in the neck by an agent that the community described as wearing a construction vest and a rifle. After the man was shot, he was forced down onto the ground where he was handcuffed. Shortly after they put Oscar Belgal into an unmarked vehicle and speed off.
Gathering quickly at the scene, hundreds of the masses have risen up in righteous rebellion. At the scene ICE agents were chased out. The masses marched from the scene of the shooting to the hospital where Oscar was being kept. They thundered drums and shouted “Shut it down,” and “ICE out!” facing NYPD-pig repression and State hostility. Social-fascist Mayor of New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has said that he spoke to fascistic president Donald Trump, and attempted to negotiate Oscar’s release to no success. The masses on the other hand have been fighting to demand justice in the streets, as it has been made clear that there is no path to justice which comes through the capitalist State; it is demanded and taken by the revolutionary might of the masses.
This shooting is the 25th of its kind by ICE agents this year. The shooting is the latest reminder to the exploited masses and oppressed nationalities that the destructive and colonial forces U.S. Imperialism will never cease. It is up to us to develop the capacity to confront U.S. Imperialism from within utilizing neighborhood defense units and other community defense networks to ensure that there are forces ready for the combative masses to struggle through.
This particular shooting highlights the double oppression many Caribbeans face. Imperialism attacks our homelands and pushes us into the belly of the beast where we are pushed into a race for survival. Once we arrive here, many Caribbeans face national oppression based on the country they are from, but also are met with the disgusting face of U.S. national and racial chauvinism. We must see this as a struggle that exists on multiple fronts. It exists as larger attack against those from Latin America generally, but also is a continuation of the genocidal campaign that the U.S. has been involved in against New Afrikan people.
“Any form of serious bodily or mental harm inflicted upon any one Afrikan is an instance of genocide against the nation.” -James Yaki Sayles, War for the Cities
This shooting is a particular call to us as Puerto Ricans and Latin American people. Those from the Dominican Republic and Haiti are under attack in Puerto Rico by ICE and within the borders of the belly of the beast. The State utilizes race as a tool of division and is working to foster anti-blackness in our communities. We must reject this effort with a concentrated effort of our own to call out anti-blackness and struggle against it everywhere we find it.
This is not the first time that State sanctioned masked vigilantes have terrorized our communities. We have organized against these attacks successfully and it is up to us to organize ourselves into disciplined forces to do what we must to protect each other and bring an end to the system that terrorizes us.
Violence is on our doorstep.
The time for action is now.
RELEASE OSCAR BELGAL
ICE OUT OF OUR COMMUNITIES
Signed,
Borikén Liberation Front
Corriente Popular Damián García
People’s Defense Committee
