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November 12th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
Editor’s Note: The following statement was released by the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee on November 10, 2021. Mondoweiss occasionally publishes press releases and statements from organizations in an effort to draw attention to overlooked issues.
Statement by the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee
We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Pittsburgh native, Jim Rogers, an unarmed Black man who was brutally murdered on October 13, 2021 by Pittsburgh police officer Keith Edmonds and other unnamed officers. Jim was a talented artist and loving friend who suffered at the hands of the police–ultimately leading to his death by taser. According to eyewitness accounts, Pittsburgh police officers and EMS refused to provide medical treatment to Mr. Rogers, even as he begged for his life.
Jim Rogers did nothing to warrant his violent death. After test-riding a for-sale bicycle and smoking a cigarette on someone’s porch in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, police resorted to deadly force when Jim questioned his arrest, tasing him at least four times. Jim was pronounced dead the following day at Mercy Hospital. Officer Keith Edmonds and all responsible parties must be brought to justice.
The increased militarization of U.S. law enforcement agencies are a direct result of the deadly exchange programs between the U.S. and Israeli military forces, including exchanges with the City of Pittsburgh. In fact, many of the tactics used by the U.S. police departments that harm and kill Black, Brown and Indigenous people are borne of the collaboration between Israeli Occupation Forces and the United States. The chokeholds, arrest procedures, use of so-called “non-lethal” weapons including tasers and teargas, and violent crowd dispersal methods employed against the Palestinian people—and those who stand in solidarity with them—are tactics used against protestors led by the Black Lives Matter (#BLM) movement during the historic marches following the police murder of George Floyd.
In February 2019, Mayor Bill Peduto and 18th Congressional district candidate Steve Irwin, who recently announced his candidacy for Mike Doyle’s Congressional seat, attended the 33rd Annual International Mayors Conference in Tel Aviv to learn about Israel’s use of advanced security tactics and technologies. Peace and justice organizations, including the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee, widely criticized the trip. The conference included lessons in employing increased surveillance and technology, ostensibly to “make cities safer.”
Clearly, making the city safer was not intended for Jim Rogers and others who have been harmed by the Pittsburgh police department. “Non-lethal” weapons such as tasers (stun guns) are increasingly used by U.S. law enforcement and the Israeli military. In 2017 Reuters found that 1,005 deaths in the U.S. involved the use of tasers, primarily against unarmed individuals often suffering from mental illness.
Our communities must demand an end to all Deadly Exchanges between the U.S. and Israel. At the same time, we must demand accountability from politicians and law enforcement agencies that utilize methods that ultimately violate our civil liberties or result in undue injury and death. Forceful and weaponized policing is an illegitimate escalation and has no place in our community. Through our connected struggle, we call for an end to militarized policing, including the deadly tactics used by the Pittsburgh police department.
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