Behind the move to initiate public oversight of Fresno's police department through the creation of an Independent Police Auditor is an underlying principle that is more profound than the call for equality and justice.

It is important to recognize that within a system that promotes racism to divide a community, the call for equality will fall upon deaf ears and the struggle for justice will never cease because full equality and true justice will never be realized there.

We must move forward on the principle that a community has an irrevocable right to determine how it shall be governed and—because it follows naturally—that a community has the right to determine how it will be policed. Without this, any government and any police in the community operates without the community's assent and becomes an occupying force.

Our struggle for justice and equality therefore is truly a struggle for sovereignty and self-determination.

[In December of 2007, the freedom loving Lakota from the Sioux Indian reservations of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana withdrew from the constitutionally mandated treaties with the United States to become a free and independent country.]