MARYLAND, March 2 —The fight against the racist 1974 Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBR) is intensifying. The murder of Freddie Gray by Baltimore cops sparked mass rebellion and led to an enduring upsurge in public protests. People have taken to the streets and invaded the halls of government to denounce the racist terror tactics of law enforcement and demand justice for victims of police terror.  
Cops Protect their Right to Terrorize
The centerpiece of the capitalist system’s protection of cops in Maryland is the1974 Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBR). This law limits the deadline to file complaints against police terror to 90 days, lacks meaningful oversight of police conduct by residents, allows cops 10 days to get their collective lies together before they can be questioned, prohibits internal police department hearings until after criminal charges against the cops have been resolved, and blocks any consequences within the department if a board of fellow cops decides there is insufficient evidence of excessive force. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house!
In the Reform For Revolution
Progressive Labor Party has joined a range of groups and individuals holding press conferences, staging protests and testifying before Maryland legislators. Legislation won’t stop killer kkkops, but illusions die hard. But, by battling on all fronts, including the legislative arena, the PLP is winning more workers to the idea that it takes mass rebellion like Baltimore and Ferguson make change.
Our participation has informed these actions with a revolutionary communist perspective that has enlightened and engaged many friends in the struggle. The value of our work goes beyond the immediate issue. After all, any legislative change will have little impact on police terror because it is rooted in the system itself. But by exposing the police and the government as an instrument of capitalist oppression, we can strengthen the foundation of our movement to abolish capitalism.
The reinforcement of racial inequalities by state power serves the profit interests of the capitalist class, which benefits from repression and intimidation of the most oppressed sections of the working class in order to undermine class solidarity. Racism is a tool designed to drive a wedge between workers—Black, Latin, Asian, and white—so the capitalists can continue to extract maximum profits from labor.
So when cops commit outrageous acts of racist violence, the criminal (in)justice system protects them. It will take a revolution to demolish the capitalist state. More and more, the working class in Maryland is recognizing that we need to dismantle the racist criminal (in)justice system that essentially guards the bosses’ profits and property.
We Rebel Against the Bosses’ Laws
Some 150 Maryland residents followed up on the MLK Day die-in (see CHALLENGE 2/25) on with a vigorous, rally-style press conference inside the Maryland House of Delegates Office Building that forcefully attacked LEOBR. Petty changes to LEOBR have been proposed by state legislators in response to last year’s Baltimore rebellion. But the bill still has the police controlling their own review and disciplinary process and limits the time to file complaints.
More than 20 anti-racist fighters of all ages and ethnicities filled the conference room of Delegate Joseph Vallario, Chair of the Maryland House Judiciary Committee. Led by the mother of a young Black man murdered by a cop, and barely controlling their anger, they pressed Vallario to move the bill with stronger amendments instead of quashing reform like he has done for years. He hesitated, clearly shaken by this bold confrontation.
At the press conference that followed, a PLP member decried the long history of police terror in Maryland, emphasizing that its source is the capitalist profit motive. Two representatives of a local community group gave spoken word, one affirming support for the uprising in Baltimore by repeating the refrain “we rebel” throughout his piece. Mothers of murdered youth spoke of the anguish of losing their children to police thuggery and called on others not to wait until police murder was at their front doors. Calls for robust amendments to the LEOBR bill rang out from the diverse crowd of Maryland residents.
Testimony before the Judiciary Committee continued well into the evening and was attended by large numbers of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Officer William G. Porter, one of the cops indicted for Freddie Gray’s murder, had the nerve to show up to oppose any change in LEOBR. Protesters filmed his arrogant presence. He confronted Tawanda Jones, a leader of the weekly Tyrone West rallies in Baltimore for more than two years seeking justice for the July 2013 police murder of her brother, Tyrone West, demanding to know why he was being filmed. The cop then denied his identity.
On March 1, public outrage over LEOBR moved to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee where Maryland residents vehemently confronted some cop-loving senators. The fight against racist cops must be an international one, linking capitalist state violence from one country to another. Workers all over need communist revolution to put the working class in state power!