NEW YORK CITY, December 7—The hung jury in the trial of kkkop Michael Slager who murdered Walter Scott once again exposes the courts’ role in upholding a racist system. We will continue to fight for justice for Walter, and the countless targets of racist police murders.
The court system is part of the capitalist state, an arm of the ruling class to enforce racist laws and a racist prison system. While there have been a few instances where the courts were forced to convict, their main job is to work with the police to enforce racism and anti-working class laws designed to keep the capitalists in power.
When you go to court, the judges, the prosecutors the police and even the defense attorneys all work together on a daily basis. Cop Slager was part of that system, a system that needs its police to feel free to terrorize workers, especially Black workers.
Walter was a 50-year-old forklift operator who had served two years in the U.S. Coast Guard. He was struck with five bullets, three of them in the back.
In this particular case, the bosses are trying to put the blame for the acquittal on the jury. Certainly the jury was full of racism. It’s a society that was founded on slavery and the forced segregation of Black and white workers. It’s a society that has filled the prisons with Black men and women, and filled our minds with racist lies.
Slager chose a jury trial because his lawyers played the overwhelming odds that the racism would prevail. His lawyers knew the prosecutor would not take the path of exposing this murder as an inevitable outcome of a racist system.
We will fight for justice for Walter Scott in the streets, in the courts, in the schools, in our work places and every other battlefield. Ultimately, justice will be in the form of freeing ourselves to smash capitalism once and for all.