MILWAUKEE, July 16—Members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined scores of enraged community members to protest the racist murder of Samuel Sharpe just hours after five Ohio killer KKKops shot him eight times in the back. Samuel’s friends and neighbors told us that the cops were 30 feet away and that he may have been in the midst of a mental health crisis when the police killed him. Samuel was displaced and living in an encampment near where he was murdered.
Under capitalism, the police exist to protect the bosses’ property and serve the ruling class. In this case, 4000 extra police officers from outside the city flooded Milwaukee to, as a neighbor put it, “protect a rich Republican” (WISN12.com, 7/11). Displacement is a byproduct of the capitalist need to profit from the ownership and sale of private property. It is displaced workers like Samuel that are victimized all over the world by these profit- driven schemes and puts them at a higher risk of being terrorized by the police.
We responded quickly to Samuel Sharpe’s murder and arrived at the crime scene around two hours after Samuel was shot. His friends and neighbors were outraged at the dozens of cops with machine guns who had blocked off the area. One of his friends said, “They got that yellow tape so they can investigate themselves and cover their tracks!"
No good cops in a racist system
Once we made it clear that we were not reporters, workers were very receptive to CHALLENGE and shared sharp ideas about what had happened to their friend. They expressed anger that Samuel’s murderers, the Columbus, Ohio Police Department, were only here in the first place for the RNC and explained that there had been encampment evictions in the area not long before the murder. Many agreed that neither Democrats or Republicans will change conditions for workers, and some spoke of the need for multiracial unity. One of Samuel’s neighbors blasted N.W.A.’s “F— Tha Police” from their car while we had political conversations.
Some of Samuel’s neighbors argued that Milwaukee, not Ohio kkkops should have been in the neighborhood. All KKKops serve as the bosses’ army, and all terrorize the working class. The hands of Milwaukee police officers are just as drenched in blood–they murdered Sylville Smith in 2016 and Dontre Hamilton in 2014.
Liberal misleaders hold back the working class!
Later at a vigil and protest, liberal misleaders did their best to redirect the anger of the working class into reformist politics. The leader of the vigil, who did not know Samuel, refused to let a PLP comrade speak saying he was not “from the community” and criticized "outsiders" claiming they are not willing to visit the encampments (we did!). He then let someone from Philadelphia speak while shutting down a distraught worker who witnessed the shooting. As this worker yelled in anguish, "He had his hands up! I've got it on my phone,” the vigil leaders surrounded him and drowned him out with chants.
The family of D’vontaye Mitchell, another Black worker murdered by Hyatt hotel security for no reason other than being a Black man living under racist capitalism, came to the protest in solidarity. But the vigil leaders did not allow them to speak either.
It’s clear from the mass deployment of KKKops to Milwaukee that the bosses and their servants know no borders. Neither should workers! In the fight for communism and collective liberation, no worker is an outsider. None of us are free until we are all free, and the end to police murder is impossible without the efforts of the international working class.
Workers want and deserve more!
During the march PLP members passed out CHALLENGE. Other comrades sharpened the politics of the reformists’ chants, which got a positive reception. Instead of “What do we want? Community control!” we chanted “What do we want? Revolution!” Even without a bullhorn, our chants were often the loudest in the crowd. Police drones and helicopters flew overhead, and representatives of the Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service were there to “keep the heat down,” which really means to control working class anger about state murder! As we ended the march, one comrade led us in a rousing and energetic, “Fight back, fight back, we want freedom, freedom! All these racist killer cops-– we don’t need em, need em!” It was evident that workers want more than reforms and performative rituals. Join us in the fight that workers need and deserve—the fight for communism and a world free of police murder, genocide, and ruling class elections. Join Progressive Labor Party!
