BALTIMORE, September 23—The Northeast District police station is home to the racist animals who beat unarmed Black man Tyrone West to death in July 2013. This evening, a toilet was symbolically placed in front of the station’s sign. We chanted, “Killer cops in cell blocks!” This marked the 113th West Wednesday rally, led by Tyrone’s inspiring family every week without fail.
Over the last two years, much has been learned in the struggle to indict and jail the state terrorist gang of cops—as many as 15 of them—who assaulted Tyrone after a traffic stop. They repeatedly called him the “n” word, pulled him from his car by his dreads, and proceeded to mace, Taser, beat, and club him to death!
At today’s rally, a member of Progressive Labor Party explained that there are two classes of
people in the world: the big business owners and the working class. When the business owners hold state power, that’s capitalism. When the working class holds power, that’s communism — a society of sisterhood and brotherhood where we take care of one another. As the PLer explained, only a revolution can move us from today’s rotten world to a communist world. All things change. Racist, murderous cops — and the system they serve — will one day be eliminated!
The West Wednesday mobilizations offer a taste of the bright future we’re fighting for. Members of the West family appreciatively hug everyone who attends. And this week, as usual, nearly everyone took a copy of CHALLENGE.
Cops’ Job: Guarding Capital
Through this struggle, protesters have witnessed how the mayor, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, the police, the medical examiner’s office, the state legislature, and the media have lined up behind racism. None of these officials have done anything about Tyrone’s murder.
Although eyewitnesses described in detail the horrific violence of the kkkops as they beat Tyrone to death, the cops were given immunity even before they completed their testimony. They remain free to brutalize and kill again.
The job of the police, a profession descended from the slave patrols of the 18th and 19th centuries, is to uphold the bosses’ laws and protect private property. The entire legal system is designed to serve the ruling class and oppress the working class. About 75 percent of U.S. law deals with property relations, including businesses, machinery, money, and stocks—everything of monetary value. One half of one percent of the population owns most of that property. The legal system is their system.
After more than two years of struggle and learning from experience about the true nature of the capitalists’ government and police, it’s become common to hear speeches at West Wednesday that lay the blame for Tyrone’s death squarely on the system.
Ignite Rebellion,Build Revolution
In April, the outrageous police murder of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray ignited a righteous rebellion against police terror. The protests against the murders of Freddie and Tyrone are part of the same struggle. The persistence of the fight for justice for Tyrone West has advanced antiracism in Baltimore. At the first pre-trial hearings for the six cops who killed Freddie Gray, as these racist thugs tried to get their charges dropped, we held a West Wednesday rally outside the courthouse.
Ending police terror and changing the world is a long process. Let’s not forget that the struggle to defeat slavery in the U.S. took more than two hundreds years. Like chattel slavery, the wage slavery of capitalism will also be abolished. To achieve that goal, Progressive Labor Party is organizing for a communist revolution. Never give up! Dare to struggle! Dare to win!