We are here today for Freddie Gray and for all victims of police brutality, including Tyrone West – unarmed and beaten to death by 11 to 15 racist cops in July of 2013. To this day, none of those cops have had any charges pressed against them. They’re still on the force, on the streets. A week-and-a-half before killing Tyrone West, two of the same cops severely beat Abdul Salaam, in his driveway in front of his child. If those killer cops had been fired and put in cell blocks right away – as they should have been – Tyrone West would probably be alive today, together with his loving family!
Now, witnesses have described some of the details in the death of Freddie Gray, at the hands of Baltimore police. One witness, Kevin Moore, ran out of his home when he heard screaming, and saw Freddie Gray handcuffed and face down on the ground with one bicycle cop’s knee on his neck, and another cop bending Freddie’s legs backwards, so his heels were against his back. Moore said his friend was “screaming for his life” and that the cops “had him folded up like he was a crab or a piece of origami. He was all bent up.” Moore further explained that Freddie “said, ‘I can’t breathe. I need a pump,’ and they ignored him. . . The police yelled, ‘Stop resisting,’ but there was no resistance. He couldn’t move.”
After dragging Freddie into the police van, the van made three stops before reaching Western District station. At the first of those stops, cops put leg irons on Freddie, and witnesses say the cops roughed him up, yet again, during that stop. The thing we know for sure, is that Freddie’s death – while in police custody – is on the hands of the Baltimore Police Department. These cops play a key role, part of the systemic racism of the criminal “justice” system.
We seek to change the whole system. We don’t rely on elected officials or politicians or others in high places. Our power is generated by the activities of working people, enraged by the ongoing racist murders from Baltimore to Ferguson to Staten Island. When we chant “Fight like Ferguson,” we salute the leadership given by the mainly young, Black workers of Ferguson. They refused to back down in the face of a highly militarized police terror campaign, instituted to stop them from fighting back after the police murder of Mike Brown.
In the case of Tyrone West, justice has been demanded from the City State’s Attorney, from the Mayor, from the Medical Examiners office, and from the State legislature – but not even a shred of justice has been found, after 21 months! That fight will continue, and so will the struggle for justice for Freddie Gray!
But one thing is very clear. The only solution is communist revolution, and only through the Progressive Labor Party can we smash a system that doesn’t deserve to exist, and build a system for all working class people. One theme – strongly felt by the pained families of all those whose lives have been taken by police violence – is that we do not want to see this happen ever again to any more working-class young people. We in the Progressive Labor Party stand with these families. Join us on May Day!
Contact us at www.plp.org or email us at revolution500
