One-Year Anniversary: Justice for Ramarley Graham!
February 10, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On February 2, 2012, 18-year-old Ramarley Graham was gunned down in his own home, in the Bronx, by an NYPD cop. On the one-year anniversary of this vicious murder, people rallied and marched to the 47th NYPD precinct—demanding JUSTICE.
Cops who murder almost always simply walk free. But in this case, the struggle of the people has forced the system to indict Richard Haste, the cop who murdered Ramarley Graham, and he faces manslaughter charges. Haste pleaded not guilty and was released after posting $50,000 bail. Over and over in these cases, the system finds ways to let killer cops get off, even when they are forced to bring them to trial. People only got this far in the struggle for justice by going into the streets, relying on ourselves—our own struggle, and not those in power whose role is to chill us out and get us to accept that things have to be this way.
To be a Black or Latino youth in the U.S.A. means you’re automatically considered a “suspect” by this system and their armed enforcers. It means always being threatened with being arrested, locked up and, if need be, tortured in solitary confinement. And it means always facing the fact that you could be shot down dead by the police for nothing.
What kind of system has over 2.3 million behind bars, mainly Black and Latino people? What kind of system offers no future to the youth in poor communities—then dogs them, taking away their rights in a “war on drugs” and things like stop-and-frisk. What kind of system guns down Black and Latino youth, time after time after time—and then lets the police murderers almost always go free?
It’s on US to fight for justice for Ramarley Graham—and to put an end to this whole system that keeps killing our youth.
The people must not sit back and be silent. We must find ways to fight for justice for all the victims of murder at the hands of the police and racist vigilantes. We need to link that to building a determined mass movement against mass incarceration. And all this must be part of building a movement for revolution.
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