Authorities Greasing Skids to Let Killer Cop Walk in Baltimore!

TAKE IT TO THE STREETS IF GOODSON WALKS OR GETS OFF WITH SLAP ON WRIST!

by Carl Dix

June 18, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Once again – now in the case of the outrageous MURDER of Freddie Gray – this system is showing that it has nothing to offer the masses of Black people; nothing but savage attacks that have a genocidal thrust – lead-paint poisoning, rotten education, falling down housing, no jobs, abuse and even murder at the hands of the police, and NO JUSTICE ANYWHERE.

Once again this system has proven that, in its eyes, Black people have no rights that their pigs are bound to respect. The murder of Freddie Gray – and the attempts of this system to let his killers walk free – is yet one more reason why this system is totally illegitimate. And it is yet one more reason why we need a REVOLUTION at the earliest possible time!

Just look at the way the trial in Baltimore of one of the cops involved in the murder of Freddie Gray has been run. It has been an injustice on top of an injustice on top of an injustice.

• The 1st injustice was the modern day lynching of Freddie Gray. Cops chased, beat, tortured and arrested Gray for nothing. Then they dragged him to a police van with his hands cuffed behind his back and threw him into it without fastening his seat belt. Then they drove him around for 45 minutes, even though the precinct they took him to was only 2 minutes from where they arrested him. This was done to give him the “rough ride” that Baltimore cops use to punish some people they arrest. And all along the way they ignored his cries for medical assistance.
• Then the prosecutors "forgot" how to prosecute because they were dealing with a cop charged with killing a Black man. The prosecution hasn't mentioned the brutality and torture inflicted on Gray before he was put in the van. And they put on witnesses who said there was no rough ride given to Gray, which is the defense case.
• On top of that, the cop who was initially lead investigator in the case testified on Thursday FOR THE DEFENSE. Her testimony challenged the heart of the prosecution's case – that the spinal injuries which led to Gray's death were caused by him being deliberately given a “rough ride”. This cop claimed that the Medical Examiner told her Gray's death was a “freakish accident,” even though, in fact, the Medical Examiner testified that she never said that and all along has insisted that Gray's death was a homicide!

The only reason these cops have been put on trial is because the masses rebelled after the murder of Gray. When masses rose up, it was a beautiful thing – oppressed people in every ghetto, justice-loving people on the campuses and elsewhere, and people all over the world, they all took heart and supported it. It was Obama and those types who hated it, who opposed it, who slandered the heroic youth as “thugs” and all that.

Why? Because the spirit of rebellion is contagious and inspiring, and because rebellions show the potential strength of the people when they straighten their backs, and because AS people straighten their backs and raise their fists, they will seek out different and more revolutionary ways of understanding and dealing with the problem we face. This is what they were desperately trying to cool out when State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby promised to prosecute the cops for Gray's death. This is what they are now trying to crush by these outrageous trials, so they can tell people that their struggle wasn’t shit and that their lives don’t count for shit.

There is a lot riding on whether or not people take to the streets in Baltimore and everywhere if Goodson walks or just gets a slap on the wrist. If an outrage like this isn't met with a powerful response it will signal to the authorities that they can continue to get away with beating us down till we're completely broken. But if we do respond powerfully, if we do put something on the line in response to another killer cop walking free, it will give heart to all those who hated the murder of Freddie Gray and who hate to watch again and again as killer cops walk free.

Talking about putting something on the line brings to mind the example of Muhammad Ali. When the system told him he had to join the army back in the 1960s during the Vietnam War, he told them no. He said the Vietnamese people weren't his enemy; that his enemy was here in this country. They took his boxing championship away from him, but he stood firm. Ali put a whole lot on the line to oppose the injustices this system was inflicting on Black people.

The system is still inflicting injustice on Black people, and police getting away with murder is a concentration of that injustice. Anyone who really embraces Ali's legacy needs to be putting something on the line to fight the way the system gives a green light to cops who brutalize and murder people!

 

 

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