Carl Dix is a courageous freedom fighter from the 1960s who went on to become a revolutionary fighter and a communist. Dix spent two years in military prison for refusing to fight in the unjust Vietnam War. He emerged unrepentant and went on to become a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), USA, dedicating his life to the emancipation of all humanity. Today, Carl is a follower of and advocate for Bob Avakian, his leadership and his visionary new synthesis of communism. Carl Dix and Cornel West co-founded the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN), and Rise Up October that brought thousands into the streets in New York City demanding a stop to police terror.
Freddie Gray Murder: Another Pig Walks Free
July 18, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Today — for the fourth time in four trials — one of the pigs who murdered Freddie Gray walked free with no conviction. In this case, Brian Rice was acquitted of all charges related to Gray's arrest and death. Rice was part of the gang of murderers who jumped on Freddie Gray for no reason, brutalized him and bent him like a pretzel to where his screams of pain could be heard a block away, and then subjecting him to one of the Baltimore Police Department’s infamous “rough rides.” At the end of all that, Freddie Gray’s spine was broken and he died later in the hospital. The judge ruled Rice’s role in this was a “mistake” or an “error in judgment” at most, and found him not guilty on all charges.
As Carl Dix has pointed out, these trials are outrageous injustice “on the installment plan.”
The following is from a statement Carl Dix issued from Baltimore during a previous trial that cleared another one of the murdering police.
Freddie Gray
1. What the police did to Freddie Gray was MURDER, plain and simple. He was healthy enough to run from the cops when they encountered him, but he was near death after they beat him down and subjected him to their “rough ride.” He had done nothing and there was no cause whatsoever to go after him, except for the fact that he wanted to get out of the way of some cops on the prowl. A week later he died from the injuries their torture inflicted on him. All six of those cops were involved in his murder. If they are not punished for this murder, this is saying that Freddie Gray’s life did not matter.
2. What is going on here makes clear once again that those who rule this country, and their system, have never regarded Black people as anything but objects of exploitation who must be kept in their place. And now, today, when their system can no longer make profit by exploiting the masses of Black youth the way they used to, they regard the lives of Black youth as worthless. Poisoned with lead paint at an early age, miseducated in rotten schools, forced to hustle on the streets in an inner city with no real jobs, then killed by the pigs—this was the course of Freddie Gray’s life, as it is for millions of others.
Listen to audio of the Message, recorded by members of the Revolution Club
3. The only solution to this problem is an ACTUAL revolution—one that overthrows this system and replaces it with a totally different and far better one. The Revolutionary Communist Party is organizing right now for that revolution. And we have the strategy and leadership in Bob Avakian that can make that real. As Bob Avakian said, “There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.”
4. A crucial part of organizing for this revolution is people refusing to accept outrages like the system letting the cops who murdered Freddie Gray go free. Accepting outrages like this amounts to letting the system beat us down till we’re completely broken. All kinds of people are saying now that they embrace the legacy of Muhammad Ali. What was inspiring about Ali was that at one point he put it on the line to resist the injustice being inflicted on Black people. That injustice continues today, and we must put it on the line to resist it. We must make clear that the system cannot just get away with letting the police who murdered Freddie Gray walk. The days when they can get away with that must be gone and can be gone.
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