Atlanta: Police Murder a Black Man—AGAIN! People Rise Up to Say NO MORE!

June 15, 2020 | revcom.us

 

It’s happened again. AGAIN! This time in Atlanta, the life of a young Black man was snuffed out for no reason. Watch the videos—yet again—of this murder by the pigs.

Rayshard Brooks was 27 years old, father of three girls ages 1, 2, and 8, and a 13-year-old stepson. He worked in a Mexican restaurant. At 10:23 on Friday night, Brooks was asleep in his car at a Wendy’s restaurant. A cop woke him up and ordered him out of his car. Then a second cop showed up, and for 20 minutes harassed Brooks for nothing. They gave him a field alcohol test and a breathalyzer (he was barely over the legal limit). They patted him down for weapons; he had none.

Brooks was cordial and compliant but clearly worried, measuring his words so as not to antagonize. At one point he tells the cops, “I can walk home ... I just don’t want to be in violation of anybody.” He offers to “park here, lock the car up and do everything I need to do in the presence of you guys, I can just go home.” Then he says, “I have my daughters there right now, my daughter’s birthday was yesterday.”

The cops don’t give a fuck. They try to handcuff Brooks. Clearly afraid, he tries to get away, a scuffle breaks out and the cops tase him. He disarms one of the cops, Devin Brosnan, grabbing his Taser, and takes off running. The other pig, Garrett Rolfe, chases him, pointing a Taser.

You can see on video as Rolfe coldly moves the Taser to his left hand and goes for his gun with his right. Brooks looks back, apparently fires his Taser wildly; Rolfe then fires two bullets into Rayshard’s back. He falls to the ground, still alive but gravely wounded. The two cops wait three minutes before making even a pretense of medical assistance. After eight minutes, an ambulance arrives. Brooks is pronounced dead at the hospital, 75 minutes after the cops woke him up.

The city authorities were aware that people around the country are rising up against police murder of Black people and they had to take some kind of action quickly. On Saturday, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called for the firing (but not the arrest) of Rolfe. And she announced that Chief of Police Erika Shields (considered a “reformer”) had resigned. At the same time, pigs were ordered out en masse into the streets, including with armored vehicles, in the area of Rayshard Brooks’ murder.

But people are NOT willing to accept the continued murder and devaluation of Black life, the continued oppression that police and vigilante violence exists to impose and enforce. Before the murder of Rayshard Brooks, people were already in the streets of Atlanta day after day, as in cities across the U.S. On Saturday, the day after Brooks was killed, hundreds of angry protesters gathered near the Wendy’s. Protesters marched onto the nearby highway, blocking traffic. At least 36 people were arrested. Later that night, the Wendy’s where Rayshard was killed went up in flames.

On Sunday, protesters returned again, setting up a memorial to Rayshard Brooks including a large-scale beautiful portrait. In the wake of this horrific loss and tragedy, the beautiful rising continues...

A correspondent in Atlanta told us, “People aren’t caving to the lip service and concessions from city leaders and others like the rappers and old guard they’ve hauled out to quell people’s anger. Last night most of those arrested in the protests were white ... there’s a palpable change in people’s sentiment. I think it’s similar to the rest of the country—people have had enough. There’s literally protests throughout the city and way into the white suburbs everyday, things are very different.”

Bob Avakian:
Police Murder and a Murderous System

People stop traffic on Atlanta Interstate

June 13, protesters block University Avenue by Wendy's in Atlanta where Rayshard Brooks, 27, was murdered by Atlanta cops. (Photo: AP)