the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jan 4, 2016
On December 26th, Chicago police murdered two more black people: nineteen-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier, who according to his father had “emotional issues,” and 55-year-old grandmother and factory worker Bettie Jones, who was shot as she opened the door to let the police in.
Even by Chicago standards, this was a clear-cut case of double murder by cop.
These people were killed by a Chicago Police Department already under the spotlight for the police murder of seventeen-year-old Laquan McDonald, shot sixteen times while he was walking away from the cops.
Of course, the police try to justify the killings, claiming in this latest one that someone said they saw Quintonio LeGrier with a baseball bat. They issued a statement that officers “were confronted by a combative subject resulting in the discharging of the officer’s weapon.” Who can believe them? And this is the same department where every cop swore that Laquan McDonald was threatening them, was coming at them with a knife–when the video showed exactly the opposite.
The black population of this country has learned by long experience not to expect much “justice” from this “criminal justice” system. Still, it’s hard to imagine more egregious cases than the killings of these three people in Chicago.
And it’s not just a few bad cops–the rot goes all the way to the top. It took 13 months for the video of Laquan McDonald’s killing to come out because Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his cronies did everything they could to bury the video. His interim superintendent John Escalante’s solution is to institute a new policy–to put murdering cops on fully-paid desk duty for a month.
By their actions, Emanuel and his superintendent are extending the Chicago cops’ license to kill black people.
This didn’t start recently. The Chicago police have been killing black people with impunity for a century.
And this rot goes up even higher than Emanuel, all the way to Obama. As the Laquan McDonald video was coming out, Emanuel’s staff and Obama’s were in close communication. “Hope all is well and sorry for the Sunday email,” an Obama aid wrote to Emanuel’s staff. “We’ve been tracking the media coverage of the Laquan McDonald case and would like an update.” Media coverage! In other words, the Obama administration couldn’t care less about what’s happening to the victims, or in the neighborhoods. It’s not interested in seeing the murdering cops prosecuted. Obama’s office only wants to make sure Emanuel isn’t getting bad press that might reflect badly on Obama himself!
Many of the protestors in Chicago say Emanuel must go. They’re right–this rat should be dragged out by his hair and dumped in the lake. But that’s not enough. This whole system that depends on state violence has to go.