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
Jul 18, 2022
Eight cops in Akron, Ohio fired 80 shots at 25-year-old Jayland Walker, as he was running away from them. Seven of the eight cops are white; Walker was black.
The cops claim they were attempting to pull Walker over for “unspecified equipment violations” on his car when he fled from them in his vehicle. They say cops in a nearby township had tried to do the same one day previously. They claim that some kind of flash of light was seen coming from the driver’s side of Walker’s vehicle, which they have referred to as a muzzle flash.
Yet there is no dashboard camera footage to verify their story, since Akron’s police vehicles are not equipped to do so. In any case, Walker had stopped his vehicle and was running away on foot when they opened their barrage of gunfire at him.
A medical examiner’s report now shows Walker was struck by 46 bullets, killing him. Some of the bullets entered through his back. The cops admit Walker was unarmed at the time. While he lay on the ground bleeding to death, the cops handcuffed him.
The cops have shown photos purporting to show a gun and ammunition clip in Walker’s car, but no video showing them making this discovery. It would not be hard to believe the cops planted the weapon in Walker’s car. Regardless, he was unarmed at the time they shot him.
More importantly, what vehicle equipment violations were so critical that it was necessary to send eight cops after him, creating the conditions for Walker to end up being shot 46 times? If he runs away, they had his car and would have had no problem identifying him and tracking him down later. It certainly raises the question whether the same violations would lead to the same response if the driver had been white.
Since the shooting, demonstrators have carried out daily protests in Akron. The city has responded by imposing a nightly curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
People in Akron are right to protest yet one more unjustified, racist killing at the hands of the police. Police murder needs to stop, and it’s in the interest of the entire working class to make its opposition known!