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
Apr 15, 2013
Residents of the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn took part in a series of angry protests following the fatal shooting by police of Kimani Gray, a 16-year- old black youth, on March 9.
The cops claimed Gray had a gun, but he never fired any shots and was hit in the back by three of the 11 shots fired by the cops. The two cops involved were in plainclothes, and Gray’s friends say they didn’t even realize they were police and didn’t hear them say anything before the shooting. One eyewitness said Gray was unarmed and another said Gray was running away when the cops shot him.
The killing by the police of Gray is just the latest incident resulting from the racist NYPD practices of stop-and-frisk searches in poor areas of young Black and Latino men whose only crime is “Walking While Black.” The New York Civil Liberties Union says the number of stop-and-frisk actions recently surpassed the five million mark under the administration of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The two cops involved in Gray’s shooting also have a history of complaints against them. They have previously been sued a total of five times between the two of them for civil rights violations. Those are just the cases in which people involved were willing to take legal action against them!
The shooting in the back of an unarmed black youth who was fleeing is murder, plain and simple.
The protests which followed Gray’s death at least forced Bloomberg to go through the motions of an investigation, but if past history is any indication it will likely be swept under the rug once people cool down. It’s way past time to put a stop to the racist police brutality of the New York City cops!