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
A 26-year-old man with Down Syndrome was murdered in January because he wanted to sit through a second show in a movie theater in Frederick, Maryland. It started out innocently enough. On January 12th of this year Robert Ethan Saylor went to see the movie Zero Dark Thirty. After the movie his aide went to get the car. A theater employee called security when Saylor would not leave the theater or pay for another ticket.
Three off-duty sheriff deputies moonlighting as shopping mall security guards showed up. A struggle ensued. Witnesses heard Saylor cry out for his “mommy” when he was forced face down to the ground and handcuffed. The autopsy revealed many scratches, abrasions and bruises on Saylor’s body. While face down on the ground he went into respiratory distress and died. The Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore, Maryland ruled Saylor’s death a homicide as a result of asphyxiation.
Despite this, the grand jury did not indict the three deputies. Of course not. The investigation was performed by the sheriff’s department–the very department the three deputies work for.
Apparently it takes three armed off-duty sheriff deputies to restrain one unarmed obviously disabled man. This was not an emergency. But the cops couldn’t wait patiently, nor listen to Saylor’s aide when she returned and attempted to de-escalate the situation. The only thing that mattered to the police was that Saylor was not cooperating with them–shoot first, ask questions later mentality.
Once again, it seems that the job of the police is to control, intimidate, terrorize–this time to defend a movie theater’s right to collect its $11.