The Socialist Party of New York City condemns unreservedly the shooting and murder by police in the early hours of Saturday, November 25th.
The specter of Amadou Diallo, Ousmane Zongo and Abner Louima hangs over this latest murder by those whom the government has given tremendous power over our lives. Police with no uniform or identification fired fifty bullets at three unarmed men in a van, leaving a nightclub. Already, the police have tried to leak a criminal history of these victims, to paint them as the police involved undoubtedly saw them, as members of a 'criminal class': guilty before any crime is committed, a threat to society for being young African-American men.
A witness said that the victims were in a car that struck an unmarked police car. Then "the [unmarked police] minivan came around the corner and smashed into their car. And they [the police] jumped out shooting, No 'stop.' No 'freeze.' No nothing." One man is dead, two are fighting for their lives. The police were not in uniform, apparently part of a 'vice squad' investigation of the club. Police spokespeople could not say if police involved had been drinking. They did confirm that one officer emptied two full clips of ammunition into the victim's car, meaning he had to stop, reload, and continue shooting.
Make no mistake, this is not an isolated incident. Police violence in this society is treated with impunity, even when armed with all the firepower of a small army. The day-to-day behavior of police shows little of the courtesy and respect that their slogans trumpet. Police behave as if they are above the law, because those in power allow them to. Police (even police from ethnic minorities) treat every young black male as a threat because we live in a racist society. And we live with these racist presumptions not because we're idiots, but because the system in which we live profits when we fear one another, and profits more when one group of people can be marked out as an underclass. Capitalism drives this. Capitalism gives us all an incentive to divide ourselves into warring parties. Capitalism pushes us to pocket the exploitation of others; and it's easier to sleep at night when those you exploit don't look like your own family. Capitalism pushes working class white people to say 'I may be doing bad, but at least I'll always do better than THEM.' And when whites get poorer like everyone else, the only thing they can see that keeps them off the bottom is pushing someone else back down. Why do the powers that be back up every cop in every shooting, let them behave with impunity to the rest of us, but still won't give the police a decent union contract? The last one costs money.
In the short term, police and politicians need to be held to account. Murder must be called murder, and those invested with such public trust must be held to a higher standard. The police demand that the murder of a police officer be a great crime. So too must be murder BY a police officer.
Police must be drawn from the communities they serve and must be directly accountable to them. They must be well trained, as much in mediation as force if they are to serve, not rule, us. There must be no tolerance for the taking of petty advantage. If Kelly and his like trumpet the 'broken windows' theory of comming down hard on minor breaches of law, then the use of a badge to get out of speeding tickets or get special favors should be punished as severely. In return, police have the right to a strong union, good pay, and decent benefits.
But until we remove the system that sets us against one another, Sean Bell, Trent Benefeld, and Joseph Guzman will be just the latest victims, not the last.
The Socialist Party - USA, Greater New York City Local
November 28th, 2006
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