On the Justice Department “Leak” That Michael Brown’s Killer Will NOT Be Prosecuted on Civil Rights Charges Either…
Yes, the WHOLE Damn System IS Guilty as Hell!
January 29, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader
Assuming the reports that have been recently published that no charges will be filed by the (in)Justice Department against Darren Wilson for violating Michael Brown’s civil rights prove to be accurate, this is not at all surprising. But the lack of surprise does not remotely diminish the outrage represented by such a decision. I think it is important to recognize this as a compounding, reinforcement, and escalation of the original outrages of the murder of Michael Brown and the Ferguson grand jury’s subsequent decision not to indict Darren Wilson for that murder. In other words, I do not think the reaction to this news should be "ho hum, what else did you expect?"
This is the system, and ruling class, giving a further green light to genocide against Black people at the hands of the police. It is an unmistakable middle finger to the family and loved ones of Michael Brown, to all those who have defiantly and courageously demanded justice for him over the last few months and who have stood up against police murder and brutality more broadly. This apparent decision not to file federal charges against Darren Wilson is an attempt to demoralize the masses and to convince them that it did—and does—no good to raise their heads, stand up, and demand justice, an attempt to get people to just accept a towering crime and injustice and "move on," and likely also an attempt to convince at least some among the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets directly—and the many others who supported and were inspired by these freedom fighters—to question whether people were right to stand up and demand justice. This cannot be allowed to get over on people.
At the same time, this latest decision not to file charges is also a glaring exposure of something that there is a heightened urgency—and a heightened basis—to lead people to understand: The fact that, yes, there really is a whole system at work here, and that whole damn system is guilty as hell. The question needs to be directly, and explicitly, posed to people: If the problem were just a question of "bad apples," of "poor training," or the "decline of community policing," then how do you explain not only the Ferguson grand jury and the "prosecutor" in the Darren Wilson case, but now the federal Justice Department letting Darren Wilson walk free? And how do you explain the fact that the major media in this country are working repeatedly to confuse, disorient, and pacify people, and to present what is indisputably the police killing of yet another unarmed Black youth as a supposedly "complex" matter of "dueling narratives"? And how do you explain the fact that all of the above happens in just about EVERY ONE of the thousands of cases of Black and Latino people murdered by the police? Yes, there IS a whole damn system at work here, and that system doesn’t need to be "fixed," it needs to be gotten rid of through revolution at the earliest possible time. Now, more than ever, people urgently need to know—and be led to understand—this basic reality.
In the immediate aftermath of the murder of Michael Brown and ever since, the masses were told—as they always are by this system after its police murder the masses—to "let the system work," and to channel their efforts into demanding a federal investigation. Eric Holder personally came to Ferguson and did his "everybody calm down" and "I feel your pain" routine.
To state an obvious and very heartening fact: The system’s efforts to get people to calm down and go home, and their calls to "be patient" and "wait for the system to work" did not get over this time! Still, the point needs to be emphasized: This latest decision is exactly what "the Justice Department intervening" looks like. Look how that turned out. No, seriously! People need to confront this reality and its implications. And then people need to confront a further question: Is the Michael Brown case an exception in this regard? Or is this, in fact, the rule? Let’s get real here.
Right now is a really critical juncture in the struggle against police murder and mass incarceration, and the Justice Department refusal to bring charges only further highlights the significance of this juncture. To anyone wondering whether it makes a difference that people have taken to the streets and stood up against police brutality and murder, ask yourself this question: If people standing up didn’t—and doesn’t—make a difference, then why have the powers‑that‑be felt compelled to put so much effort and energy into repressing, attacking, diverting, distracting and disorienting people in the wake of this resistance? Clearly, the powers‑that‑be don’t think it makes no difference when the people stand up! Otherwise, they wouldn’t be desperately trying so many different methods to suppress and divert this struggle.
The ruling class will continue to relentlessly look for and attempt a whole gamut of ways to get people to calm down, back down, give up, and move on from this struggle for justice. We have seen that movie before, whenever there is righteous struggle that stands up to the system’s crimes and exposes its illegitimacy, and especially when this happens in the sustained, determined, widespread and defiant way that we have seen these past few months. But, again, it is critical that these efforts on the part of the ruling class to get everybody to "move on" and go back to business as usual not succeed, and that they instead be met with determined political resistance.
Unless someone wants to argue that the outrages and horrors that originally propelled people into the streets have somehow been addressed, or that justice has somehow been served, the only moral and rational conclusion is that not only must the resistance witnessed in the past few months not die down, it must grow deeper, broader, stronger, more defiant, and more determined to get to the real root of the horrors being fought against.
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