Transcript of Carl Dix in Baltimore, May 2, 2015

May 4, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

All right, Baltimore. You are looking good! You brought me home again. I want to start out with a chant. It’s a chant that you gonna have to learn and use as a checklist. I’m gonna do it once and I want you to do it with me twice:

Indict, Convict, Send those Killer Cops to Jail. The Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell!
Indict, Convict, Send those Killer Cops to Jail. The Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell!
Indict, Convict, Send those Killer Cops to Jail. The Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell!

OK. You gotta remember that, because they did indict those cops, right? But that’s just one step. Let’s talk about why they indicted those cops. This is not their system working. This is their system showing its fear of you. They saw you stand up. They saw you saying “not this time.” They hear you saying “no more.” So they said, “Well, maybe we should indict and maybe they’ll go home and maybe they’ll forget about it.” Because I’ve been around a while. This gray is real. I have seen them a few times indict killer cops. But I haven’t seen them convict too many killer cops. I have not seen killer cops go to jail. You gotta stay on the case like that. You gotta fight through to make this happen. That’s a responsibility that you gotta take up. I’m gonna be working on it with you. I’m gonna be coming here. I’m gonna be telling people around the country to stand with you. But you got the ball on your shoulders. You gotta make that happen. So that’s the checklist part.

But what about, “The whole damn system is guilty as hell”? I’m not kidding sisters and brothers, because it’s not just that the cops kill us. They do. They are. But that’s a concentration of an overall program of suppression that includes mass incarceration. That’s why Cornel West and I formed the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. Because they should not be warehousing our people in prison. And that’s what they’re doing, warehousing ’em in prison. And it’s their system that’s doing it. They take the jobs out of the communities. They gear the education system to fail our youth. They got nothing for ’em except cops that patrol the neighborhoods like an occupying army. Except courts that railroad them into prison and treat them like permanent suspects, guilty until proven innocent if they can survive to prove their innocence. So as we fight for justice for Freddie Gray we gotta recognize that it’s bigger than Freddie Gray. Look at this poster. These are just some of the victims killed by the cops. But it’s bigger still than that. There’s two million people, mostly Black and Latino people, that they warehouse in their prisons. And there’s tens of millions of people who are being treated like permanent suspects, their lives caught up in this criminal injustice system. We need a movement standing up and saying this must stop as well. And you gotta be a part of that as well. That’s why we formed the Stop Mass Incarceration Network.

But now we gotta ask a serious question: Why does this keep happening? How long are we gonna have to suffer this? And I will tell you, sisters and brothers, things do not have to be this way. We should live in a world where those who are entrusted with public security would sooner lose their own lives than kill or injure an innocent person. We should live in that kind of world. We should live in a world where women are treated as full human beings. [applause] That’s right, the sisters are cheering on that and the brothers should be cheering, too. Because this is real and important: full human beings, not sex objects and punching bags. We should live in a world that protects the environment, not destroys it. To bring that world into being, I’m going to tell you sisters and brothers, it’s gonna take revolution, nothing less. And the Revolutionary Communist Party, which I’m a representative of, and its leader, Bob Avakian, we exist to make that kind of revolution. We got the leadership for it and the strategy for getting ready and into position to make a revolution when the time is right. But we gotta get organized. If you see people with this T-shirt, get with them. Get hooked up with this movement for revolution. If you see people with this poster, handing it out, get organized with them with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. We have to be organized. It’s not gonna be a thing of a few unconnected people who are gonna do this. It’s not gonna just happen. We have to make it happen. Ain’t gonna be no savior in D.C., whether it’s a Black president or a female president. If they the head of the empire, they’re not serving our interests. They’re serving the empire that has beat us down, murdered us, ever since they dragged the first African here in slave chains.

So I’m gonna wind this up, but remember, get organized. Get with this movement for revolution. Go to the website that’s on this poster, www.revcom.us. Go to the Stop Mass Incarceration Network website. Find out how to get involved.

And one last thing. This is about getting free. Freedom is not a spectator sport. It requires your involvement.

Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail. The Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell!

 

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