This Week’s News from the Conspiracy to Let Killer Cops Off
| Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The system we live under is enforced and held in place by a brutal capitalist dictatorship—a violent apparatus of repression and suppression. A key pillar of this system is keeping oppressed people—Black, Latino, and Native American people in particular—held down through arbitrary and bloodthirsty police murder and terror. And this system’s laws, its courts, its “justice system,” and its politicians all back the police in carrying out their wanton killings and brutality because that’s the job this system needs them to carry out.
Two decisions this week illustrated this truth... yet again.
DA Refuses to Charge Stephon Clark’s Murderers
On the night of March 18, 2018, Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old Black man and father of two young children, was gunned down by two Sacramento police who unleashed a hail of 20 shots—in his grandmother’s backyard! An independent autopsy conducted by Dr. Bennet Omalu—best known for his work in highlighting concussive damage to football players—proved the cops’ story that Stephon was advancing on them pointing what they thought was a gun was a complete lie. According to Dr. Omalu, Stephon Clark “had his back to the officers” the entire time. And Stephon had no gun—only a cell phone.
Yet this Saturday, March 3, 2019, the Sacramento County DA announced that no charges would be filed against either of the murdering pigs. Never mind the evidence brought forward by Stephon’s family. Never mind that the pigs executed him 10 minutes—10 minutes!—after being called to investigate a vandalism complaint (not a violent crime). Never mind that six of the shots that the killers fired hit Stephon as he was falling down or already on his knees. And never mind that the police didn’t identify themselves until three minutes after they’d opened fire, or that Stephon didn’t receive any medical attention for six minutes.
Never mind any of that—the DA cold-bloodedly declared that “a human being died,” but no crime was committed because “police officers are legally justified in using deadly force ‘if the officer honestly and reasonably believes’ he is in danger of death or injury.” (New York Times, March 3, 2019). Then she repeated the same lie that Stephon was advancing on the pigs and they supposedly thought he was pointing a gun at them.
Department of IN-Justice Refuses to Charge Terence Crutcher’s Executioner!
On September 16, 2016, after Terence Crutcher’s car stalled, he got out, apparently to get help. Then the Tulsa police came. Videos show Terence, a Black man, walking slowly to his car with his hands up, away from the police. Terence reaches his car and puts his raised hands on the side of his SUV. By then four cops are about 10 feet away, guns drawn. Terence barely moved, if at all, yet within seconds one cop tased him, and then another—Betty Jo Shelby—shot him dead.
On May 17, 2017, America’s “justice system” let the murdering pig Shelby, who was charged with manslaughter, walk free after she claimed she feared for her life—that Terence may have been reaching for a gun inside his car. But there was no gun and no evidence of threatening moves, in fact prosecutors argued, according to the New York Times (May 17, 2017), that Shelby “fired several seconds before the gesture the defense cited as the basis for her fear.”
Now adding outrage to outrage to outrage, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday, March 1, that there was “insufficient evidence” to pursue federal civil rights charges against Shelby, who’s white, for murdering Crutcher—never mind that video and audio recordings clearly show how the execution went down. So what, the DOJ basically says, “the evidence in this case did not support pursuing criminal prosecution.”
How many more times? How long must this go on?
How many more unarmed Black and oppressed people have to be gunned down in cold blood, for no good reason or no reason at all, before enough is enough!?
How many more times do we have to hear the blatant, vicious lie—designed to kill the victim and wound their loved ones all over again—that the murdering pigs “feared for their lives”—even when video evidence shows there’s no goddamn way they could have been afraid!?
How long do these horrors have to go on, and on, before they’re finally put an end to?!
The answer: as long as this system continues to exist these horrors will go on and on and on, and they will only end when this system is overthrown through communist revolution!
See also:
“#Stephon Clark. Say His Name!” Sacramento Pigs Shot Unarmed Stephon Clark Six Times in the Back! revcom.us, April 2, 2018
“Pig Who Murdered Terence Crutcher Walks Free—Enough Is Enough!,” revcom.us, May 18, 2017
“Terence Crutcher Murdered in Cold Blood in Tulsa, Oklahoma... Do NOT Let This Go Down...Do NOT Let This SYSTEM Continue One Minute Longer Than Necessary,” revcom.us, September 20, 2016
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Bob Avakian: Yes there’s a conspiracy, to get the cops off.
Protesting the murder of Stephon Clark in Sacramento. (Photo: AP)
People protest murder of Terrance Crutcher in Tulsa.
“How Long?! How Many More Times Do The Tears Have To Flow?”
A clip from BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!, a film of a talk by Bob Avakian given in 2012. Watch the whole talk at revolutiontalk.net.
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