East Pittsburgh, PA, and the Murder of ANTWON ROSE:
Yet Another Back-Shooting Pig Walks Free for the Murder of an Unarmed Black Teenager
| revcom.us
On March 22, a Pennsylvania court handed down a “not guilty” verdict on a white cop on trial for the murder of Antwon Rose, a 17-year-old Black youth. This was just two weeks after DAs in Sacramento, California, refused to indict the pigs who murdered unarmed Stephon Clark. Once again, angry outcries and anguished tears pour out from family and friends at seeing a killer pig walk away free after murdering their loved one in cold blood.
Last June 19, Antwon and another passenger were in a taxi when it was stopped by the police in East Pittsburgh. The murder was partially captured on a video that shows the killer cop firing three shots—into Antwon’s back—just seconds after he and the other passenger began to run from the car. On the video, a woman bystander can be heard shouting, “Why are they shooting? All they did was run and they’re shooting at them!” The cop claimed he thought Antwon had a gun. Antwon was unarmed—and, again, he was shot as he was running away from the police.
Antwon had just finished his junior year in high school when this pig so brutally cut his life short. After Antwon’s murder by the police, his school released a poem he had written, titled “I Am Not What You Think,” for his 10th grade honors English class. The poem said in part: “I see mothers bury their sons / I want my mom to never feel that pain / I am confused and afraid.” During the trial, Antwon’s mother wrote a letter asking the prosecutors to paint a picture of her son as a real human being: “He was a rose that grew from concrete. Despite darkness all around him, he was kind, loving and funny. The smile that emanates from photos of him truly reflects who he was.”
This was one of the rare cases when, after large and angry street protests, a murdering pig was actually charged with a crime and put on trial. The cop and his lawyers argued that the cop was simply “doing his duty” and that he felt he was under “threat” when he thought Antwon was raising a weapon—even though, in reality, he was unarmed. And the jury—conditioned by this system’s culture—agreed with that, coming back with an acquittal in just four hours after the closing arguments in the trial.
With the outrageous acquittal of the pig who murdered Antwon Rose the lesson is once again clear: This will go on and on and on and on, until this system is GONE. And the only way that will happen is through an actual REVOLUTION.
Enough Is Enough! Time’s Up for This System! No More!
Poem by Antwon Rose
I AM NOT WHAT YOU THINK!
I am confused and afraid
I wonder what path I will take
I hear that there's only two ways out
I see mothers bury their sons
I want my mom to never feel that pain
I am confused and afraid
I pretend all is fine
I feel like I'm suffocating
I touch nothing so I believe all is fine
I worry that it isn't though
I cry no more
I am confused and afraid
I understand people believe I'm just a statistic
I say to them I'm different
I dream of life getting easier
I try my best to make my dream true
I hope that it does
I am confused and afraid
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Bob Avakian, "Yes there's a conspiracy, to get the cops off."
"Yes there's a conspiracy... to get the cops off" Is a clip from Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About, a film of a talk by Bob Avakian, given in 2003 in the United States. More about Bob Avakian here
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