2014:  In the St. Louis, Missouri suburb of Ferguson, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot to death in broad daylight, unarmed, and Black. Witnesses said he had his hands up before he was murdered by a white pig. Outrage and protest spread across the country for weeks, with people chanting: “Hands Up! Don't Shoot.” President Obama called for a thorough investigation. 

2020: George Floyd was murdered when a policeman knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.  As exposure and protest erupted, Obama responded by calling it a tragic symptom of systemic racism, urging local officials to ensure justice, and framing the protests as a historic opportunity for change. Leaders of Congress and the Senate wore kente cloth stoles and took a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in the Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center to introduce the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which promised investigations in future cases and the requirement for body cameras on all enforcement officers. The bill never passed.

Time and again, promises have been made. Pigs would no longer be killing youth of color in cold blood and getting away with it. But between 2005 and 2024, only 7 cops were convicted of murder, a time during which thousands of people, mostly Black, Brown and Native American, were murdered by police!¹

Over 6,600 people were killed by police in the six years between the killing of Michael Brown and George Floyd. In the almost six years since George Floyd’s murder, 7,000 people have been killed by police.  In 2014 1,028 people were killed by police; in 2025 it was 1,314, an increase of 29% in those 11 years!²

As Bob Avakian has said:

 ...in the way this country has been built, and for the powers that be in this country, the humanity of Black people has never counted for anything—they have never been valued as human beings, but only as things to be exploited, oppressed, and repressed. Six years later, and with cold-blooded murders by police continuing in an unbroken chain, I will say again what I said then: How many more times does this have to happen? How many more times do the tears and the cries of anguish and anger have to pour forth from the wounded hearts of people?! How many more times, when another of these outrageous murders is perpetrated by the police, do we have to hear those words that pour gasoline on the already burning wounds: “justifiable homicide, justified use of force” by police?! How many more?!

Why does this go on, over and over and over again? 

Before we speak to this, consider this:  One more time, while the tears of a mother pour forth, the police lie about the murder they committed. 

On June 18, 2024, 17-year-old Emeshyon Wilkins was driving in St. Louis in an SUV he had recently purchased.  Emeshyon, who had no criminal history, had saved money from working at McDonald's and bought the SUV from someone in the neighborhood, unaware that it had been reported stolen. Police sirens sounded.  A short, slow-speed chase ensued. In police body cam footage released after nearly two years Emeshyon is seen running from the vehicle on foot, being chased by two pigs.  The chase lasted just 20 seconds. You can hear one pig yelling, “Get on the fucking ground.” “Drop the fucking gun.” Then a pig raises his arm and fires four shots. Emeshyon died with a bullet in the back of his head.  Then, the pigs run up and handcuff Emeshyon's lifeless body.

In less than a minute the pigs judged, convicted and executed Emeshyon Wilkins. 

On Monday, April 13, 2026, a year after a federal lawsuit was filed by his family, a video was released that completely contradicts the police story.  The pigs had claimed “During a foot pursuit, an armed suspect turned and pointed a gun at officers when the detective shot the armed suspect.”³

There was no gun. After they searched his pockets they claim they found disassembled parts to a gun. In the public police report on Facebook they posted a picture of a (disassembled) pistol: “This is the juvenile’s gun recovered from the scene.” 

Shaina Wilkins, Emeshyon's mother, has agonized for nearly 2 years, and was denied the truth about the death of her son. She called her son “goofy,” a teenager who loved to make people laugh, and whose smile could soften even the toughest moments. He liked math, was good with numbers and talked about working, saving money and building a life after high school. She said she was just 17 years old when he was born—“We kind of grew up together.” He had celebrated his 17th birthday just weeks before he was murdered. Watch this gut-wrenching interview with Ms. Wilkins after the bodycam video was released. 

Enough of this! Why?

Over one hundred fifty years after the end of slavery in the U.S., Black people continue to be terrorized daily, with dozens murdered by police every year. Why do these crimes go on, and on, and on? How can we understand why this happens?

To understand why we are confronted with the situation we are, it is necessary not merely to respond to—and in effect be whipped around by—what is happening on the surface at any given time, but to dig beneath the surface, to discover the underlying mainsprings and causes of things, and arrive at an understanding of the fundamental problem and the actual solution. This means coming to the scientific understanding that we are living under a system, and what that system actually is (the system of capitalism-imperialism)…” January 2021 NEW YEAR’S STATEMENT BY BOB AVAKIAN

Police brutality and the murder of Black and other oppressed people is an essential part of the way this system has maintained white supremacy for a century and more. In BAsics #1:24, Bob Avakian explains:

The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and the order that enforces all this oppression and madness. 

And here Bob Avakian makes clear how it can be ended in this powerful video: