2000 Stolen Lives: No More! Basta Ya!
By Carl Dix
Revolutionary Worker #1025, October 10, 1999
The following is a statement by Carl Dix on the release of the 2nd edition of the book Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement. Carl Dix is national spokesperson for the RCP and member of the National Coordinating Committee of the October 22 Coalition.
Opening the 2nd edition of the book, Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement, is like uncovering a mass grave. We have seen similar faces in pictures from Mexico or Guatemala--innocents mangled and murdered by U.S.-sponsored death squads, troops, and police. This book unearths 2000 victims of U.S. police and migra violence. Each one of these faces, and the faces of the victims we have yet to discover, cries out for justice. This book is our declaration: BASTA YA, NO MORE! On Oct. 22nd, 1999, WEAR BLACK in memory of these victims. Make the streets, the airwaves, our schools and our communities reverberate with their names and with our demand: Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation!
Stolen Lives is a war memorial that tells the stories of the mounting casualties of the vicious and escalating war the system is waging on the people. These are victims of the government's war on the poor, on people of color, on immigrants, on the youth, and on all the outcasts of this society. No government agency provided any of the 2000 names contained in this book, despite the 1994 Congressional mandate to the Department of Justice to collect police brutality statistics. This book came from years of hard work and sacrifices by the people to uncover the crimes of the killers with badges. This is a lesson that we must rely on our own efforts to get justice.
Stolen Lives is also a powerful weapon in the struggle for justice. It shreds the official lies of "justifiable homicide" or "isolated incidents" with the truth about how widespread police brutality and police murder are in our society. It is a forceful tool in the struggle the people must wage against the system and its enforcers. This book can help enlist many more people into the struggle against police brutality. And it can challenge people to carry this struggle on till not one more person, not one more family has to suffer the effects of the green light being given to brutal, murdering cops all across the country.
Today in L.A. some pigs are ratting on each other about how members of the LAPD murder people, fabricate evidence to send innocent people to jail, steal drugs and rob banks. Today in NY, the cops who fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo go to court while hundreds of their fellow pigs march outside the courthouse in solidarity with police murder. Today in Chicago, police murder young people for the "crime" of Driving While Black, and the authorities refuse to punish them for these crimes. Yet Janet Reno praises the LAPD as an example for police departments across the country, and NY mayor Giuliani leads cheers for murderers in the NYPD. Stolen Lives makes the real situation crystal clear. That our youth are being criminalized, warehoused in prisons and even murdered. Often it's just for the color of their skin, the clothes they wear, the way they walk or talk, or just being young and in the wrong place. I say that we're dealing with some sick and criminal cops who protect and serve the criminal system of capitalism.
As a revolutionary communist, I say capitalism is a beast that will never change its nature. The only way to deal with the problem of police brutality and all the other problems this system brings down on the people here and around the world is thru mass armed revolution. The 2nd edition of Stolen Lives gives me 2000 more reasons to work for revolution. And for those who aren't revolutionaries but are sincere about justice, Stolen Lives gives them 2000 more reasons to get involved in the fight for justice.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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