The Whole Damn System is Guilty, Free Marissa Alexander!
March 13, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
In the case of Marissa Alexander, a Black woman in the state of Florida, the system sentenced her to TWENTY years in prison. Her crime? Firing off a warning shot, which killed NO ONE, in order to stop the attack against her by her abusive and estranged husband, who had threatened to kill her earlier that day.
That's right. This system let George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn off, who each murdered innocent Black youths, and gave Marissa Alexander 20 years. It's clear that "Stand Your Ground" applies only in select cases: when racists gun down Black people! Marissa's defense lawyers were not allowed to use the Stand Your Ground law in this case, even though it's clearly applicable.
Now that the 20-year conviction has been thrown out by an Appeals court, the system is considering giving her SIXTY years if they succeed in convicting her in a new trial. Basically a life sentence, for DEFENDING herself while NOT KILLING ANYONE. There should be massive outpourings of support for her, and opposed to this criminal system! Giving her 20 years was absolutely outrageous, giving her life is insane and murderous!
And while the system hasn't yet sentenced her to 60 years, the fact that they sentenced her to 20, and are even CONSIDERING giving her 60 years is a towering crime. And to those who argue that SHE was the one to traumatize the children who witnessed her use of the gun, WHO was it that started the violence in the first damn place? Those kids surely have been just as traumatized by seeing him beat her, throw her around (literally), and try to strangle her to death. And what if he had actually killed her? The use of the warning shot was her attempt at self-defense, and she was clearly in imminent danger.
The question needs to be asked: what the FUCK kind of system have you got when men are socialized to treat women like this, and the courts and institutions back a violently abusive man? What kind of system have you got when a man's right to treat a woman as property is seen as more important than her right to live free of that shit? Or her right to live at all?
Just like with Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, the fact that these are the terms of this case shows exactly 'how far we have come' and what the interests of this system are...and the verdict that comes out of this trial will have reverberations throughout society...it will show everyone what it is to be Black and FEMALE in a system that cannot free either Black people or women. The outcome of this upcoming trial in July will have implications for all women, but especially for any woman who is trapped in a violent and abusive situation. If Marissa Alexander is sentenced to time, and especially if she is sentenced to 60 years/life, it will be a ruling that the right of men to treat women as property, including having the power of life and death over women they "own," trumps the right of women to be free.
It's been said before, and should be said much more often, and by many more people: We Need a Revolution! A communist revolution, to sweep aside this backwards capitalist-imperialist world, and institute a new socialist state power that would enforce radically different laws concerning the rights of women! We have to fight against this capitalist-imperialist system, and we have to fight to bring into being a world where women aren't treated as property and objects, where their full and multi-dimensional humanity is recognized. Where no woman has to cower in fear, either fear of an abuser or fear of the system criminalizing her for defending herself from an attacker or criminalizing and blaming her for being attacked in the first place.
We have a system right now where the most dangerous thing that can happen to you is to be born female. But it's possible to live in a world where women don't have to live in fear of rape or physical attack, where such a thing is unheard of! A future society where, when people (regardless of their gender) hear about these kind of attacks that used to happen to women, they gasp in shock, they see it as horrific, and not at all inevitable, unchangeable, or somehow part of everyone's DNA. It's not human nature that's to blame for how half of humanity is treated—the capitalist system is to blame! We can emancipate humanity and put an end to the whole war on women and the oppression of Black people through communist revolution.
This whole damn system is guilty of monstrous crimes, including in this case against Marissa Alexander. If there is to be any justice for her, that will depend on what people do, to fight the power, and transform the people, for revolution!
The Whole Damn System is Guilty, Free Marissa Alexander!
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