Police murders, executions, mass arrests
Anger at state repression grows
By Leslie
Feinberg
The debate is on--but not among the capitalist presidential
candidates. The real debate and discussion is taking place in
work places, campuses, supermarkets, restaurants, video stores
and gas stations--wherever working people gather.
Angry discussion is raging about the brutality of the police
and complicity of the courts, the unprecedented swelling of the
prison population, and the use of the death penalty. Everyone
is talking about police state terror.
But not Gore, Bush, Bradley or McCain. There's not a peep
from them about the tip-of-the-iceberg exposures of police
frame-ups in Los Angeles or Philadelphia. Or about the youths
shot down in cold blood by cops--from Jersey City to Riverside,
Calif. These are "non-issues" in their campaigns.
Even at a time when broad and diverse segments of the
population are demanding a moratorium on the death penalty,
it's not just Mr. Serial Killer Bush--governor of the state of
Texas known as "the killing machine"--that supports this legal
lynching of the poor and oppressed. All these guys are lined up
in favor of it.
Those seeking to monopolize political power in the United
States would like to sweep the issue of escalating state
violence under the rug. But while they're fiddling, the
population is burning with righteous rage.
And this mass anger is beginning to spill into the streets
in increasingly militant protests that are drawing together
many more nationalities and ages and walks of life into its
ranks.
Thousands marched through the streets of Albany, the Bronx
and midtown Manhattan in the days after the acquittal of the
four white cops who pumped 41 shots at unarmed African
immigrant Amadou Diallo. Brutal tactics by the NYPD and mass
arrests did not intimidate the multi-national protesters.
Even students at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, N.J.,
could not sit idly by after the verdict. They organized a
school walk-out in protest.
On Feb. 28 thousands massed on the steps of the U.S. Supreme
Court in Washington and choked off traffic in surrounding
streets. They voiced their demands loud and clear: justice for
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and stop the death
penalty.
That call for a moratorium on the death penalty, which is
used as a state weapon against the working class, especially
those from nationally oppressed communities, is resonating from
ever-widening sectors of society.
This movement against state repression shows no signs of
running out of steam. On the contrary, it appears to be gaining
momentum and determination.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page