WWP CANDIDATE MOOREHEAD:
Yet another racist cop atrocity in Philly
Workers World Party 2000 presidential candidate Monica
Moorehead issued the following statement on July 19.
Six days
after the savage beating of Thomas Jones by a crazed mob of
Philadelphia police was captured on videotape, another police
atrocity has enraged that city. On July 18, Robert Brown, an
African American man with a history of mental illness, was shot
and killed by an Amtrak cop at the crowded 30th Street
Station.
What was the motive behind the shooting? Was Brown
threatening the cops or any other people with a dangerous
weapon? No. Brown was waving a metal chair in the air when he
was gunned down. There was no doubt that he was in an agitated
state. The fact that Brown allegedly screamed "Shoot me, I
don't care" was a cry for help, not a death wish.
Eyewitnesses screamed in horror as the police shot
Brown--not in the arm or in the leg but in the abdomen, an
injury which is more certain to cause death.
Some of those same eyewitnesses reportedly shouted at the
cops, "You didn't have to kill him, he only had a chair." A
young Black mother told the local ABC affiliate that while
Brown was yelling at her child, she did not feel that her child
was endangered by his actions.
There are two real reasons for this tragic shooting. Reason
number one: Brown was Black. Reason number two: Brown was
homeless. As a result, to the police and the wealthy ruling
class whose interests they protect, Brown was another poor,
expendable Black man--less than human.
But this second incident of police brutality, coming less
than two weeks before the opening of the Republican Convention
in Philadelphia, must be creating nightmares for the
bourgeoisie. They must wonder why the cops cannot keep their
racist behavior under wraps until the convention is over.
They forget that at times their cops act independently from
the way they would want them to. The last thing that the ruling
class wants to see is the Black community explode into a
rebellion before or during this convention of racist, pro-cop,
pro-death penalty millionaires and billionaires--a rebellion
that would be totally justified.
The police say they are planning to carry out a "full
investigation" of this incident. Investigation has historically
meant whitewash. The police commissioner is also urging that
the Black community remain calm until all the "facts" are
in--the same stance he took following the Jones beating.
The cops are hoping that what happened to Jones and Brown
will eventually die down and it will be business as usual in
terms of the police continuing to terrorize Black and Latino
neighborhoods.
But the Black community of Phila delphia will not forget
what happened to these two men. Nor will they forget what
happened to Donta Dawson, Delbert Africa, the MOVE family,
Mumia Abu-Jamal and the long list of other victims of
Philadelphia police violence.
One day all of the suffering that the Black people and other
oppressed peoples in Philadelphia have had to endure will come
back to haunt these vicious rulers and their fascistic
mercenaries in blue.
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