The Supreme Court ruling backing the "right" of police to arrest and jail people for "crimes" such as not wearing a seat belt is part of the government's drive to widen use of the state's repressive police forces against working people, expand spying and intrusion into the affairs of organizations, and impose harsher sanctions--including the death penalty--for a wide range of offenses .
A reminder of this fact came on May 1 in New Jersey. Bilal Dash Colbert, who had stopped his car at a convenience store so his two girls could get a snack on the way to school, was shot dead by police officer William Mildon. The cop said Colbert failed to obey his order to stop. Colbert's daughter Shaquita, sitting in the back seat, told reporters that Mildon "put his gun through the window and shot his brains out." Four years ago Mildon killed another driver who tried to flee after being stopped.
The actions of these cops are not a bolt out of the blue. They are in harmony with the bipartisan offensive on the federal and state level over the last decade. The erosion of democratic rights and constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure stands as a deadly threat to working people. A mighty campaign by the labor movement, civil rights organizations, and other defenders of democratic rights is needed to combat the policies of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Under the banner of "the fight against drugs," U.S. president Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill assaulted Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search and seizure in private homes. The courts have virtually eliminated such rights in automobiles. Under the bipartisan 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act the INS has become the largest federal police force in the country. Deportations have hit a record high, and some 1,000 working people are estimated to have died trying to cross from Mexico into the United States since 1996.
From the point of view of the bosses and their government, the offensive against the wages, conditions on the job, and social wage of working people must go hand in hand with a restriction of democratic rights and an increase of repressive measures by the state. This--along with the organization of rightist violence--is their ultimate answer to the resistance of workers and farmers who enter into struggle to defend themselves against the effects of the capitalist assault.
Joining struggles against police brutality, opposing new court rulings and laws that restrict democratic rights and expand police powers, and building actions that advance the fight to win equal rights for immigrants are ways all working people and youth can take a stand against the bipartisan assault.