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Vol. 73/No. 3      January 26, 2009

 
Keep up fight to convict killer cop!
(editorial)
 
Ongoing protests in Oakland, California, and the surrounding area have won an important victory for working people in the fight against police killings and brutality. On January 13 they forced authorities to arrest the Bay Area Rapid Transit cop who shot Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old African American. The fight remains to keep the pressure on for a full prosecution of all the cops involved in the fatal shooting.

The killing of Grant, a butcher, demonstrates once again that the cops feel free to act as judge, jury, and executioner of working people. Grant was shot in the back in cold blood in front of other passengers on New Year’s Day while he was forced to lie face down at an Oakland transit station. In this case the cops’ actions were captured by other passengers on cell-phone cameras and the videos sent out to the media. The truth about what happened immediately became known, blocking any quick attempt by the cops to cover up and recast their story. With his guilt widely known, the cop, Johannes Mehserle, quit the police force and fled to Nevada.

Hundreds of working people took to the streets to demand justice, calling for prosecuting and jailing all the cops involved in this heinous crime. These actions together with the nationwide publicity this case has received has had an immediate impact.

The killing of Grant and of growing numbers of other working people and youth gunned down by cops in cities and towns around the country are examples of the real role played by police in capitalist society. Their purpose—together with the courts and the entire “justice” system—is to serve and protect the tiny ruling class of billionaire families. The role of all cops, whether of the transit, city, state, or federal variety, is to intimidate working people, to keep us from standing up and organizing actions in defense of our rights and living standards in response to the deepest economic crisis since the 1930s.

The cops under capitalism cannot be reformed. The killings they carry out are not the result of “mistakes” or “bad training,” but simply what they do.

To win justice for Oscar Grant, we must keep up the fight. The protests so far have had an important impact. Ongoing actions can continue to play an essential role in winning this fight.
 
 
Related articles:
California protests win arrest of killer cop
Socialist candidate: ‘Prosecute killer cops’  
 
 
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