Valuing the Lives of the People vs. Wanton Police Murder\r\nWhen the Proletariat Rules\r\n<\/p>
by Bob Avakian<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Revolutionary Worker #1255, October 17,\r\n2004<\/em>, posted at http:\/\/rwor.org<\/p>\r\n Let's take the question of police brutality and murder.. it seems\r\nlike every time you open the RW<\/i> there is at least one and often\r\nmore than one article about another one of these outrages--basically\r\nthe same story of how the police go in and wantonly murder someone,\r\nespecially basic Black and Latino youth. And in this [one] particular\r\narticle I believe it was a Latino youth who was involved, it was one of\r\nthese things where he, you know, lost it a bit and had a gun or\r\nsomething, and was out in a public place, and there was sort of a\r\nstandoff and I guess the police shot him and wounded him, if I have all\r\nthe facts right, and his girlfriend was there with him, and she at one\r\npoint told the police that she would get his gun away from him and then\r\nthe police said if you touch the gun, you'll be shot! And his mother\r\ncame up and begged the police to let her go get the gun away from him,\r\nand they told her the same thing.<\/p>\r\n This article was really very compelling, and by the time you were\r\nthrough reading it, both the anger at what had gone on and also the\r\nfact that with these police, this is not some accidental thing, they\r\nwant<\/i> to shoot down these masses, and this is an integral part of\r\nwhat they do--what their social role is, what their political role\r\nis--this was brought out very powerfully in this article. You know, I\r\nfinished reading it and I just had this restless anger where you can't\r\nsit still, plus this really strong feeling that, as the article brought\r\nout, not once but twice there was a solution there, but the police\r\nspecifically rejected it and threatened the people with being shot\r\nthemselves. I mean this shows, once again, that they're not out there\r\n\"doing a difficult job and faced with difficult choices\" and they\r\ncouldn't find any way out of this other than shooting this person.<\/p>\r\n Or you can take the [police murder] of Tyisha Miller..one of the\r\nthings that really needs to be driven home is-- here's the scene where\r\nshe is passed out in the car and they come up to the car, the police,\r\nthey surround the car, and there's a whole bunch of them, they're all\r\narmed, they're surrounding the car, and they just shoot her--execute\r\nher basically. And it seems to me that one basic point to be made is\r\nthis: if you can't handle this situation differently than this, then\r\nget the fuck out of the way. Not only out of the way of this situation\r\nbut get off the earth--get out of the way of the masses of people.\r\nBecause, you know, we could have handled that situation any number of\r\nways that would have resulted in a much better outcome, and frankly if\r\nwe had state power and we were faced with a similar situation, we would\r\nsooner have one of our own people's police killed than go wantonly\r\nmurder one of the masses. That's what you're supposed to do if you're\r\nactually trying to be a servant of the people. You go there and put\r\nyour own<\/i> life on the line, rather than just wantonly murder one\r\nof the people.<\/p>\r\n\r\n It seems to me that this kind of point can be brought out very\r\npowerfully to people. What were they there to do? You know, fuck all\r\nthis \"serve and protect\" bullshit. If they were there to serve and\r\nprotect, they would have found any way but the way they did it to\r\nhandle this scene, they could have and would have found a solution that\r\nwas much better than this. This is the way the proletariat, when it's\r\nbeen in power, has handled and would again handle this kind of\r\nthing--valuing the lives of the masses of people- -as opposed to the\r\nbourgeoisie in power, where the role of their<\/i> police is to\r\nterrorize the masses, including wantonly murdering them, murdering them\r\nwithout provocation, without necessity, because exactly the more\r\narbitrary the terror is, the more broadly it affects the masses. And\r\nthat's one of the reasons why they like to engage in--and have as one\r\nof their main functions to engage in--wanton and arbitrary terror\r\nagainst the masses of people.<\/p>\r\n From \"Putting Forward\r\nOur Line-In a Bold, Moving, Compelling Way\"<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThis article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker\r\nOnline
\r\nhttp:\/\/rwor.org
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\r\nAlso:<\/b> The Call for October 22, 2004: National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation<\/i>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"If they were there to serve and protect, they would have found any way but the way they did it to handle this scene, they could have and would have found a solution that was much better than this. This is the way the proletariat, when it's been in power, has handled and would again handle this kind of thing--valuing the lives of the masses of people- -as opposed to the bourgeoisie in power, where the role of their police is to terrorize the masses, including wantonly murdering them, murdering them without provocation, without necessity, because exactly the more arbitrary the terror is, the more broadly it affects the masses.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/10\/117861.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}