CALUMET CITY, IL, February 10 — On February 9, a multiracial crowd of 60 workers, students, and teachers packed a city hall meeting here to voice their outrage at the murderous racist kkkops who slaughtered 15-year-old Stephon Watts.
On February 1, Stephon, a black youth who had a form of autism known as Asperger Syndrome, experienced an extreme episode where his father could not get him to go to school. When Stephon’s father called their hospital for assistance, he was told to call the cops. He dialed 311 (the non-emergency number), hoping to get a professional trained to work with special needs children. Instead Calumet City police sent a squad car.
Bosses’ Thugs in Blue Show True Nazi Colors
When the cops arrived, Stephon’s father insisted his son was “OK,” but they forced their way into the house anyway. These murderers proceeded to chase Stephon around his home. When Stephon slashed one cop with a butter knife the bosses’ thugs in blue showed their true Nazi colors by slaughtering Stephon, a child with special needs, in cold blood.
But the working-class crowd at city hall would not be fooled. Speaker after speaker correctly described the cops as rabid dogs who either needed to be caged (jailed) or put down for murder. When a commenter attempted to blame Stephon for wielding a butter knife, a high school student declared, “You have no idea what went on in the head of that special needs child. I don’t care about the cuts on the cops! Think about the bullet holes in Stephon!”
Other speakers spoke at great length about decades of the city cops’ blatant, racist harassment and profiling. Some wanted to discuss “the lack of training” of these particular cops. But, especially in black neighborhoods, cops are trained to shoot first and are protected by their departments and city councils later.
To that end, one worker addressed the need to organize against the city council, the cops and the whole racist, capitalist system. The crowd erupted with, “Racist cops, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” They drowned out the city council’s feeble attempt to restore order by reciting the pledge of allegiance, to a country whose cops have full permission to systematically murder workers, especially black youth. The crowd continued to chant as we slowly marched out of the meeting.
Sadly, no amount of anger or chanting will bring back Stephon Watts or any other victims of police slaughter. That being said, it’s good the Watts family and their mostly black, working-class community are mobilizing to fight police brutality and racism in hopes of getting justice for Stephon.
But justice won’t come from the Illinois state police (who are “investigating” this crime), the courts or the federal government, all of whom work for the same capitalist bosses. Even if — on the extremely remote chance — that these murderous cops get convicted, it won’t stop the onslaught against the working class from the bosses’ cops worldwide.
To end class war, we must fight in class war. Join with the Progressive Labor Party to organize the international working class on the basis of communism with collectivity, militancy and unyielding anti-racism. We must smash capitalism and create a society where there’s no exploiting class, racism or murderous cops serving that ruling class. That’s the only way to gain true justice for all the victims of capitalism’s crimes, including Stephon Watts.