Capitalism’s Lies Negate Justice for Kyam Livingston

BROOKLYN, NY, March 21 — Today was the second speak-out and eighth event commemorating the death of Kyam Livingston, who was killed due to the cops’ deliberate racist medical neglect at Brooklyn Central Bookings. It’s now nine months since she died last July 21 when her agonized cries for medical attention were ignored. So far the authorities have answered none of the questions people have been asking.
The struggle for Justice for Kyam, and in all the recent struggles on behalf of those who have been killed by the racist criminal injustice system, have occurred amid a growing desperation for the working class. Unemployment is at unimagined levels. Wages have been falling for 40 years. Racism is on the rise as shown by these killings by the cops of mostly young black and Latino youth and workers.
Capitalism is, indeed, in crisis. The system has shown its intransigence and its culture of indifference towards the working class, as a relative of Kyam pointed out, by not even giving information on what happened, refusing to answer demands that the killings be stopped and the killer cops punished.
A member of the City Councilman Hakeem Jeffries’ staff attended the event. He said, “Just call our office. We’ll see how we can help.” This resembles what the office of the newly elected District Attorney said at our January speak-out.  The new mayor has been in power now for three months. This is a short time for them, but for people waiting for answers it’s long and anger-driven.
“Democratic” capitalism maintains that all the people in this society have a fair chance. Over the past nine months it’s clear to the Justice for Kyam Committee that this is a bald-faced lie. And in fact, it has become increasingly obvious that the profit system simply does not care what happens to working-class people, especially black and Latino. As one speaker said at this speak-out, “A system that creates these problems doesn’t deserve to exist.”
This second speak-out in our Justice for Kyam campaign occurred on a very nice day and drew more participants than during the January snowstorm. More people spoke up about personal grievances against the court system, jails and other aspects of the criminal injustice system.
Some of the stories made us angry, such as the black woman worker’s whose son was severely beaten by police at Riker’s Island while waiting to be charged. This happened many months ago and he’s still at Riker’s and has not been charged. No one has ever investigated this beating.
Another speaker described the death of James Parrish, an unarmed black man with cerebral palsy who was shot and killed by Brooklyn cops.  No charges were ever brought  against them.
But, what can we expect from a racist criminal injustice system? We don’t need politicians to fight for us. If we rely on them, they will turn our struggles into passivity and reliance on elections.
The Kyam Livingston Committee has grown closer over the course of this campaign. PLP members who are active in it have consistently raised with individuals how capitalism will never care about the working class because we are merely there as producers of wealth for those in power. We, the working class, must recognize that only we can speak for ourselves. The Progressive Labor Party points workers towards the ideas of communism as the solution to our problems.