BALTIMORE CITY, January 14 — For the 76th time, ever since the brutal racist police murder of unarmed Black worker Tyrone West in July of 2013, a weekly West Wednesday rally was held today, demanding justice!
Mr. West, aged 44, was beaten to death by 12 to 15 cops, after a traffic stop during which they dragged him by his dreads out of his car. The cops called Mr. West the “N” word several times, maced him, tasered him and beat him.
A witness said — after Mr. West tried to escape from the unbearable beating, and ran a short distance to a nearby alley — that officers caught up with him and started beating him again, this time with batons on his head and back. Another witness said he was at a relative’s house and had gone outside when he heard women screaming.
He “vividly remembers” one of the officers “cocking his arm all the way back, and laying a haymaker [a punch using a person’s full strength, intended as a knockout] on the man. At this point, he was already definitely down, and I didn’t see any movement.”
Racist News Station
Attacks Anti-racist
This week, the West family, along with the Baltimore Bloc organization and other activists, rallied outside FOX45-TV at night, in the bitter cold, but as always with bold and inspiring determination! There has been a West Wednesday rally every week, regardless of rain, freezing temperatures, or snow!
We held this week’s rally at FOX45 because on December 21, the day immediately after the crazed shooting of two cops in New York City, FOX45 repeatedly aired a false and vicious accusation. Fox45 claimed that Mr. West’s sister, Ms. Tawanda Jones, along with others, had been chanting “We won’t stop! We can’t stop, so kill a cop!” at the large Justice for All protest in Washington DC one week earlier. In actuality, the chant was, “We can’t stop! We won’t stop, until killer cops are in cell blocks!”
The manipulated video seeming to show Ms. Jones saying “Kill a cop” was an attempt to discredit and weaken the massive, nationwide fight against police terror. In fact, that lie, first aired repeatedly by FOX45, was then aired nationally by many TV stations. In addition, the on-air distortion put a life-threatening target on the back of Ms. Jones, who is well-known to Baltimore police as a leader of the West Wednesday rallies and a strong participant in many additional actions opposing terror and murder by racist police. Those who killed Mr. West are still on the force. No charges have been pressed against them.
Just two weeks earlier, a couple of the cops who were involved in beating Tyrone West to death had also severely beaten another Black man, Mr. Abdul Salaam. However, if those two cops had quickly faced appropriate justice for the beating of Mr. Salaam, then Tyrone West might still be alive today!
Reacting quickly after the lies aired on FOX45, members of the West family and supporters repeatedly contacted the station, and strongly insisted the story be retracted. FOX45 nevertheless ran the lie yet again but, in the end, the station had no choice but to come clean (well, partly clean), because the original, unedited video clip, clearly showing the real chant — which demanded that killer cops be put in cell blocks — was available for everyone to see on the internet. Under pressure, FOX45 interviewed Ms. Jones, and did indeed show that interview on their station. They also apologized on air, but called the manipulated video a “mistake,” refusing to admit it was done on purpose.
In addition, FOX45 fired two people: the reporter, Melinda Roeder, and also the cameraperson, Greg McNair. However, those two seem to have been used as fall guys for higher-ups. As the Baltimore Sun newspaper reported, “Roeder said the idea for the story came from station management — it was not hers. FOX45 management has declined to discuss how the edit came to be.”
There’s an important lesson in all this. At first glance, it may seem that, yes, FOX is super-conservative, racist, and dishonest. No surprise.
TV, Radio, Movies All Part of the Bosses’ Propaganda Machine
It’s important, however, to dig deeper. As it turns out, FOX45 is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and their reach goes far beyond just FOX. In fact, Sinclair is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the U.S. today. They own and operate, do the programming, or provide sales services to 162 television stations in 79 markets. Sinclair’s television group reaches approximately 37.5 percent of all U.S. households, and includes FOX, ABC, MyTV, CW, CBS, NBC, Univision and Azteca affiliates.
In other words, the lie, about Ms. Tawanda Jones’ chanted wording, was not just a FOX lie. It was a lie by the whole spectrum of capitalist-owned media. When fired reporter Melinda Roeder let the cat out of the bag and — probably telling the truth in this instance — said the manipulated news coverage came from above, who knows from how high up the order the lie originated.
One thing for sure, the lie benefitted the entire capitalist class, which needs racism and police terror as part of its ruthless effort to keep the working class oppressed and under control. Maybe a brain-washed station manager, seeing life through the lens of sick capitalist culture, made the decision. Or maybe someone in the know, much higher in the media hierarchy, gave the order. Either way, it was not simply a conservative local FOX reporter, doing her own predictable distortions. It was the media, owned and controlled by the capitalist class, doing what their class needs.
On a personal level, as a result of the media’s cold-blooded decision to air a shameless lie about Ms. Tawanda Jones, they have put her in grave, ongoing danger. On a daily basis, Ms. Jones is receiving threats. Ever since the airing of the lie about her on nationwide TV on December 21, she has also been enduring nightmares, and is no longer able to sleep well.
Nevertheless, despite these personal difficulties created by the capitalist class, Ms. Jones together with similarly courageous family members remain steadfast in their commitment to the struggle. They are fighting to win justice for her brother, for all victims of police brutality, and for everyone else who may one day face that same fate.
Beyond the Sinclair Broadcast Group, it’s also important to recognize that the nationwide FOX network is not — as many people think — a fringe conservative voice, largely disconnected from the rest of capitalist media and business. The truth is that FOX News is owned by 21st Century Fox.
The number-two owner of 21st Century Fox — after Rupert Murdoch — is Prince Al-Waleed, the 16th-richest man in the world, and a nephew of the late king of Saudi Arabia, an important ally of powerful U.S. oil companies.
In addition to FOX, Al-Waleed has investments in Apple and Twitter. He also has big stakes in rival media giants Time Warner and Disney. Time Warner owns HBO, Cinemax, Turner Broadcasting, CNN, Warner Brothers and DC Comics. Disney owns Pixar, Lucasfilm, ABC, ESPN and Marvel. Even more significantly, Al-Waleed helped rescue the U.S. banking giant Citigroup twice, and he is one of its largest investors. The members of the Board of Directors of Citigroup, who hire and fire the CEO, and make policy for that powerful bank, also sit on — and interlock with — the Boards of Directors for many other major corporations including Target, Ford, Estée Lauder, Pepsi, Comcast, AT&T, Halliburton, Johnson & Johnson, and American Airlines.
Simply put, FOX and Baltimore’s dirty-dozen cops are not the only ones guilty of criminal behavior. It’s the whole capitalist class of super-rich business owners who don’t care whom they hurt in order to preserve their wealth and keep the working class in its place. They use racism to justify a third of their blood-soaked annual profits, derived from paying Black and Latin workers less than white workers. And they also use racism to divide, weaken and conquer the whole working class — of all skin colors — who suffer with low wages and meager benefits, whether working for the country’s largest private employer, Walmart, or working just about anywhere else.
In the struggle against racism and police brutality, we need to defeat the entire capitalist class, not just FOX. What’s needed, after revolution, is a new world in which racism can finally be defeated, a world of sisterhood and brotherhood where we share the benefits of our hard work for the good of all, without rich and without poor.
Progressive Labor Party calls that way of life communism, and — let’s be clear — if we want to end police brutality, we need to dedicate our lives to the struggle for that new world, run by and for the working class. Dare to struggle! Dare to win!