BALTIMORE, October 7—A multiracial group of more than 40 protesters rallied against racist police brutality in front of Central Booking in downtown Baltimore today. This was the 115th consecutive “West Wednesday” decrying the 2013 murder of Tyrone West by Baltimore cops after a routine traffic stop. One young activist, seasoned by the rebellion sparked by Freddie Gray’s murder here in April, gave a stirring speech about the need to organize against police terror.
Even as darkness fell, passing drivers kept honking their horns in support of demonstrators’ signs. Twenty copies of CHALLENGE, including coverage of previous “West Wednesday” rallies and the Freddie Gray rebellion, were distributed to protesters. The Progressive Labor Party is advancing our analysis that abuse by authorities is a necessary part of capitalism. Police brutality intimidates workers in general. In particular, it discourages Black workers, the most militant section of the working class, from fighting back against this racist, oppressive system built on exploitation and imperialist war.
Today’s rally marked an expansion of the struggle, with two more recently victimized families joining the protest. The family of Darrell Murray, who died suspiciously in a Cumberland, Maryland jail, called for continued vocal opposition against police brutality and condemned the failure of the district attorney to prosecute brutal officers and guards. Darrell’s sister Shawna, an activist with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, noted that deaths inside jails routinely go unreported. She called for independent investigations of these deaths, not the standard prison cover-ups. She also noted that correctional officers in the Western Maryland facilities are known to belong to racist groups and target Black and Latin inmates. Darrell Murray had a reputation for calling out guards when they abused inmates’ rights. He had told his family that he feared for his life because he refused to keep quiet. His fear was evidently justified.
Kelly Holsey, the girlfriend of Keith Davis—chased by police into a garage and barraged with bullets despite being unarmed—spoke poignantly of his fight for life. Just three minutes away from a hospital, Davis was left bleeding on the ground for more than 40 minutes. After undergoing several operations to repair the bullet damage, he remains in jail, where guards keep him in line by depriving him of his medicine. Kelly told the crowd that Davis’s shooting was a wake-up call. She said she would no longer remain silent about the murder of Freddie Gray, Keith’s unwarranted shooting, and the scourge of police brutality. Chants calling for justice for all victims of cop violence brutality rang out as the rally ended and planning began for the next action.
The following Saturday, October 10, PL’ers continued to spread the word about the West Wednesday struggles at the “Justice or Else!” rally in DC on the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March. We distributed hundreds of flyers and CHALLENGEs with stories about this ongoing battle. We challenged people to think about what “justice” means within a system of equality and state terror, and what the Black capitalist Nation of Islam means by “or else.” Justice is not possible under capitalism. Whenever kkkops murder someone, they are simply doing their job: serving the capitalist class by intimidating workers. Even on those rare occasions when a cop is indicted, justice cannot be served; there will inevitably be more racism, killings and mass poverty. Only a communist revolution can eliminate profits and exploitation, the basis for brutality and racism. Only a revolution can deliver justice to victims of police brutality, their families, and the international working class.