Mario Woods: Murdered by SFPD

SAN FRANCISCO, December 2 — “They executed my child…25 bullets in my baby”…He “was was supposed to start UPS today. He got his uniform,” …Gwen Woods described the police murder of her son Mario Woods and that his future on a real job was snuffed out. A Bayview resident said that the video is hard to watch: “He got shot like he was at a firing squad. Deplorable.”
Videos went viral of five racists San Francisco police surrounding and assassinating Mario Woods, 26, on Thursday December 2. The bosses’ usual claim: “He refused to drop a knife and tried to walk away.”  The videos show him stunned with beanbags and staggering against a wall, followed by a volley of gunshots.
By the next night, over 300 angry people assembled around Mario’s memorial for a Vigil , March and Community meeting at a Local Church on 3rd St in the historically Black Bayview District of SF. PLP joined a large multi-racial crowd, Black, Latin White and Asian, reflecting the common working-class anger. Speakers and posters referred to other racist police murders. People welcomed each other. Some Black residents of the Bayview District saying “We are so glad you’re here” to those who appeared to be from other neighborhoods. “Mario Woods RIP” was all over the walls and street.
Along with the long list of young Black men murdered by police in the Bay Area, the racist police have killed 2 Latin young men from immigrant families in the last year. White & Asian youth are not subject to police terror at such a high rate but also come under the gun. The assassinations of Mario Woods, Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez Lopez, and Kenneth Harding were addressed at the rally.
PLP talked with people and distributed around 200 flyers and CHALLENGEs. Like our leaflet, we asked the question “Why with all this fightback has there been no fundamental change in Police Conduct?  The murders, arrests, searches and judicial abuses continue.” And not to mention mass incarceration! We explained that the police are doing exactly what they are supposed to do — serve the ruling class by terrorizing Black and Latin workers, dividing the working class and keeping all workers in line through fear. We made some friends and plan to bring our flyer back to areas where we have political activity.
Same Fight All Over
Family members, friends, Bayview residents, members of neighborhood Churches and Black Lives Matter spoke about Mario and the history of police murder/harassment up and down 3rd St. Again, folks from outside the neighborhood were welcomed.  
A PL’er spoke to bring solidarity greetings from Chicago. “The struggle there brought masses of working people and youth took over the streets in reaction to Laquan McDonald s assassination and cover up. It’s the same fight all over.” (see page 3). He said that removing the SF Police Chief Greg Suhr or forcing out the Chief of Chicago Police won’t make things fundamentally different. It will be new faces, new tactics but the same old racist terror. He urged people to make the long hard struggle to get rid of the capitalist system as part of our fight to end its racist economics, ideas and culture. “We need an alternative to this system that profits from racism and division. PLP organizes to replace capitalism with its opposite, a communist system:  A system of equality, dignity and shared responsibility for all our needs; a system that produces everything for the needs of the whole global working class.”  He got applause and was able to get more contacts from some of the organizers and some people in the school system.