Workers Seize Control of DA’s Townhall

LOS ANGELES, October 17—What was supposed to be a peaceful, orchestrated town hall meeting with the Black District Attorney of Los Angeles, Jackie Lacey, was quickly taken over by hundreds of angry multiracial protestors, with chants that shook the room. “Shut it down, shut it down!”  This action emphasized the vital importance of fighting racism in any reform struggle and several friends moved closer to the revolutionary communist ideas of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP). As the Ferguson rebels have said, “It’s the whole damn system.”
Los Angeles boasts the most diverse police department in the country while also leading the nation with the most racist murders by cops!  Since 2000, nearly 1,000 people have been killed in LA County and since 2004 over 2,000 people have been killed in six Southern California counties.  Even with all of this bloodshed, only one cop has ever been indicted and he was later acquitted.
The fight against racist police murders has been the main struggle PLP has waged in the Unitarian church over the last two years since the antiracist rebellion in Ferguson. Locally, the focus was mainly on the murders of Ezell Ford and Brendon Glenn. Due to the struggle by a comrade, a group of church members have broadened this to make racist police terror in general the focus of our call to action.  It was in this vein that 16 Party members and friends from our church attended the town hall meeting to confront the district attorney.
Workers Frighten Racist DA
Scripted questions were presented to attendees as they entered the building.  Within the first two minutes of the start time, before DA Lacey could walk up the hallway to the stage, a participant jumped to the microphone calling the whole meeting a sham.  It was suggested that we take over the meeting and that the community run the meeting instead of the DA.
Cheers rang through the hall for this suggestion. DA Lacey hid behind security as Lisa Simpson, the mother of murdered 18-year-old Richard Risher Jr., took the stage. Ms. Simpson charged the DA and her goons with murder and demanded a response from Lacey. The DA cowered in fear and could only claim to not know about the case, but promised to call Ms. Simpson after the event. Others spoke about how they were wrongly incarcerated, including one man incarcerated for 29 years for a crime he didn’t commit.  A comrade spoke on the systematic nature of the police state, compared mass incarceration to slavery, and called out DA Lacey as complicit.
Speaker after speaker took aim at Lacey and the whole racist system. Participants were not fooled by the fact that DA Lacey is Black; this did nothing to quell the anger and hatred directed at her role as part of the system. It was really clear how the fight against racism unleashes the potential for workers’ power. We made several contacts who want to join the struggle. Friends in our church want to be more active. Others are moving closer to the Party. The struggle continues.