Justice for Alex Flores: Organize against racist police terror

Los Angeles, CA,—There is a deep hatred of the kkkops by the family and community of Alex Flores, who was murdered by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on November 11th, 2019. The family, along with our small Progressive Labor Party (PLP) contingent and base have marched nearly every day for 30 days, taking a short break for the funeral services. This murder is becoming a mass issue in the neighborhood where Alex lived, and we are pushing to introduce communist ideas as we participate in the fightback. Together, we have taken to the streets, blocked intersections, and shut down the front entrance of the fascist “Shootin” Newton police station, all while leading Party chants and distributing CHALLENGE and PLP leaflets. We have received mass support from the community and passersby. Whenever a cop car came close or a cop approached us, the family countered the cops with militant chants like, “Alex Flores/racism means…We got to fight back!” or “Killer Cops, Killer Cops!” “How do you spell racist/murderer? L-A-P-D!”
Anti-sexist leadership in action   
The political leadership of these marches is largely led by the women of Alex’s family.   Often, they bring their children, some as young as two years old. On several instances, our marches were kicked off by a four year old girl (Alex’s niece) who led us in chants like “la policia, cochina, racista y asesina” (the police, pigs, racists and killers) for over 30 minutes inspiring the whole crowd.
During the smaller marches, many of the husbands would stay home and take care of the children while the women led the demonstrations, highlighting the role of women and a certain level of anti-sexism within their family.
The women leaders and family in general have largely led with our chants and have slowly been coming around to our message regarding Black workers killed by the cops.  In addition, we have been describing how racism is part and parcel to capitalism, and the family has taken up our chants like “When the working class is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” and “Capitalism means, we got to fight back!”
It’s not just LAPD, it’s capitalism
The largest demonstration happened on December 5th, the night before the funeral service, with more than 50 family and community members, accompanied by 10 to 15 cars. We shut the area down for nearly three hours. Their militant fight back, in the face of such vicious police terror, shows the power of the working class and our Party to shape the politics of a struggle.
When the group returned to the police station, a PLP comrade made a speech, connecting Alex’s murder to thousands more–particularly Black workers–murdered by the kkkops and the role of the police under a racist capitalist system that can’t provide decent jobs, schools or housing for workers.
From the police station, you can see the luxury housing, corporate offices and the towering U.S. Bank building, and our comrade pointed out how the cops are part of a viciously racist capitalist system that needs terror in order to keep the bankers and billionaires on top and the working class oppressed. Alex’s sister translated the speech and thanked us for our support. We also heard her explain to pedestrians asking about the rally that capitalism is the problem.
In addition, we have been struggling with the family to understand that the racist system that stole their beloved family member is the same racist system that attacks their fellow Black class sisters and brothers every day as well.
Now, whenever we call out the names in chants like, “Shantel Davis/Sandra Bland/Ezell Ford/Mike Brown means?” they reply loudly, “We got to fight back!”
Having said that, so far, nearly everyone that has come with the family to the march, with the exception of one Black worker, who was a friend of Alex, is Latin. That’s another key aspect of what we as PLP in Los Angeles have contributed, along with our base– our ability to integrate and build multi-racial unity in the fight back.
The long term fight for communist revolution
The family has now decided to shift to weekly marches, so we have shifted gears to building for “Flores Fridays” and continue to organize in our schools, clinics, churches, libraries and other mass organizations to broaden this struggle. At the end of the month we will be having a screening of a documentary on racist police violence at one of our members’ workspaces that the family will attend and speak at. We will continue to widen our base, sharpen the political struggle and deepen ties with the family with the aim of building for May Day and growing our Party. The struggle continues!
LAPD, city bosses, racist to the core
The family and community are not fooled by the reforms the LAPD has undertaken over the last 25 years. In fact, this so-called sanctuary city, run by liberal Democrats, often boasts about the LAPD’S “transformation.” It is considered one of the most ethnically diverse police institutions in the U.S. closely mirroring the demographics of Los Angeles.  Yet we know that these reforms can’t stop (and haven’t stopped) the inherent racist nature of the police state and the need of the capitalist class to control and terrorize Black and Latin working-class communities.
Indeed, in a recent LA Times Homicide Report, 33 workers were killed by these “ethnically diverse” kkkops during 2019, and despite this the vast majority of those murdered by killer cops were Black or Latin (LA Times, 12/2019). This was up from the 21 workers killed in the year 2015, in which the LAPD “killed more people than any other law enforcement agency in the United States” (www.scpr.org, 6/1/15).
Not one of these racist murderers has been charged, let alone prosecuted by the Black District Attorney, Jackie Lacey. In addition, we now know the cop who murdered Alex is a Latin kkkop named Steven Ruiz. As the chant goes, “White cop, Latin cop all the same, racist terror is the name of their game!”