Maryland: No justice in a racist system

Upper Marlboro, MD, June 14—Over 40 people rallied at the Upper Marlboro courthouse with the Archie Elliott III Coalition for Justice to fight racist police terror and fire corrupt cops. Many protesters correctly realize that the police are enforcers of the exploitative racist capitalist system. The cops can’t be reformed short of smashing the entire capitalist system with communist revolution. All of us antiracist fighters are determined to continue to mobilize workers and students against the brutal police.
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members are longstanding partners in the fight against racist police brutality. We were there as usual to help establish the picket line and share CHALLENGE with many of the protesters. We also got contacts from passersby to grow the Coalition and the fight for communist revolution. This rally is a kickoff for monthly “Moral Monday'' actions.
The Brady List
In the 1963 Supreme Court case of Brady v. Maryland, the justices ruled that Maryland had violated Brady’s constitutional right to due process by failing to disclose all the evidence it had to the defense. Since then, prosecutors throughout the country have often declined to use compromised cops on the stand.
The Prince George’s County States Attorney Aisha Braveboy, a Black woman, said publicly that she has developed a “Brady list” of 39 cops, 17 of whom she won’t use in a trial because of their “misconduct,” possibly including falsifying reports, fabricating or tampering with evidence, lying on the witness stand, coercing witnesses, and/or blatant racism. The other 22 can be used to testify but the disciplinary actions taken against them would have to be reported at any trial in which they would be involved.
The Coalition is angry with this coddling of the cops. It is demanding the public release of the list of these corrupt cops and their associated crimes, their firing and prosecution for criminal activity, and the appointment of a special prosecutor for such cases.
A speaker at the rally declared, “With this state of affairs, we can’t trust Prince George’s County policing or its prosecutors . . . We refuse to allow elected officials like Ms. Braveboy to protect police who break the law.”
But actually that’s the job of all politicians. They protect the capitalist system for the billionaire capitalists and that means protecting the cops. And sometimes it means disciplining a few cops to make it seem like the system works for everyone. It bears repeating – the whole system has to go.
 No justice for Archie Elliott III, killed in 1993
Racist murders and corruption by Prince George’s County cops is legendary. It is likely that some defendants sitting in jail have been falsely convicted based on the testimony of corrupt, lying cops. These mainly Black men could be exonerated if the list is brought to light. Fighters against racist police brutality have been struggling mightily for decades, case after case, often reported in CHALLENGE. We have to keep fighting, but the final victory will only come when we take power from the capitalists and their politicians and the working class runs society. That’s communism.
One of the most egregious cases was that of Archie  Elliott, a young Black man who was pulled over in June 1993 for suspected DUI, detained, handcuffed behind his back and placed in the front seat of a police car. He had been searched, was wearing shorts and no shirt, and was suddenly and wrongfully murdered in a hail of bullets, 14 of which hit Archie. The cops manufactured a story that he had a gun and pointed it at them – from behind his back while handcuffed! Officials have blown off this heinous racist crime for almost 30 years, but his family has persevered through numerous legal efforts, speaking on his behalf, and rallying fighters including many PLP members for years.
States Attorney Aisha Braveboy, a Black elected official, declared during her campaign for office that she would reopen the case if elected. She was elected, and now…nothing. She has the nerve to say that the files cannot be found, so she can do nothing. Liberal racists are clearly dangerous for our class. The protection of racist and corrupt police continues, but the demand for re-opening the case has been intensifying.
Communism: Workers rule no cops necessary
The capitalists and their politicians, whether Black or white, conservative or “progressive”, will always support the enforcers of the capitalist system. The bosses need the working class to be divided, intimidated, and where necessary, killed brutally to ensure the smooth working of capitalist “law and order”, an order based on the exploitation of the working class. We can and will continuously protest, but nothing short of a revolution to overthrow the entire class of racist exploiters and their politicians and bureaucrats will enable us to make each other safe – especially from the cops.
A communist world of equality and collectivity has no use for racist killer cops and their violence against the working class because the working class would rule and the capitalist class would be destroyed! Money, the basis for most crime, would be eliminated. And we would solve any problems we have with each other through collective discussion and struggle. Communism is the system that can ensure our safety—and punish racists and capitalists who try to come back to power.
Achieving communism is a long road of ever-intensifying class struggle against racism and exploitation. Let’s continue down this road until revolutionary victory!