Four Points on Why I’m in Baltimore Demanding Justice for Freddie Gray

by Carl Dix

June 12, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Right now the trial of Caesar Goodson is going on in Baltimore. Goodson is one of the cops accused in connection with the murder of Freddie Gray and the ONLY one on trial for murder. One of them has already walked, and another has had a mistrial. And from every indication, the system is greasing the wheels for Goodson to go free. Some basic points:

1. What the police did to Freddie Gray was MURDER, plain and simple. He was healthy enough to run from the cops when they encountered him, but he was near death after they beat him down and subjected him to their “rough ride.” He had done nothing and there was no cause whatsoever to go after him, except for the fact that he wanted to get out of the way of some cops on the prowl. A week later he died from the injuries their torture inflicted on him. All six of those cops were involved in his murder. If they are not punished for this murder, this is saying that Freddie Gray’s life did not matter.

2. What is going on here makes clear once again that those who rule this country, and their system, have never regarded Black people as anything but objects of exploitation who must be kept in their place. And now, today, when their system can no longer make profit by exploiting the masses of Black youth the way they used to, they regard the lives of Black youth as worthless. Poisoned with lead paint at an early age, miseducated in rotten schools, forced to hustle on the streets in an inner city with no real jobs, then killed by the pigs—this was the course of Freddie Gray’s life, as it is for millions of others.

3. The only solution to this problem is an ACTUAL revolution—one that overthrows this system and replaces it with a totally different and far better one. The Revolutionary Communist Party is organizing right now for that revolution. And we have the strategy and leadership in Bob Avakian that can make that real. As Bob Avakian said, “There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.”

4. A crucial part of organizing for this revolution is people refusing to accept outrages like the system letting the cops who murdered Freddie Gray go free. Accepting outrages like this amounts to letting the system beat us down till we’re completely broken. All kinds of people are saying now that they embrace the legacy of Muhammad Ali. What was inspiring about Ali was that at one point he put it on the line to resist the injustice being inflicted on Black people. That injustice continues today, and we must put it on the line to resist it. We must make clear that the system cannot just get away with letting the police who murdered Freddie Gray walk. The days when they can get away with that must be gone and can be gone.

 

 

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