Charges dismissed against Baltimore killer cops

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 2016 On July 27, Baltimore prosecu­ tors dropped remaining charges against three cops awaiting trial for involvement in the death of Freddy Gray. Gray, a 25-year-old Black youth, died of injuries sus­ tained while in police custody a week following his arrest on April 12, 2015.

Officers Garret Miller, William Porter, and Sgt. Alicia White were initially charged with multiple of­ fenses including involuntary man­ slaughter, assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. All were scheduled for trial in the coming months.

The three other officers charged in the case—Edward Nero, Caesar Goodson Jr., and Lt Brian Rice— were acquitted by a judge of all charges at bench trials earlier this year.

Gray’s death was due to a fatal spinal cord injury. Video and eye­ witness accounts indicate that at least part of the injury likely occurred during a beating cops inflicted on Gray prior to being thrown into a police van.

Then, without calling for medical as­ sistance—despite Gray’s pleas to be taken to the hospital—Gray was sub­ jected to a brutal and sadistic treat­ ment well known to other victims of cop violence—what Baltimore police jokingly refer to a “rough ride” through the streets in the police van. This highspeed bumpy ride with erratic turns occurred while Gray was injured, hand­ effectiveness of mass action. on the trade unions. designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor. Name City State Phone E-mail cuffed, and unsecured by a seat belt.

The trial of William Porter ended with a hung jury in December. Porter was the cop who went to “check on” Gray during the “rough ride” but made no attempt to secure him in his seat with a seat belt or call an ambulance for medical assis­ tance.

Marilyn J. Mosby, the prosecutor in the case, said, “We do not believe Freddie Gray killed himself,” and called the deci­ sion to drop the charges “agonizing.” In a statement, she angrily blamed the po­ lice department for lack of cooperation Editor: Michael Schreiber Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Subscribe now!

Address Zip and sabotage of prosecution efforts. The July 27 New York Times reports that in Gray’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood “residents unanimously agreed with Ms. Mosby’s assertion that Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide. Ale­ thea Booze, 72, said she had witnessed the arrest. ‘He wasn’t hollering until two officers put that knee in his back and he was screaming,’ Ms. Booze said. “Everybody was screaming, ‘Call the ambulance, call the ambulance,’ and the officers didn’t do anything.”

The outrage over the death of Freddy the Fourth International.

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[email protected] • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 802-1482, [email protected] • New York City: (212) 781-5157 • Philadelphia: [email protected] Gray sparked massive peace­ ful protests against cop vio­ lence in Baltimore and cities around the country. Black Lives Matter, a leading or­ ganizer of these protests, spoke out against this injus­ tice. Baltimore BLM leader DeRay Mckesson told The Times: “The dismissals are a reminder that the laws, prac­ tices, and policies justify the actions of the police at all costs. Freddy Gray should be alive today and someone should be held accountable for his death.”

Jeff Mackler, Socialist Ac­ tion candidate for U.S. presi­ dent, condemned the so-called U.S. “justice” system: “This whole sequence of ac­ quittals and dismissals takes criminal Baltimore cops off the hook and is outrageous. Freddie Gray was brutalized by cops before he got into the police van, then tortured with a ‘rough ride’ by cops who made no effort whatsoever to provide him the medical attention he so desperately needed.

“This is further proof that capitalism, a system that breeds racism and profits from it, will not provide justice without massive struggles of working people and oppressed communities around the country. We call for an immediate end to cop violence in minority and work­ ing-class communities. Prosecute and jail killer cops!” n For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610, (510) 2689429, [email protected] Socialist Action newspaper editorial offices: [email protected] Website: www.socialistaction.org WHERE TO FIND US • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: [email protected] (401) 952-5385 • Salem, Ore.: [email protected] • San Francisco Bay Area:

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Vote Socialist Action!

1) Abolish the U.S. war machine now!

• Bring all troops home now! Close all U.S. foreign and domestic military bases. End all military spend­ ing now – not a penny for war!

• U.S. out of the Middle East!

• No to U.S. overt and covert wars, drone wars, oil wars, privatized death squad wars, sanction and em­ bargo wars or wars for the re-colonization of Africa.

• Abolish NATO and all other imperialist military alliances!

• Self-determination for all oppressed nations and peoples.

• Self-determination for Puerto Rico. No to imperi­ alist-imposed austerity in Puerto Rico. Abolish Puerto Rico’s debt to U.S. banks and speculating hedge funds.

• Self-determination for Palestine! End all U.S. aid to apartheid Israel. For a democratic, secular Pales­ tine with the right of all Palestinian refugees to re­ turn. Solidarity with Boycott, Divestment and Sanc­ tions (BDS) campaigns.

• U.S. hands off the Cuban Revolution.

2) Immediate conversion to 100% renew­ able power: sun, wind, geothermal and mi­ cro-hydro! Keep all fossil fuels in the ground!

• Guarantee jobs at top union wages for all fossil fuel workers during and after a just and rapid transi­ tion to clean and renewable energy systems.

• Immediate conversion to carbon-sequestering agro-ecological farming.

• Immediate halt to expansion of all new fossil fuel extraction and transportation projects • 100% tax on all fossil fuel corporations. Zero prof­ its for the polluters.

• Close down and dismantle the fossil fuel industry, from extraction on up.

• Dramatically expand mass transit – for the least mobile first; reverse urban sprawl and unsustainable development patterns. Remediate and expand our forests, wetlands and natural eco-systems.

• For an immediate cleanup of Native American, African American and Latino communities that have been victimized by environmental racism.

• No to nuclear weapons. Close all nuclear power plants now.

• U.S. reparations and zero interest loans to neocolonial and island nations suffering from climate change due to past practices of the major industrial and imperialist nations.

3) Jobs for all at top union wages!

• Shorten the work week by 25 percent with no cut in pay so that everyone can work and enjoy more free time. Modern technology should benefit the 99 per­ cent not the boss class one percent.

• Create a massive public works program to provide jobs at top union wages through building homes, con­ verting to 100% renewable power, expanding mass public transportation, constructing hospitals, parks, schools, and other social necessities. Priority should be given to projects where they are most needed— especially in Black and Latino communities.

• Raise all pensions, Social Security benefits, un­ employment and disability compensation, welfare, and veterans benefits to top union wage scales and protect them with cost-of-living escalator provisions.

• For $15 and a union now as a first short step on the road to a much higher minimum wage to sustain a quality standard of living.

4) Quality health care, education and hous­ ing for all as basic rights!

• Close down the profit-gauging “healthcare” insur­ ance companies and establish a single-payer system in rapid transition to a universal and free national system, that is, socialized medicine. Use the savings towards provision of quality health care for all and retraining insurance workers for new jobs.

• Free quality public education at all levels from the cradle to the grave.

• Cancel all student and medical debt.

• Void all drug patents to cut public costs to a mini­ mum.

• End all home foreclosures. Establish and expand rent-control to combat the mass-displacement of poor and oppressed communities through gentrifica­ tion.

• Massive government funding to repair, modern­ Karen SCHRAUFNAGEL for VP! Karen Schraufnagel is a member of Socialist Action’s National Committee and organizer of its Twin Cities branch. She is a founder of Minnesotans Against Islamophobia, and is active in the anti-Zionist Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and the animal rights, antiwar, and environmental movements.

ize, and build homes, starting where need is greatest.

5) End the racist, slave labor for profit pris­ on-industrial complex!

• Build schools, not jails.

• Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Oscar Lopez Rivera and all political prisoners.

• Abolish the racist and classist death penalty.

• Prosecute and jail killer cops • De-criminalize all drugs. Take the profit out of drug trafficking. End the racist “war on drugs.” Mas­ sive investment in restorative justice, mental health, and drug treatment services.

• Rapidly empty the prisons while immediately or­ ganizing quality, humane rehabilitation facilities to rebuild ruined lives.

• End “zero tolerance” school policies. Cops out of the schools.

• Abolish racist “money ball” extortion schemes in­ cluding defendant-funded court proceedings, manda­ tory court surcharges, fines and fees.

• Abolish all racist exclusionary election laws.

• For Black and Latino-organized control of Black and Latino communities. Police out of Black and La­ tino neighborhoods.

• Reparations for African-American, Puerto-Rican, and Mexican-American communities in compensa­ tion for wealth stolen over centuries.

6) Immediate amnesty, legalization and equal rights for all immigrants. End the rac­ ist, Islamophobic “War on Terror!”

• End all deportations now! Repeal all anti-immi­ grant legislation. Close down ICE • Demilitarize and open the borders.

• No to the surveillance, persecution, demoniza­ tion and government-orchestrated frame-up trials in Muslim communities in the U.S. and worldwide.

7) Abolish all racist, sexist and homophobic discriminatory laws and practices!

• Equal pay for equal work.

• Affirmative action with quotas to remedy past dis­ crimination and prevent future discrimination.

• To assure economic independence for women, government-financed, free 24-hour child-care cen­ ters and maternity leave with full pay. Guarantee the right of every mother to raise a healthy child.

• End violence against women and the LGBTQI community.

• Repeal the Hyde Amendment. Free unrestricted abortion on demand.

• Reproductive justice now. End coercive contra­ ception projects targeting low income women and women in prison. End the criminalization of preg­ nant women.

• Free Purvi Patel.

• Ban workplace and housing discrimination and adoption restrictions based on sexual orientation or gender identity • Outlaw discrimination by businesses or employ­ ees based on sexual preference or gender identity • Repeal all local, state and federal discriminatory laws against LGBTQI people.

Jeff MACKLER for U.S. President! Jeff Mackler, National Secretary of Socialist Action, is a former teachers union elected officer, a veteran opponent of U.S. wars and interventions, and a leading environmental and social justice activist. He is a founder of the Northern California Climate Mobilization, director of the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the author and editor of 24 books and pamphlets on labor and social history, politics, and economics.

• Quality safe housing for youth and workers facing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gen­ der identity. 8) Defend civil liberties! Abolish the “na­ tional security” state! • End all government surveillance. Abolish the Na­ tional Security Administration and all other secret and repressive government spy agencies. • Repeal the Patriot Act and all other anti-demo­ cratic legislation. • End all restrictions on the right to organize, as­ semble, and protest. • Stop the persecution of all whistle blowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden! 9) For a democratically-planned socialist economy in which the banks, basic industries and all natural resources are the collective property of working people – the 99 percent – and democratically operated for human bet­ terment not the individual profits of the one percent • Tax the rich and their corporations, not working people! End corporate bailouts! [Note:$32 trillion in corporate bailouts was granted to corporate America in the years immediately following the 2008 economic crash. See Project Censored Report. For every dollar paid in taxes by U.S. corporations $27 is granted back in government subsidies. See: 2016 Oxfam Report.] • Close all tax loopholes for the rich. Nationalize all illegally “offshored” corporate profits. • For a steeply-graduated progressive income tax! • 100% tax on all incomes over $300,000. Zero per­ cent tax on all incomes under $50,000. • Low interest, long-term government loans to pro­ tect small farmers gouged by banks and food trusts. • End all military and military-related spending: Use the money saved towards a massive public works program and to fulfill the demands above. 10) For working class political action indepen­ dent of and against the twin parties of capitalism • For a united, democratic and fighting labor move­ ment that champions the economic, social and political interests of all working people. • For a Labor Party based on a revitalized, democratic, and expanded labor movement allied with the oppressed and exploited. • Organize the unorganized 90 percent! Repeal Taft Hartley and all other anti-union legislation. • Open the corporate books for union inspection! For a workers government and a fully democrat­ ic society of, by and for working people and the oppressed! Abolish capitalism! For socialism! n SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 2016 3

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ed farm workers and people who worked in people’s homes. “This was not an accident, this was a decision, a decision to keep Black and Brown and Latino work­ ers oppressed.”

Naquasia Le Grande, one of the fast-food workers in New York who went on the first strike in 2012, seemed to echo the same sentiments as Fight For 15 workers did this weekend about politicians. In an interview with The Progressive, she was asked what it meant to her when presidential candidates joined protests: “Let’s just say these candidates have a way of using their words to get what they want. We as fast-food workers reverse it on them. We are using our voice to get what we want. You are not going to get votes just because you are out here with us. That is why we do not endorse anybody.”

A resolution was passed to pressure all candidates in the upcoming elections on the $15 minimum wage issue. Also, the call went out for a National Day of Ac­ tion at all state capitols on Sept. 12, as well as a call

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