The Vote PSL 2008 presidential and local campaign sends heartfelt condolences to family, friends and members of the Long Beach community for the terrible loss of Roketi Su’e.
We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Long Beach Police Department, which is guilty of this racist police murder.
Su’e was a terminally ill and mentally disabled man who was walking home from a birthday party on Saturday, May 17, when he was accosted by Long Beach Police officers. The cops beat him brutally, pushing him to the ground on his stomach, kicking him and then shooting him six times in the head. According to witnesses, Su’e did not act aggressively and was face down when he was executed by the police.
After the shooting, the police denied Su’e medical treatment for at least one hour. When a certified nursing assistant tried to administer CPR, the police officer who pulled the trigger pointed his gun at her and said, “No! Get back, b*tch!” Su’e died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
The extra-judicial execution of Su’e is not an isolated incident of police violence against working-class and oppressed people. The Long Beach Police Department is cut from the same cloth as other police departments that have institutionalized violence against oppressed communities.
Instances of institutionalized violence include the police murders of infant Suzie Pe?a, who was fired at by the LAPD more than 250 times; 14-year-old DeOnte Rawlings, who was shot in the back of head by D.C. police; and 23-year-old Sean Bell, who was shot 50 times by the NYPD.
In working-class neighborhoods, the police serve as armed thugs of the rich. They are an occupation force in oppressed neighborhoods, primarily in communities of color. Killer cops walk free without even a slap on the wrist, while the prisons and jails of this country overflow with more than 2.3 million working-class young people.
The Vote PSL 2008 campaign will join with other community members and continue to organize in the fight for justice and an end to police brutality.
