More than 20 activists, community members, youth and others gathered in Boston’s Dudley Library on Monday, Aug. 24 for a forum against police brutality and racial profiling in their communities.
In the previous week, police officers had visited the library to intimidate library staff into either not holding the meeting or allowing the presence of police based on the bogus claim that there would be “trouble.”
Despite objections from library staff, an officer attempted to attend the meeting. Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, understanding the objective of the police to intimidate the crowd and provoke a response, asked the officer to leave immediately; he left and did not return.
The meeting began with an update on the PSL’s “Fight Back!” campaign against the proposed fare hikes and service cuts on the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. An undeniable link exists between the people’s struggle against the fare hikes and service cuts and police brutality and racial profiling. The Boston Transit Police harass working-class people, predominantly those of color, on a routine basis. The same communities that suffer the most from fare hikes and transit police sweeps are those beset by racial profiling and police harassment.
The featured speaker of the meeting, Jennifer Zaldana, spoke about the growing nationwide epidemic of racial profiling and police brutality. She noted that the recent harassment and arrest of a Black Harvard professor received national media attention. Yet, the racial profiling and police brutality that occurs in all of our nation’s cities, often leading to the fatal shootings of Black and Latino people, never receive similar coverage.
“[W]hat people fail to see is that the police themselves are a gang that works in the interests of those in power—not in the interest of the poor and working class,” said Zaldana. “We must fight back to honor the legacy of those who have died at their hands and to prevent such deaths in the future.”
PSL member C. Gonçalves spoke on the role of the police in the capitalist state:
“Now, while the most essential component of capitalist rule is the police, their greatest strength is not found in their holsters, in their firepower. But rather their greatest strength is found in the ability to successfully legitimize the illusion that the role of the police is to fight crime and that the police are necessary to protect the people.”
He added, “In oppressed communities across the country, the police are viewed as an occupying force—the same way the people of Iraq and Afghanistan view the U.S. military as an occupying force.”
After each of the talks, the floor was opened for discussion. Participants discussed their own experiences and views on the racist and brutal police force, linking those experiences to racism in their community and the city of Boston in general. Many expressed a great desire to take action against these injustices. PSL Boston is committed to joining with other forces in the community to build a movement against racism and police brutality.
As revolutionaries, we must effectively fight back against police brutality. We must build a movement that puts the struggle against the racist police at the forefront of the struggle against capitalism.
