Face of killer cop Van Dyke. Fox32 screenshot.
Carl Dix is co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network
Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago cop who murdered Laquan McDonald has been convicted – of 2nd degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery.
After decades of police and racists getting away with murder: from Emmett Till and Fred Hampton and up to Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Darius Pinex, Justus Howell, Rekia Boyd, Aquoness “Quono” Cathery, and Harith Augutus.
We finally got a little of bit of justice. We forced a conviction of a cop for murdering a Black person. People are right to celebrate this, and the police have no right to suppress them or take vengeance against them when they do.
It should’ve been 1st degree murder. The evidence showed this. The video shows Van Dyke opening fire on Laquan as he walked away from the police with his hands at his side. Van Dyke pumped 16 shots into Laquan’s body, most of them as he lay on the ground bleeding.
Right now, it seems that these convictions are enough to send this murdering cop to jail. But we need to be vigilant that they don’t find some loophole to let him walk. We can’t go to sleep on this.
During the trial some activists and leaders said “yes, we should protest but we don’t want another Ferguson.” Let’s be clear: this murdering cop never would’ve been on trial in the first place if it weren’t for what people did in Ferguson and Baltimore, and the other places where people straightened their backs.
This spread all across the country including Chicago taking to the streets to demand police terror stop; and as part of this, there were all the exposures, the marches and rallies in Chicago in response to the release of the video of the murder of Laquan and the massive coverup that ran right to the entire city administration.
This struggle has impacted the way people more broadly look at these police murders of Black and Brown people. So much so, that in this case, even though there was only one Black juror and the state put on a lackluster prosecution, the jurors still looked at the video of Laquan being murdered and saw it for what it was – murder.
“How We Can Really Make Revolution,” the guide to making revolution, says “We need to oppose and disrupt the moves of the ruling powers” to isolate, encircle, brutalize, mass incarcerate and murderously repress the people who have the hardest life under this system and who most need this revolution. We need to “encircle” them – by bringing forth wave upon wave of people rising up in determined opposition to this system.
This verdict was a step toward that.
We don’t want to just keep fighting these same battles year after year. What they do to people here and all over the world is horrible… and it is unnecessary. It is caused by their system, of capitalism-imperialism – and we must and we can overthrow that system.
We have the science that lets us know how to fight. We have the strategy for fighting and winning in “How We Can Win,” that you can read at www.revcom.us.
We have the plan for a new society, where all exploitation and oppression can be abolished and humanity can be emancipated, in The Constitution for The New Socialist Republic in North America.
I call on everyone in Chicago and all over the country who wants to see a better day, who yearns for freedom, get with the revolution and to join the Revolution Club.
In Chicago: Revolution Club Organizing Center, 1857 E. 71st. St., Chicago 312-804-9121.
Email: [email protected]
Social media @revclubchi
Carl Dix is co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network.
