Troy Davis—Presente! They Murdered Him, but We Must Not Forget Him!
Last night they executed Troy Davis. They delayed the execution a few hours while the Supreme Court considered and rejected a last minute appeal from Troy’s lawyers. I don’t know if that court issued any statement explaining why they refused again to reopen his case and look at the mounting evidence of his innocence. But the content of what the system has told us in this case, as they told us in the case of Shaka Sankofa eleven years ago, is that innocence is no bar to execution.
The powers that be say this country is the homeland of freedom. They tell the world that they are the greatest defenders of human rights. Then they turn around and railroad Troy Davis to jail on trumped up evidence, refuse to even consider the mounting evidence of his innocence and execute him on the basis of that railroad.
This was a legal lynching, plain and simple. It didn’t matter to them that there was no physical evidence to tie Troy to the murder of the cop or that 7 of the 9 witnesses against Troy have come forward and said they lied, several of them claiming they were coerced to lie by cops who were dead set on frying some Black man, any Black man, for the killing of one of their own. No court has even bothered to reopen the case and look at this evidence! What else can we take from that but that they are telling us—‘We railroaded him, fair and square, and now we’re going to strap him down and fry him.’
Out in Harlem last night, a number of people who were hearing of Troy’s case for the 1st time told us, “They do that to Black people all the time.” Very true. The legal lynching of Troy Davis concentrates the way this system treats Black people. This system has criminalized our youth, treating them like they’re guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive their encounters with cops to prove their innocence, and if they can avoid being framed up in the system’s kangaroo courts.
The future this system has in store for many of our youth comes down to either crime and punishment or joining their military and killing people to keep their global empire in effect. What can you say about a system like this, except that it’s no damn good?
But things don’t have to be like this. We could end all the horrors this system inflicts on humanity thru revolution, communist revolution. We could get rid of this rotten system and bring into being a society and a world that serves the interests of the people. And we in the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) are building a movement for revolution to do just that. Get with this movement, sisters and brothers.
Two important things—BAsics, a book by Bob Avakian, the leader of the RCP. This book concentrates more than 3 decades of work Avakian has been doing studying the experience of previous revolutionary societies and grappling with everything that stands between humanity and its ultimate emancipation. With this book, we can bring the new understanding of how to make revolution and bring into a being a viable and desirable socialist society that Avakian has developed to the new generation If you don’t know about Avakian, you need to learn about him, and you need to let some other people know about him too. Get hold of BAsics, and help spread the word about it, because you can’t change the world if you don’t know the BAsics.
And 2, Cornel West and I have called for a day of non violent civil disobedience to Stop “Stop & Frisk.” The execution of Troy Davis underscores the need for determined RESISTANCE to the way this criminal injustice system mistreats Black people.
