Chicago: Police Murder Dexter Reed
04/15/2024
Chicago: Police Murder Dexter Reed
To End Police Terror, We Need to End Capitalism
In the US, there have been over 1,000 fatal police shootings in the past 12 months, and this annual number is cruelly consistent with previous years.1 Dexter Reed is another victim of this relentless police assault on human dignity and life.
On March 21, Reed was stopped by a plainclothes tactical team as he drove through Humboldt Park in Chicago. Reed was stopped because he was not wearing a seatbelt. The result was the murder of Dexter Reed as the cops fired 96 rounds in 41 seconds, including three after Reed fell to the street.1
This is Not a Tragic Mistake
The five cops involved in Dexter’s murder have been investigated a combined 41 times since 2019, with many of those complaints stemming from traffic stops.2,3 As an ACLU lawyer stated, “The message that officers informally get is, go in guns blazing.”3
Whoever controls the state controls the police.
The police are bodies of armed people whose main role is to defend the state. Since the Capitalists control the government, the primary job of the police is to protect private property, exploitation and continued accumulation of wealth.
Our entire legal system, all our institutions, are set up to grow and protect private wealth … wealth that grows from robbery and corruption. If the main function of the police was to stop crime, they would arrest the Capitalists, the true criminals. Instead:
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- If starving people are in front of a grocery store, police will protect the food, not distribute it.
- If unhoused people are demanding access to empty homes, police will protect the owner.
- If we are protesting environmental destruction, police will protect the polluters
- If …….
Terror is a Key Tactic that the Police use to do their Job.
The traffic stop of Dexter Reed and his murder was not a random act by rouge cops. It is part of a systematic suppression of all poor, displaced, and working people regardless of the color of their skin, gender identity, or ethnic origin.
Reform or Revolution
Since 2019, the Chicago police have been under a Federal order to reform the way they operate in Black and Latino neighborhoods. But last year, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Chicago police claiming officers make a disproportionate number of traffic stops in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. As long as the state is set up to protect private property and the people who own it, the courts will not reform the police.
The only way to End Police Terror is to End the Capitalist Rule of Our Country.
Lets Talk.
1. Frank Edwards, Michael H. Esposito, and Hedwig Lee. Risk of Police-Involved Death by Race/Ethnicity and Place, United States, 2012–2018. American Journal of Public Health 108, 1241-1248
https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304559
2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/04/10/dexter-reed-shooting-video-chicago-police/
“As people struggle to survive war, climate catastrophe, poverty, and pandemic, a new fascist state form is arising to crush us – the naked rule of corporate power.” ..” The battle is a class struggle because the ruling class is the enemy of humanity and the earth itself.” from the League Program
The Voices of the League series of articles are intended to encourage a dialogue with developing revolutionaries. We highlight issues of the day and areas of special interest to new revolutionaries to provide an action guide. Please make your thoughts known by commenting at the end of the article.
Program of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America:
https://lrna.org/lrna-program/
