Statment on Tyre Nichols and Manuel Esteban Paez Teran (Tortuguita)
Tyre Nichols and Manuel Esteban Paez Teran—also known as Tortuguita—were both killed by police officers earlier this month in their respective cities of Memphis, TN and Atlanta, GA. Despite the differences that led up to their deaths, the result is the same—another American killed by the police. Another person of color dying at the hands of our government approved “peacekeepers.” Each of the specific circumstances in which Tyre and Tortuguita found themselves highlight different aspects of the systemic issue that is police violence and the inherent nature of policing in this country. They must be called out as they are—vicious and disgusting embodiments of state sanctioned murder resulting from our abhorrent justice system in the U.S. Violent persecution and senseless torment of the subjugated masses permeates the historical bedrock of U.S. policing itself, which continues to function (as intended) as a racist and anti-worker oppressive force imbued with impunity from the state capitalists they protect.
People of all walks of life can recognize brutality when it is presented in front of them. Americans have throughout our history been able to comprehend governmental overreach and call out corruption when we see it. Yet, our country’s leaders are only able to identify issues when it is politically expedient for them to do so. That’s why even President Biden, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis and the national president of the largest police union Patrick Yoes cannot avoid calling out the cruelty and savageness of Tyre Nichols’ murder. Even bourgeois media outlets have been forced to openly question the actions of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, as he established a state of emergency order to punish protestors and generated domestic terrorism charges against tree sitters at the Cop City development site. United States law enforcement killed at least 1186 people in 2022, making it the deadliest year in the last decade since these numbers were first able to be tracked in 2013. Since the Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police protests of 2020, the rising public consciousness around police violence and the question of abolition have resulted in these ideas becoming household topics.
Having the ability to acknowledge that something is wrong is a key phase in societal development and progress. The next steps must be diagnosing the problem and tackling it at its root source. What is the reason why people like Tyre and Tortuguita continue to lose their lives? We need to separate these structural crises from their current iteration and connect them to the larger institutional constructs that produce these violent effects. In The End of Policing, Alex S. Vitale writes, “American police function, despite whatever good intentions they have, as a tool for managing deeply entrenched inequalities in a way that systematically produces injustices for the poor, socially marginal, and nonwhite.” America is an oppressive capitalist state, and the police forces that it employs are only held in place to support the ruling class and protect their interests. Police function as an armed extension of state power, and their goal is only to shield the ruling classes from the repercussions of their antagonistic exploitation of the working class. It must be recognized that the brutality perpetrated by our police officers in America has a direct correlation to their placement in the capitalist hierarchy. The police operate above society with almost total legal exemption and alienate themselves from the masses, despite their stated goals as “civil servants.” They are the lackeys of capital, and capital protects its own. Less than three percent of all police killings result in the offending police officer even being charged with a crime, while the national murder clearance rate sits around 50%. They walk in stride with their historical forebears as slave catchers, strike breakers and vigilantes who enforce the law as they see fit, knowing that they will likely never see the inside of a courtroom or a jail cell for their actions.
The system is operating as intended. President Biden still seeks to fund the hiring of 100,000 new police officers to the tune of $13 billion over the next five years, while insisting that minor criminal justice reforms are all that is needed to protect POC and working-class communities that are so often abused by the armed enforcers of the state. These so-called reforms, like community policing and racial composition reflection requirements, did nothing to protect the life of Tyre Nichols. These expansions of police funding and power are the exact things that Tortuguita died trying to prevent. Violence is embedded within the system. Racism is embedded within the system. Injustice is embedded within the system. The system is operating as intended, and it can only be dissolved in the interest of the oppressed masses.
Justice for Tyre Nichols!
Justice for Tortuguita!
Solidarity with the protestors and the forest defenders!
Abolish the Police!