PHOTO/AMBER ARNOLD, WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL
MADISON, WI — A community, led by young people, erupted in protest, as yet another teenager was murdered by police, this time in Madison, Wisconsin. Police say they received reports that Tony Terrell Robinson, Jr., 19, was involved in a disturbance in traffic and behaving erratically. After police entered Tony’s home in search of him, they say Tony punched an officer. Eighteen seconds after entering the home, an officer shot Tony in the torso, head and arm, killing him. The officer that killed Tony killed another person in 2007. The community is outraged and demanding justice.
Tony’s mother, speaking at his funeral, said: “I was his light and he was mine. My son wanted to care for me and take care of me and stepped up to be the man of the house and raise his youngest siblings. He took care of the home in every single way. I want them to give me some answers. I want them to tell me why they took my baby. Why he deserved such a violent, hateful, evil death.” (From an article by Jeff Glaze at the Wisconsin State Journal.)
The struggle to indict cops for such murders is part of a whole process underway in our country. Underlying this process are changes in the economy, the introduction of labor replacing technology, which is permanently eliminating jobs or forcing so many workers into near starvation work or no work at all. Under these conditions, the youth are particularly vulnerable.
The powers that be, the billionaire owners of the corporations that have taken over this country in their search for greater profit, need a police state to control the developing mass movement against the growing poverty. Dropping the benign mask of “Serve and Protect,” the police stand exposed as the watchdogs of the private property of these billionaires. Militarized, divorced from society, striving to become a law unto themselves, their every brutal, illegal act shapes and concretizes an American police state. As we fight to end police brutality and killings, we must build a powerful movement that visualizes the world of peace and freedom that is possible and fight for that future.
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