Atlanta cop charged with felony murder
Rayshard Brooks killed with 2 shots in the back
https://themilitant.com/2020/06/20/atlanta-cop-charged-with-felony-murder/
BY JANICE LYNN
AND BRIAN WILLIAMS
Vol. 84/No. 25
June 29, 2020
June 15 Atlanta march organized by NAACP. Protests continue across the
U.S., worldwide.
STEVE SCHAEFER/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION VIA AP
June 15 Atlanta march organized by NAACP. Protests continue across the
U.S., worldwide.
ATLANTA — “When I heard the news about the killing last night, I decided
it was time to stand up,” 18-year-old James Teasley told the Militant in
Atlanta June 13, as he joined his first demonstration. Protests erupted
throughout the city when Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old African
American, was shot dead by Garrett Rolfe, an Atlanta cop, the night
before. “If you want change you have to work for it,” Teasley said.
Rolfe faces charges of felony murder, the Fulton County district
attorney announced June 17.
Several hundred march June 14 in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, one of
thousands of protests in cities, towns and rural areas all across the
country. Many involve youth new to protest actions.
ALLEGHENY FRONT/KARA HOLSOPPLE
Several hundred march June 14 in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, one of
thousands of protests in cities, towns and rural areas all across the
country. Many involve youth new to protest actions.
Widespread outrage at the killing of Brooks comes as hundreds of
thousands of working people in cities, small towns and rural areas
across the country and worldwide continue to protest cop brutality. The
explosion began after four cops in Minneapolis killed George Floyd May
25, cuffing him and kneeling on his neck for over eight minutes while he
repeatedly told them, “I can’t breathe.” Brooks was killed after he had
fallen asleep in his car while waiting to pick up food at a Wendy’s
drive-thru. He was planning to go to a birthday party for his daughter.
The two cops, Rolfe and Devin Brosnan, rousted him, patted him down and
administered an alcohol breath test, which they say Brooks failed. They
then moved in to arrest him.
A struggle ensued with Brooks grabbing one of the officer’s Tasers and
running away. The cops gave chase, firing a Taser at him. Brooks fires a
Taser near Rolfe. Rolfe pulls out his gun and fires three shots, two of
them hitting Brooks in the back, killing him. This led to an uproar of
protests.
Within 24 hours Rolfe was fired, Brosnan placed on administrative leave
and Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned. Brooks’ family members
are calling for the officer who shot him to be arrested and charged for
Brooks’ death.
Atlanta Police Department records show that Rolfe has faced multiple
complaints for unauthorized use of force during his seven years as a cop.
June 13 action at police station in Vallejo, California, protests dozens
of police shootings there in recent years. Latest victim, Sean
Monterrosa, pictured on posters, was killed on June 2.
MILITANT/BETSEY STONE
June 13 action at police station in Vallejo, California, protests dozens
of police shootings there in recent years. Latest victim, Sean
Monterrosa, pictured on posters, was killed on June 2.
Actions have taken place in at least 2,000 cities and towns across the
country. They show the strength of the changes that have occurred in the
working class as a result of the proletarian Black-led civil rights
movement in the 1950s and ’60s that overthrew Jim Crow segregation and
boosted the fight against racism around the world.
A series of actions are taking place nationwide on Juneteenth, the June
19 holiday that marks the day the last slaves in the U.S. were freed.
Today’s protests against cop brutality provide a powerful example of
what workers and farmers can do when we organize around our common
interests in the face of the bosses’ efforts to offload the capitalist
crisis on our shoulders.
“We can’t live on our wages. We can’t afford a place to live, and it’s
motivating a lot of people to come out to join the protests,” Sarah
Scott, 30, told the Militant at an action against cop brutality in
Seattle June 12. “It’s really inspiring.”
Protests spread in small towns
Many actions are being organized in smaller towns where protests have
been rare in recent years. The vast majority of participants are
Caucasian. Organizers — often area high school students — say they
didn’t know what to expect and were surprised by how many people turned
out. Each one spurred other calls to action in nearby villages.
Alyson Kennedy, left, Socialist Workers Party candidate for president,
joins more than 200 people marching against cop brutality in Radcliff,
Kentucky, a town of 22,000, on June 13.
MILITANT/SAMIR HAZBOUN
Alyson Kennedy, left, Socialist Workers Party candidate for president,
joins more than 200 people marching against cop brutality in Radcliff,
Kentucky, a town of 22,000, on June 13.
In Pennsylvania, for example, protests have occurred in Jeannette,
Monroeville, Butler, Murrysville, New Kensington, St. Marys, Reading,
Hamburg, and Shippensburg, to name a few. In Irwin, a town of 3,700
people, students from Norwin High School organized a protest June 6.
Several hundred joined in. This is the area that former President Barack
Obama smeared as racist and reactionary at a San Francisco fundraiser in
2008. “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania, and, like a lot of
small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone for 25 years and
nothing replaced them,” Obama opined. “And it’s not surprising then they
get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people
who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment
as a way to explain their frustrations.”
In Butler, population 14,000, north of Pittsburgh, some 25 people turned
out June 13. “I didn’t expect a protest to happen here, but I’m glad it
did,” Aimee Kelly, a hairdresser, told the Militant at the action.
Another Butler resident, Phil Heasley, added, “Police brutality is not
just a big town issue.”
In Murrysville, Aryanna Hunter, a veteran of Washington’s 2003 war on
Iraq, decided to initiate a similar action in her hometown.
“The number of folks turning out all across rural Pennsylvania is
amazing,” she told the Pittsburgh Tribune. “If we’re going to change
anything we also have to show our neighbors that Black lives matter. And
I shouldn’t have to drive to Pittsburgh to do that.”
Several hundred people turned up, marching down the town’s main highway
June 14.
“These small towns matter because it’s a lot of small towns,” Ande
Green, one of two organizers of a protest in Alliance, Ohio — population
21,616 — told BuzzFeed News. “All of these small towns coming together,
it’s what we need to make a change.”
Actions have taken place across all 50 states. In Alaska in early June
rallies protesting the killing of Floyd were organized by Alaska
Natives, who spoke out against harassment they face from the cops.
Actions have been organized from Kotzebue above the Arctic Circle to
Ketchikan in the southeastern part of the state.
The impact of these protests nationwide resulted in authorities charging
officer Derek Chauvin with second-degree murder, and also filing charges
against the three other cops who helped Chauvin kill Floyd.
‘Charge cops who kill’
Protests have continued in Atlanta since the cops killed Rayshard
Brooks. Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union joined several thousand
marching on the Georgia state Capitol June 15 called by the NAACP.
“Union workers have to show some leadership in the fight against police
brutality and for justice,” Britt Dunams, president of ATU Local 732,
told the Militant. “Each and every time there’s been a rally, we’ve been
there.”
The nationwide actions boost the fight to charge the cops who killed
Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, March 13. Emergency room
technician Taylor was killed when cops carried out a midnight no-knock
raid on her apartment, spraying the bed where she slept with bullets.
Charges have yet to be filed against the three officers who carried out
the attack.
In Radcliff, Kentucky, more than 200 people rallied and marched June 13
in this town of 22,000 near the Fort Knox army base southwest of
Louisville. Chloe Metcalf, a youth pastor at the Restoration Worship
Center church, organized the protest. Speakers included Metcalf pastor
Carl Smalls, Radcliff Mayor J.J. Duvall, Socialist Workers Party
presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy and her running mate Malcolm Jarrett.
“These cops need to go to jail for what they did to Breonna,” Tamar
Strong, who is laid-off from a job working with people with
disabilities, told the Militant at the protest. “If we, the people,
don’t stand up together, these attacks are just going to continue.”
In Benton, Kentucky, whose population is 4,500 and 97 percent Caucasian,
Hope Davis called a protest, expecting a handful of people to attend.
Three hundred showed up. “There has never been a civil rights protest
here. This was the first one. Ever,” she told the Louisville
Courier-Journal.
Young farmers speak out
“It is unacceptable that the murder of Black people goes unpunished,”
said the National Young Farmers Coalition in a June 3 statement. “We
stand in solidarity with protests across the country and with the
individuals who demand justice and accountability from law enforcement.”
“To be a farmer and an organizer in our coalition is to commit to an
anti-racist farming future. Black farmers deserve meaningful change and
transformation. Now, yesterday, and tomorrow,” Martin Lems, Sophie
Ackoff and the rest of the staff of the coalition said.
On June 13 hundreds marched to the police station in Vallejo, a city of
122,000 north of San Francisco. Protesters carried signs with the names
of more than three dozen shot by the cops in the last couple decades.
Most recently, 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa was killed June 2 when a cop
shot him through a police car windshield outside a Walgreens store.
Monterrosa was on his knees when he was shot. The cop claims he mistook
a hammer in the pocket of Monterrosa’s sweatshirt for a gun. “My brother
did not deserve to be murdered, the same as anyone else’s family member
here,” Michele Monterrosa, Sean’s sister, told the crowd.
Protesters demanded the prosecution of the cop and the release of the
video of the shooting.
In New York, daily marches have been organized in different locations
rather than one large centralized action. Sometimes they bump into each
other and get together.
Hundreds of Puerto Ricans and others marched against cop brutality June
14 in Harlem, despite city authorities canceling the annual Puerto Rican
Day Parade, saying it would spread COVID-19. It drew other protesters.
“The other day I heard Gov. Cuomo say that the protests should stop
now,” Constance Malcolm told the rally. She is the mother of Ramarley
Graham, who was shot and killed by New York cops in 2012. “No — we are
not going to stop because just two nights ago we had another killing, in
Georgia. That goes to show you that they don’t care and are not going to
stop.”
The cops need to “do the time for the crime they commit,” she said.
In Montreal, tens of thousands marched June 7 to protest Floyd’s
killing. “I wanted to be here because I’ve seen racism from the cops,”
freelance photographer Brandon Landerman told the Militant at the
action. “I’ve seen my cousin being arrested for nothing. I’ve seen my
uncle being pulled over because he’s driving a Mustang, being asked if
he’s a drug dealer.”
Handmade signs listed names of those killed by cops on both sides of the
U.S.-Canada border.
In Paris, some 15,000 people rallied against police brutality June 13.
Among those addressing the crowd was Assa Traore, sister of 24-year-old
Adama Traore, who died in police custody in 2016. “The death of George
Floyd has a strong echo in the death in France of my little brother,”
she told the rally. Traore’s family says he was asphyxiated when three
officers held him down. No one has been charged in the case. Thousands
more joined similar actions throughout the country, including in Lyon,
Marseille and Rouen.
Other rallies worldwide that day included 10,000 in Zurich, Switzerland;
protests in London; and in several cities in Australia and New Zealand.
Susan LaMont in Atlanta; Tony Lane in Pittsburgh; Maggie Trowe in
Louisville, Kentucky; Betsey Stone in Oakland, California; Rebecca
Williamson in Seattle; Lynda Little in Montreal; and Derek Jeffers in
Paris contributed to this article.
Young people grab ‘Militant,’ books as they join in protests
“I want that book,” the young man pointing to Women’s Liberation and the
African Freedom Struggle told Socialist Workers Party campaigner Tamar
Rosenfeld at the party’s literature table during one of the many
protests against police brutality in New York…
What is the road to end police brutality once and for all
Following the cop killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a powerful
wave of protests has swept across the world, penetrating into hundreds
of small towns and rural areas across the U.S., drawing a whole new
generation of youth into political…
Front Page Articles
Atlanta cop charged with felony murder
Workers fight bosses, gov’t attacks as crisis unfolds
Young people grab ‘Militant,’ books as they join in protests
Cuba’s revolution is an example for working people everywhere
Liberals demand right to suppress political views on ‘social media’
Feature Articles
Alan Harris: 65-year leader of the communist movement
Also In This Issue
What is the road to end police brutality once and for all
Over $123,000 donated to SWP ‘stimulus’ appeal
Fruit packers celebrate gains in strike in Yakima Valley
Fight for jobs! Defend wages, conditions!
Books of the Month
Workers need to break from dead end of ‘lesser evil’ politics
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
