Los Angeles, CA- On March 10, Bryan Bostic was driving from Compton to Inglewood to visit his mother. He was pulled over by Inglewood cops, only because he was Driving While Black (DWB), and ordered out of his car. A bystander video documents what happened next. Bryan was brutalized by the Inglewood cops, the Klan in Blue, as he called out for help.

Under capitalism, a system controlled by a tiny minority of billionaires, the role of  the police and other armed forces of the state is to serve these rulers and protect private property. Because Black workers set the example for all workers of fighting oppression and exploitation, and because the rulers rightly fear multiracial class struggle against the capitalist system, Black workers are often singled out for racist attacks.

Family members organize fight back

Bryan Bostic comes from a very close, strong and loving family. When they learned of his murder by the cops, they sprang into action. They clearly saw through the lies of the cops and the politicians and understood that Bryan’s murder was a racist attack. Following a large demonstration later in March, the family began holding weekly street rallies at the place where Bryan was murdered to protest this atrocity. The family and groups of supporters have also attended Inglewood City Council meetings to demand justice for Bryan.

Members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have been at almost every street rally and many of the Council meetings. We have shown CHALLENGE to family members, explained that we are revolutionary communists, gotten to know some family members, and brought some of our chants to the weekly rallies.

For months, family members attending the Council meetings have demanded answers- why was Bryan stopped, what are the names of the cops that stopped and brutalized him, why was he taken to the cops’ station instead of getting medical treatment. In response, the City has insulted the family by refusing to say why Bryan was stopped, why he was not given medical care and by giving them a list of all the cops on duty on March 10!

Fascist attacks on antiracists stopped    

Under Inglewood City Council rules, the members of the public are allowed to speak (for only one minute). Inglewood Mayor James Butts, a former Police Chief in Santa Monica and Inglewood cop, is also the head of the City Council. Because family members and supporters do not mince words and militantly demand justice for their loved one, Butts constantly cites the Council’s “Rules of Decorum” to cut speakers off and threatens to have them escorted out of the Council Chamber by one of the Klan in Blue.

At the June 9 Council meeting, Butts tried to cut off public comment by reading a summary of a report recently issued by the LA County Coroner’s Office. This summary said nothing about the “blunt force trauma” found by a medical examiner hired by the family to conduct an independent autopsy. The summary also stated that the cops found an unknown substance in a baggie in Bryan’s mouth, slanderously implying that the substance was drugs. One family member then exposed Butts, calling him a “liar” and a “criminal,” at which point Butts ordered the family member escorted out of the chamber.

When family members and supporters arrived for the June 16 Council meeting, three family members and one supporter were handed a memo from the City Attorney, banning them from attending Council meetings for 120 days because they had violated the “Rules of Decorum” and “disrupted” the session. Family members and supporters then held an hour-long impromptu rally inside City Hall. The next day, the City sheepishly rescinded the ban after a local lawyers’ group pointed out to the City Attorney that it was illegal.

Revolution will smash racist cop terror

As we and the family members have chanted every Sunday for a month there is no good cop in a racist system.” None of the reforms instituted by Democratic Party and other tools for the liberal ruling class- black politicians (like Butts), cops and Police Directors, civilian complaint review boards, body cameras, etc. has changed the fundamental nature of the police and the racist terror they perpetrate. Only communist revolution will rid our class of this terror and the racist ideology used to try to keep us divided.