BROOKLYN, NY, September 21— Over 200 people rallied and marched in Flatbush to demand justice for Kyam Livingston. Kyam was a 37-year-old African-American mom who was denied medical attention while in Brooklyn Central Booking and died in police custody. The death of Kyam, due to the callous indifference of the cops, is yet another instance of the racist reign of terror which is U.S. capitalism.
It has been over two months since Kyam’s murder by the NYPD, and still no one has been held accountable. The NYPD has refused to release the videotapes documenting what happened to Kyam and will not release the names of the officers responsible for her death. Marchers called out, “We want the tapes! We want the names!” as they followed in Kyam Livingston’s final footsteps.
Today’s march and rally focused on Kyam Livingston’s murder. But this particular instance of state-sanctioned terror must be seen in the context of a pattern of death after death after death of mainly young black and Latin working-class victims. As one speaker declared, there is something wrong with a system in which such deaths go unpunished. The threatened closings of three hospitals serving central Brooklyn’s black and Latin working-class communities, he pointed out, will certainly lead to more deaths. There is something wrong with a system in which money for needed hospitals can’t be found, but money for imperialist war budgets is never in short supply. Such a system must be smashed.  
Speakers at the rally included the family, the family’s lawyers, city council representatives and labor movement officials. Ms. Anita Neal, Kyam Livingston’s mother, vowed never to stop until justice was served and the officers responsible for her daughter’s death were prosecuted. Progressive Labor Party will join with the family and friends of Kyam Livingston in their fight for justice. We must point out that that racist police terror won’t end until we overthrow the capitalist system that creates, profits from, and promotes the conditions under which Kyam and countless others have died.