The Portland District of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization condemns the extrajudicial police killing of Michael Reinoehl. The system that cops uphold claims to derive its legitimacy from “equality before the law.” Nothing could be further from the truth in Michael Reinoehl’s death by federal agents.
As well, the fact remains that this ‘equality’ does not extend to the Black, Chicano and Native American peoples within this country. The oppressed peoples of the U.S. can see the breadth of this ‘equality’ every time their brothers and sisters are brutalized by the police and the system of terror they uphold. This ‘equality’ was on full display in Kenosha recently after a white supremacist with blood on his hands passed unimpeded across police lines, just minutes after shooting protesters who were demonstrating to end the barbarous excesses of state cruelty.
As capitalism’s crisis of legitimacy deepens, we can only expect the police in the United States to expand their use of extrajudicial killings, and side even more clearly with reactionary militias and vigilantes to stamp out popular dissent. The casting off of the veil of neutrality by the police is the mechanical reaction of the state to powerful mass movements. This is the history of the U.S. government in response to mass movements for change, let alone revolution.
Our people will not cease in the struggle against imperialism and national oppression, both at home and abroad. With unwavering determination, we will continue to take action against the state and all of the forces of reaction it employs against us. Fight on!
