Las Vegas DSA Condemns Police Violence and Reaffirms the Need to Abolish the Police
Las Vegas DSA stands in solidarity with Adam Toledo’s family and people all over the country as we grieve the senseless killing of a 13-year-old child. Police have taken it upon themselves to become judge, jury, and executioner, this time resulting in the murder of a child who can clearly be seen complying with instructions on the released video.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s disgraceful attempts to cover up and place blame for this extrajudicial killing on anyone except the Chicago PD echoes the behavior of politicians throughout the country who continue to carry water for a corrupt and irredeemable institution. The sheer audacity of asking for calm after the murder of a child and the further criminalization of protest in response will not be forgotten.
Adam Toledo was a child, only 13 years old, and was gunned down within seconds. Adam was attempting to comply with the orders given by his state sanctioned executioners and was seen to have dropped the weapon and was attempting to raise his hands.
Time and time again, the capitalist system adultifies children of color, grinding them into cogs in the brutal system or killing them. This is the same system that murdered 12-year-old Tamir Rice for playing with a toy gun in an open carry state.
This is the same system that murdered Jorge Gomez, shot in the back by Las Vegas Metro Police Department as he attempted to comply and disperse. He was exercising his constitutional right to bear arms, a right that white supremacists will jump to defend when it benefits themselves but never for a person of color, a distinction that was also made clear for Philando Castile.
This is the same system that handcuffed Dre Hollingsworth, Deaf and unable to understand LVMPD orders, while her 11-year-old twin daughters cried for officers to stop. Half of people killed by police have a disability, so we are thankful that Dre left her encounter with the police alive, unlike Elijah McClain, Magdiel Sanchez, and so many others.
All of this is coming to light in the same week when Daunte Wright was gunned down “accidentally” by a 26 year veteran of the police force and while killer cop Derek Chauvin is on trial for the videotaped torture-murder of George Floyd.
How many times must we witness the police kill on camera, the victim’s last moments splashed on every screen, before we accept that police do not serve or protect us? We live in a brutal capitalist society, undergirded by white supremacy, that will always value property more than human life. We will never be safe until this system is dismantled.
Las Vegas DSA reaffirms its support for abolishing the police, and our belief that defunding the police is a necessary first step to building a world free of police, prisons, and constant oppression.
Learn more about police abolition
LVDSA Abolish/Defund Police Resource List
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