STATEN ISLAND, November 19—On July 17, 2014, Ramsey Orta turned on his phone and took a video of the murder of Eric Garner on Staten Island. Eric was his friend. The klansmen in blue who killed Eric Garner and the and EMTs who stood by while he said “I can’t breathe” eleven times have not been charged with any crime. They have not even been fired by New York City’s liberal mayor, Bill de Blasio. The current and former police commissioners even allowed Eric murderer, Daniel Pantaleo to continue to work and even make an excessive amount of overtime. Racist murder is business as usual, for this rotten system which will continually fail our working class sisters and brothers.
Ramsey made sure the video went viral by giving it to the New York Daily News. Workers all over the world became aware of the racist brutality of the New York Police Department. This created an international firestorm and made Ramsey a target of the police. People should not forget that if it was not for Ramsey’s courage, we would not clearly and vividly know the truth about Eric Garner’s death. There are many other cop murders of unarmed Black and Latin workers and youth, but their details are not known because there is no video. The Progressive Labor Party will not turn our backs on Ramsey Orta.
Targeted by the system
Ramsey was arrested five times after the video went public. He is now serving a prison sentence of close to four years, on trumped up gun and drug charges, for which he was forced to accept a plea bargain. This is “justice” under capitalism. The person who reveals the facts of  racist police murder is jailed while the murderous politicians and their police are free to kill others. Capitalists, their lackey politicians and cops want to tell the working class to shut up about racism and these murders.
Over 100,000 people marched in Manhattan after the non-indictment of kkkop Pantaleo, expressing their anger and pushing the movement against police brutality. At the same time, a local group called Staten Island Against Racism and Police Brutality formed to get justice for Eric Garner. Whenever these murders take place, Progressive Labor Party members support the large demonstrations and the long-term grassroots organizations.
For daring to expose the system, Ramsey Orta has been and continues to be targeted for physical and emotional abuse by deputies and corrections guards. There has been a pattern of Ramsey being harassed, assaulted and then transferred to another facility every few months since he began serving his prison sentence. As a result of this, Ramsey frequently has had his privileges revoked and has been put into solitary confinement. Rat poison was even found in the food in his prison wing.
This is what happens when you expose the system. The constant facility changes makes it difficult for Ramsey’s supporters to visit him or send him letters. That’s part of his punishment for helping to unmask this racist system.
One of the things we’ve learned participating in these movements in the last few years is that many people talk about the fact that we must change the whole judicial system and police, but fail to realize that capitalism is the prime culprit for all these injustices. Racism and the resultant “justice” system formed the basis of the profit system and cannot coexist without them.
 The working class must take power under a mass communist party or any minor change or reform can reversed. Bringing workers and students to that level of understanding is our job as members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party.