Jail the Killer Cops! ~ the Racist Cops Have Killed Again
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N086 March 1987 20p Monthly paper of the Spartacist League c___ ... ~. _. ____"""" __ --.-"-_..........."...>-""'"'- =-< ..... "'JiO -:::oF ~_--. ,... .. ~~~~~_~~_~......,..,.v.~>ft_ =:4 _-,.. t~~ n 2QJO grotest racist murder in Wolv,rhamgton Jail the killer cops! ~ The racist cops have killed again. Two white workers from Birmingham. The Sparta tr, ~:~ cist League marched with placards calling for - thousand protesters marched through the ,~r :'7\. streets of Wolverhampton on 7 March, out "Union/minority mass mobilisations to crush raged by the brutal police killing of Clinton racist terror!" and "Jail killer cops! Avenge :\lcCurbin, a young black man. He was Clinton lVIcCurbin!'! strangled by Wolverhampton cops on 20 Feb Clinton l\lcCurbin's death at the hands of ruary in the city-centre "N ext" clothes shop. the cops - who alleged he was using a stolen Shocked bystanders cried out to the cops: credit card at the shop - was a grisly, violent "Stot:' ii:! You're killinfS him!" And kill him they act of blatant racist terror. Eyewitness Ray did. mond Coulter described the killing to a re Despite a driving snowstorm, and a flow of porter from the iVolverhampton Express and intimidating and provocative police warnings Star (21 rebruarv): about "agitators" coming to "cause trouble", "I saw a poli~eman run up and grab him hundreds of local black residents came out to around the neck. The man was swinging nwt'd~ alcngside members of 1\lcCurbin's fam himself round, trying to get away. Then he ily. The demonstration, called by the Black fell against the window. The next thing was Community Action Group, also drevJ Asian and continued on page 2 ~-,.,~...,._,-.. =--~ __---..- __~.-.~;.~_-~ ....... ",,,,,,,,,....... ,__ ..... __ O< ........."""'_ ....--"'.....-~......".-<'1C!>-~ •• -~~"'~._=< ...... ::~,~=--_"""'_,,."""'....,.·,<=~-~,~~_- ."""-"'",-=-___....,-,...., _________ ,, _______ '=- ____~~~ ...._ A!l~l~,g@y_lrigg.~J{~kJ!lJ!~ Thatcher's AIDS hysteria Ever since the defeat of the miners eliminating one of the only means strike, the Thatcher government has they had to control the rat popu aimed at tightening the noose around lation which spread the plague. the "enemy vvithinl' - as she has label Superstition kills.) led the miners and all those who ral In a rational society, which de lied behind them. Thatcher's ever crepit British capitalism is certainly widening "enemy within" has grown not, an all-out campaign vvould be to target everyone who isn't "true launched to use all the scientific blue and Tory too". This has meant resources possible to cure the sick police rampages against workers and prevent the spread of the virus. demonstrations, black and Asian com No such luck in Thatcher's BritDin. ~1Unities, the Bile in Cilasgow, Tamil The victim",; of AIDS have been refugecs. f\nd it hue; mCDnt tile vic made to suffer horrible abuses ran ious. calculnted rnanipul8tion of anti ging from doctors who refuse to hcmo'ieual bigotry 810ng with feCtI' treat them to terrorist firebombings and ig;;ouillce about AIDS to t8l'get of their homes. A glimpse of the hOl1loo;c:\uDls,. reactionary climate is provided in The AIlJS hysteria is part of a gen the follovving item about the AIDS erell cn m pLi ign to reinstate "\ ictorian charity Terrence Higgins Tt'ust's values" and reinforce the strangle catalogue of horror stories: hold of the nucleur farnily on the "The trust said a drug addict with working class. Tn this Ttwtcher has Aids cut her wrists after a GP in been even more than usu811y aided Dundee told her: 'We don't want and abetted bv the Labour Party's you in here. You had better go off Neil Kinnock viho described himse-lf and cut your wrists because I am bluntly: "] am a father and no matter not going to help.' ... hovv much I try to convince myself "Richard Haigh, the chairman of towar'ds the course of enlightenment the trust's steering committee, I know damn \vell that. put to the test, said: '1 have met a man with Aids I am what people call a reactionary" whose house was firebombed by (Times, 29 August 1986). hostile neighbours.' He had also seen an incontinent Aids patient in hos Acquired immune deficiency syn New drome (AIDS) is terrifying enough to pital whose bed linen in the iso Thatcher and friend: gargoyles of reaction target everyone. We say: those who have contracted it. Caused lation room had not been changed billions for AIDS research! by a virus that destroys the body's for two weeks." (Indepenaent,6 immune system, almost all victims terrible epidemic because it was a people to death about sex. Atone l\larch) . are dead within two years of diagno disease that affected gays and drug point, both lTV and BBC had to warn There are a plethora of such inci- sis. Taking a cue from the US Reagan addicts, the Iron Bitch sees a way to viewers not to go and kill their cats dents: " ..• neighbours learned that a right, the Tory government has seized cash in on misery. when it was discovered that a cat in man had Aids after police arrived in upon this tragic and presently incur Billions of pounds are urgently San Francisco had contracted a form 'space suits' to arrest him. The same able disease to scapegoat homo necessary for research to find a cure of the virus. (During the 14th century night his house was burned down and sexuals for the crisis of capitalism 'or preventive vaccine for AIDS. Black Death it was believed that the his family vvas left homeless", the in its death agony. Just as the reac Instead, the country has been sub plague was a punishment by god for Independent reported on 16 Decem tionary Moral Majorityites in the US jected to a government propaganda sin and people flagellated them ber 1986. In another case, "a fright- rubbed their hands in glee over the blitz ultimately designed to scare selves - they also killed cats, thus continued on page 8 did not get a chance." The cops res~onded by calling in a Jail the Another witness reported that "I\Ic virtual army of their fellow thugs in Curbin was being held around the blue, brutalising and arresting on neck and vilas having difficulty breath lookers. They started up a short-lived killer cops ... ing". The cops took their victim into "disinformation" campaign, claiming a back room in the shop and it was a (continued fr:om page 1) officially that Clinton McCurbin died full two hours before his body was from a drug-induced heart attack. A taken avvay in an ambulance. post mortem revealed "asphyxia" as that they were kneeling on him. As news spread of the police attack, the real cause. Vvest Midlands Chief The force they were using was far hundreds of local youth - mainly but Constable Geoffrey Dear alibied the too excessive. One black woman in not exclusively black - gathered out lies, arrogantly stating "I make no the shop burst out crying. He never side the "Next" shop demanding to apology for putting out that infor swung a punch against them. He know what had happened to l\lcCurbin. mation". Dear has placed the two cops who killed l\lcCurbin on sick leave in preparation for a new assignment. No to this racist outrage -lock them up and throwaway the keys! Clinton's mother I\lrs Esther l\Ic Curbin flew from New York City \. ! "\ where she now resides to visit the , , ~ \ Spartacist site of her son's killing and to "make League on sure there is no cover-up by police". demonstration When she brought a wreath of flowers CLINTON McCURBIN to protest to lay in the "N ext" shop she was prevented by a security guard from brutal cop Voice killing of going in. She thl'ew the wreath instead maech in Wolverhampton against the Clinton • into the foyer and walked off. "I latest racist outrage. What is necess McCurbin. want to know "hy he had to die over an alleged stolen credit card", l\!rs al'y is a mobilisation of the West :\lid fllcCurbin stated, adding that "I'm lands' strongly unionised workfol'ce, going to defend him until my dyinp; many of vvhom al'e black, Indian, day" (ExpT'ess and StaT', 23 february). Pakistani and Irish. :\lilitant mass demonstrations and strike action in \Nhile there have been calls for a the foundries and factories, on the full public heal'ing into Clinton 1\1 c trains and buses, and in the i\lidlands Curbin's death at the hands of the pits can give v<larning to the unifol'med cops, Labour l!'aitor Neil 1\ innock racists, their capitalist and LaboUl' won't baCK even that. There's not Party backers that this tenor against much to "inquire" about here - the minorities will not be tolerated. cops who killed Clinton I\lcCUl'bin The Spal'tacist League also calls al'e guilty as hell. But Kinnock won't for the right of armed self-defence. countenance even this mild attemRt The police monopoly on fil'earms at some civilian scrutiny ovel' the Celebrating International Women's Day emboldens the cops and leaves work rampaging boot boys. Indeed he ap ing people defenceless in the face of pealed for '''calm and patience' while "extl'a-Iegal" terror by the fascists The excerpts printed below from police investigations into the tragedy V I Lenin's "International Working as well. Such a class-struggle per continued" (Express and StaT', 2 Women's Day" appeared in the sup spective to smash !'acist and fascist March). Fol' Kinnock "the fil'st step plement to Pravda, 8 March 1921.