New York Police Officer Fatally Shoots [Unarmed] Man After a Car and Foot Chase

The New York Times is reporting here on 8 December 2015 that "New York Police Officer Fatally Shoots Man After a Car and Foot Chase". While the NY Times headline doesn't mention it, the murdered man was unarmed.

A uniformed New York City police officer shot and killed an unarmed man on Tuesday after a car chase that began in the Bronx ended with a foot pursuit and a confrontation in a wooded area of Yonkers just off the Saw Mill River Parkway, the authorities said.

The NY TImes article avoids specifically mentioning the ethnicity or race of the murdered man, but from his name, Miguel Espinal, it is likely he is Hispanic. The Times goes on to list out the details of all the problems this man had, such as prior run-ins with the law, as if they somehow justified the slaughter of another human being at the hands of the police. Mr. Espinal's past is irrelevant to this murder, and the fact that the NY Times and similar media keep insinuating that only "bad people" get murdered by the police is irresponsible and reprehensible.

The Communist Party of Indiana CPUSA stands against the continuing police murder of African American youth and all people of color, working people, and the mentally ill. That these murders continue to be daily occurrences is indicative of the underlying, the real, function the police serve: to terrorize working class communities and all people of color, especially African American youth, in order to keep people from organizing for a society more conducive to human development and meeting humans needs rather than filling the wallets of the rich.

We support all efforts to impose citizen's control over the police, and support all people standing for justice in the cases of people murdered by the police. We further believe the nature of the role police play in our society must change before people can look to them to cherish and protect rather than abuse and murder.

The Communist Party of Indiana CPUSA stands against all murder by the police and demands a full and open investigation into Mr. Espinal's death at the hands of a police officer.