Racial Profiling and Police MurderThere is a homeless massThere is a prison to fillThere is the soul of a countryThat says "don't publish bills"There's a strike and a line of copsOutside the millThere's the right to obeyAnd there's the right to kill--Zack De La RochaThis is America, the home of freedom. Here "law and order" is maintained by vigilant police forces armed with semi-automatics and truncheons. Here it is "law and order" that lynch blacks. Two hundred years since this country was founded on the principles of equality before the law, the meaning of equality remains the same. Amadou Diallo was the same as all the other poor urban blacks and received his punishment from the law. His killers were the same as all other white elite enforcers, and they were… acquitted. The principle is well understood, invoking a strong Nazi-like patriotism in some. “It fills me with deep respect for being an American and living in a country that has a trial by jury,” announced New York Mayor Giulani after the acquittal of four police officers who fired 41 shots at Guinean immigrant Amadou Tell him while he was out. his home in the Bronx. Giuliani, of course, clearly understands what it means to be "American." The liberal apologists who try to explain the meaning of the shooting and acquittal are the ones missing the point. Forty-one shots are not a mistake. The acquittal was not just a flaw in the system. This is the system, and it is rooted in white male dominance and the rule of force. The system works perfectly as long as cops stay out of prison and are free to use deadly force at will. “But the system should treat people equally,” some will say. The right-wingers eat it up. They understand that equality, in the true sense of the word, is not one of the fundamental principles of American capitalism. In fact, it is inequality that maintains the system. The majority should never enjoy the same rights and privileges enjoyed by the wealthy few. To enforce minority rule requires a police force, whose function is to protect property and those who own property.