The lynching of Robert Brooks and the expanding police state

Robert Brooks, a 43-year-old Black man imprisoned at Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York, was viciously beaten to death by a group of prison guards on the morning of December 10, 2024.

A series of eight gruesome videos released to the public show prison staff punching, kicking, gagging and choking Mr. Brooks while he was handcuffed until he finally succumbed to his injuries. The video has sparked outrage from nearly everyone who has seen it, and the people are now strongly demanding justice for Robert Brooks.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who claims to be “outraged and horrified” and admits that this was a “senseless killing,” announced on Dec. 22 that prison officials are “moving to fire the staffers involved.” Yet despite these comments, not one of the 14 prison staffers connected to the lynching have been charged with this heinous crime.

A longtime pattern of violence

White supremacy in the U.S. is as old as the country itself and forms the foundation of the “justice” system today. Killings and beatings like this are not new; they have happened on a regular basis since the first Africans were abducted and brought for enslavement on this continent by white settlers. 

The U.S. ruling class has made a habit of offering symbolic gestures to quell the anger that has risen over the centuries. These gestures may give the appearance that this country has progressed away from its racist colonial past, but killings like that of Robert Brooks or George Floyd remind us of the tyranny that is inflicted on communities of color across the country by police, prisons and courts.

Here in Buffalo, just within the last few months, the police have signed a contract with Dataminr Inc to use artificial intelligence (AI) to surveil social media. Buffalo is currently turning the recently closed, only grocery store that was located in the downtown food desert into a new police station. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office continues to plot on building a new jail. Anyone who lives in Buffalo knows how famously brutal the Erie County Holding Center already is.

These attempts to expand the racist police state and prison system will never make the city safer. Each and every one of these attempts will lead to more murders in our city like what happened to Robert Brooks. It is time for us to come together to fight this injustice. Not one more racist killing!

Justice for Robert Brooks!