By George Hetling
On April 8, 2023, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced, “I am working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Army Sgt. Daniel Perry.” He is unable to pardon Perry directly. He first requires a recommendation for the action from the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles, most of whose members were themselves appointed by Abbott. Abbott did not listen to the evidence presented in the courtroom, but is instead motivated by the need to deter progressive activism. He wishes to defend the White Terror of Perry’s firing into a crowd of participants in the Movement for Black Lives. This speaks to the fact that demonstrations like the ones Foster participated in produce results.
While the criminal justice system is itself reactionary, it is still a trench of combat where workers have to fight for their rights. The masses have demanded a conviction for Daniel Perry since Foster’s murder in July 2020, and a successful conviction would be a victory for the working class and an example of People’s Justice. A pardon for Perry would negate this victory outright.
Perry’s murder of Foster was violence committed on behalf of bourgeois reaction, openly opposed to the progressive Movement for Black Lives. He disclosed his intentions to Justin Smith in a Facebook message on May 31, 2020, reading “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work, they are rioting outside my apartment complex.” In the same conversation, he later discloses his exact plan of action which he would later carry out against Garrett Foster: “I will only shoot the ones in front and push the pedal to the metal.” From the time of Foster’s murder, the Old State has tried every possible maneuver to exonerate Perry. This includes maneuvers from the Austin Police Department who initially refused to charge Perry with any crime, APD Detective Fugitt who sabotaged his own investigation to absolve Perry, and the Travis County DA’s office which only concluded a grand jury to indict Perry a year after the shooting. Even in jury selection before the trial, a process that can normally take weeks, the state rushed through the process, concluding it within a day.
The only time the system will ever convict the agents of White Terror is when it is forced to by the organized people. When Garrett Foster was murdered, there quickly formed a vigorous campaign in support of his actions, correctly labeling him a defender of the people. The first success of this campaign was to publicly reveal the identity of Daniel Perry. It popularized the case and countered the monopoly media’s narrative that Perry shot Foster out of self-defense, which is inconsistent with the vast majority of eyewitness accounts. It forced the Travis County DA’s hand in pursuing an indictment. Without the strength of this campaign, it’s likely that Perry would have never seen a trial at all.
The movement for People’s Justice for Garrett Foster was part of a broader anti-imperialist movement in the US. Beginning in February 2022, a small renegade group within the movement sabotaged this work. They denounced all the work they had done in this anti-imperialist movement, including the support for Garrett Foster’s family, and abandoned their posts. Those who are still dedicated or sympathetic to the movement were left without solid leadership and remain dispersed. This left the campaign without strong organization and coordination, and it has withered on the vine in the past year. Reactionaries are taking advantage of this, which is why they have now made Perry a cause célèbre. Throughout the trial, the courtroom was one third supporters and family of Garrett Foster, one third law students and reporters, and one third police and assorted reactionaries in support of Perry’s murder of Garrett Foster. It was standing room only, with even some of Foster’s loved ones unable to take a seat.
This trend must be reversed. All those committed to the fight against police terror and for Black Lives must ignite new campaigns. They must seek to unite in the front against the reactionary enemies, who themselves display unity in their backward plots. This unity must be on as broad a basis as possible while maintaining progressive principles, despite any possible disagreements between individuals or organizations.
Greg Abbott’s time as Texas governor has been characterized by a particularly intense impulse to reactionize the state, mainly by replacing local governance with direct state governance, which also consolidates power in the executive branch—particularly his personal power. These moves are always a reaction to the progressive struggles of the masses, most recently the struggles for better education and against police terror. Just in the last year, Abbott’s administration has replaced Houston Independent School District’s superintendent with direct state-level administration through the Texas Education Authority and now also threatens a more limited intervention in Austin ISD. It has deployed State Troopers to act as city police officers in Austin, which is ultimately a reaction to the movement for Black Lives and the increasing unpopularity of police departments in the US. Data shows that 9 out of every 10 people arrested by State Troopers in Austin are Black or Hispanic people. The attempt to pardon Daniel Perry is simply another one of Abbott’s interventions: this time removing power from the judicial system rather than local governments and mayors.
Garrett Foster, killed in Austin on July 25, 2020, was an activist who had been marching in the Movement for Black Lives for 50 days straight, with his common-law wife Whitney Mitchell. He carried an AK-47 as a defense measure, as he believed that the police would not protect protesters from reactionary violence. He worked to defend these marches, which is what he was doing as he approached Daniel Perry’s car.
Increase the pressure: Fight for Garret Foster, Servant of the People and Defender of Black Lives! Unite against White Terror!
The trial of far-right reactionary Army Sgt. Daniel Perry proves that the bourgeois state is prepared to dismiss all its claims of protecting civil society, when it suits them they will attempt to negate the decisions of a jury, cover up criminal acts and sanction the killing of activists who operate within their democratic and constitutional rights. There is only one word for these maneuvers: oppression. This case goes far beyond the persons of Perry and Foster and carries with it significant political consequence in the long term struggles against police terror, which is wielded in its most aggressive form against working class Black people.
Nonetheless, it is necessary to understand the type of man that Garret Foster was, why he fought and courageously gave his life to the peoples struggles. Comrade Foster was the primary caregiver for his common-law wife, Whitney Mitchell, a Black woman and quadruple amputee. Mitchell is a heroine in her own right, who never relented in the fight for her people, and still fights for Foster, no matter how much she is disadvantaged by the old society. Both comrades are the children of the working class and peoples struggles who serve as shining examples to follow in the turbulent and difficult struggles ahead.
In stark contrast we find the exact opposite in Daniel Perry, an active sergeant for US Imperialism and fanatic reactionary. Perry has shown a long history of anti-social behavior, from the posts and texts revealed in court which plot to kill activists, to his strange sexual proclivities like dressing up in animal costumes. The case is not simply one of a man unable to control his anger, as the District Attorney claims, it is an overtly political case. On one side are those who seek to defend the rights of the people and fight for a more equal society, and on the other are the police, their sympathizers and far-right politicians who seek by means of terror to preserve the most backward and oppressive aspects of the past. Likewise the fight against the Governor’s plot to sanction murder and terror against the people in protest follows the same line of division.
When the bulwark of the police, the monopoly media and the reactionary Governor all rush to the aid of a far right-wing murderer, the people must stand more firm than ever. In time, the organizational level of the masses will be raised to a point where people’s courts replace the courts of the old state; until then it is up to the people not to let the state pardon reactionary violence against progressive activists.
The defense of the people means defending those who honorably took their posts on the front line, and those many more who will come to fill their boots and hold their rifles. A new world is inevitable, as inevitable as the protracted fight through which it is accomplished; the social and economic contradictions today necessitate it.
