Vol. 80/No. 3      January 25, 2016

 
(front page)

Chicago protesters vow to step
up fight against killings by cops

 
CHICAGO — “We have to stand together against the police. Pull it together and stick together,” Latisha Jones, daughter of Bettie Jones, who was gunned down by Chicago police the day after Christmas along with neighbor Quintonio LeGrier, told some 350 people packed into the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church Jan. 6 for her funeral. “This police killing has got to stop,” her sister LaTonya Jones said.

“It was not an accident, it is a pattern,” said Jason Ervin, alderman in the city’s 28th district. “Until we as a community stand together, it will continue. Let’s take this moment of pain and change it into a powerful message.”

Antonio LeGrier, Quintonio’s father, called 911 to get help when his son began acting angry and carrying a baseball bat. He also called Bettie Jones, who lived downstairs, and asked her to let the cops in when they arrived. When she did, one of the cops shot both of them dead. The cops say Jones’ killing was an “accident.”

Some 200 people attended LeGrier’s funeral at the same church three days later. LeGrier, 19, was taking classes in electrical engineering at Northern Illinois University. A number of his former high school classmates attended the service.

Ja’mal Green, 20, and Lamon Reccord, 16, spoke in the open mike part of the program, saying they were activists against police brutality. “Police killings are not the result of just the cops, but the system,” Reccord said. “All lives matter!”

“The fight isn’t over,” Green added. “Let’s unify!”

“In the last five years, 78 were killed by police in Chicago, most of them Black,” said Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow PUSH Coalition at Jones’ funeral. “They call it an ‘accident’ when they killed Bettie Jones. Does that mean it was OK to shoot LeGrier? The police who did the shooting are still on payroll. Those who witnessed them are still on duty.”

“Today the whole world knows Bettie Jones, from France to South Africa,” Jackson said, pointing to the worldwide media coverage of the killing.

The funeral was attended by more than a dozen co-workers of Bettie Jones from the Alpha Baking Company — members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 1 — and members of Action Now, a community group active in Fight for $15 and against police brutality and public school closings.

“Her death demonstrates the dysfunction between the police and the community they claim to protect,” said Rev. Dr. Marshall Hatch in his eulogy. “Our communities are not ‘hoods,’ they are neighborhoods, with people who work in bakeries and respond to neighbors in need.”

Action Now members broke out into a chant, “No justice, no peace! No racist police!”

“Amen to that!” said Hatch. “Let’s hear it one more time.” The chant thundered through the church.

The families of both Jones and LeGrier have filed lawsuits charging the city with causing their deaths.

Protests demanding the city take action against the cop who killed Jones and LeGrier take place as the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Rahm Emanuel face mounting pressure over revelations about a series of cop killings and release of videos and other evidence that until recently had been suppressed by city officials.

On Jan. 4, U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang overturned a March federal court ruling that policemen Raoul Mosqueda and Gildardo Sierra were justified in killing Darius Pinex during a January 2011 traffic stop on Chicago’s South Side.

Chang ordered a new trial and imposed sanctions against the city, finding that senior city lawyer Jordan Marsh intentionally concealed crucial evidence in the case and lied about it. Marsh resigned hours later. This is the second time in seven months the judge has sanctioned the City of Chicago Law Department for withholding records in a police misconduct lawsuit.

Sierra was involved in two other on-duty shootings in the months after Pinex’s killing. In one, Flint Farmer died after Sierra, mistaking his cellphone for a gun, fired 16 shots at him, including three into his back as he lay prone on the ground. Farmer was unarmed.

A criminal investigation was launched by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and federal authorities, but no charges have been filed. Sierra resigned from the department last year, while the city settled a lawsuit brought by Farmer’s family for $4.1 million.  
 
 
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