[News] Akron: Arrests Target Demonstrators Demanding Justice For Jayland Walker

Fri Aug 5 09:47:07 EDT 2022

popularresistance.org
<https://popularresistance.org/akron-arrests-continue-targeting-demonstrators-demanding-justice-for-jayland-walker/>
Akron: Arrests Target Demonstrators Demanding Justice For Jayland Walker
By Abayomi Azikiwe, Popular Resistance - August 4, 2022
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

Above photo: Akron Unrest Downtown During Independence Day Weekend.
Car caravan was broken up by police as local authorities fail to bring
police to justice.

It has been several weeks since the police execution of Jayland Walker, 25,
in Akron, Ohio on June 27.

After public outrage over the death of Walker, who was shot 46 times by a
group of eight law-enforcement officers, Mayor Daniel Horrigan declared a
state of emergency while numerous people have been arrested and charged
with serious crimes for merely exercising their democratic rights.

Tensions remain extremely high in Akron due to the continuing anger and
disgust of the shooting death of Walker. During the July 4 holiday weekend,
people poured into the streets prompting police reactions which led to
arrests and minor incidents of property destruction.

Nonetheless, over the last month there are lingering fears of further
social unrest and violence in Akron. A National Night Out event which was
scheduled in several districts of the city for August 4 had been cancelled
in at least four areas.

The event scheduled to be held in Akron’s Goodyear Heights, Highland
Square, Middlebury and Kenmore neighborhoods will not take place. Event
planners and officials are claiming that safety concerns and potential
demonstrations could occur resulting in the disruption of the celebrations.

Every municipal ward sponsors the annual gathering which is initiated by
community leaders or a council member. Ostensibly the campaign is designed
to facilitate police and community relations with an underlying theme of
crime reduction.

In Ward 10, Councilwoman Sharon Conner made the decision to cancel the
event. She indicated that everyone had a right to protest although she was
concerned that many people living in the district were gun owners. Conner
was concerned about a possible adverse reaction by some residents to
demonstrations demanding justice for Jayland Walker.

Earlier on July 29, a car caravan designed to build support for the
termination of employment and prosecution of the police involved in the
brutal shooting, moved its way through several neighborhoods in Akron
slowing down and blocking traffic in some instances. This action
represented a form of civil disobedience which could not be ignored by the
city administration and the general public.

There were dozens of vehicles which participated in the demonstration on
July 29. Obviously, the protest was becoming quite effective prompting the
police to use forceful tactics to put the action to an end.

An article
<https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2022/07/31/akron-police-arrest-3-during-protests-over-jayland-walker-shooting/10196502002/>
published by the Akron Beacon Journal described the situation as follows:
“The caravan formed at about 7:30 p.m. near Inman Street and Archwood
Avenue, according to police, who said the protesters blocked intersections
as they moved through the city. The group traveled to a neighborhood in
Kenmore, then to Lock 3 and around Main Street, according to police Lt.
Michael Miller. ‘Members of the group reportedly began chanting and
intentionally disturbing citizens who were downtown to enjoy the
entertainment at various venues,’ Miller said in a news release.”

Therefore, according to this police version of events reported by the local
media, the disruption of the entertainment areas could not be tolerated by
the local authorities. Rather than risk a repeat of the police attack and
arrests on July 29, the August 4 National Night Out events would pose a
risk to the normal operations of the city.

This same report from the Beacon Journal continued by noting that:
“Protesters later demonstrated near the Akron Police Department on South
High Street, moving south to the Polsky Building. A vehicle trying to leave
the Polsky parking deck collided with a protester’s vehicle at the site,
police said. Protesters said on social media that the driver of the exiting
vehicle intentionally slammed into them; police say the person was
attempting to get out of the parking deck.”

The names of the three people arrested had not been released by the police
according to press reports. Despite these demonstrations, Mayor Horrigan
and Police Chief Stephen Mylett have failed to make any public statements
specifically related to the case. Eight of the officers involved in the
firing of more than 90 shots have been placed on administrative paid leave
pending the completion of an investigation.
City Administration and Police Have Refused to Issue an Apology to the
Family of Walker

On July 15, a preliminary autopsy of Walker was released to the public by
Summit County Medical Examiner Dr. Lisa Kohler. The report indicated that
Walker had sustained numerous serious wounds which could have resulted in
his death.

Kohler said that she could not determine the number of shots fired by the
eight officers who discharged their weapons. She said that 46 bullets
either struck or grazed Walker during the incident.

Walker was unarmed at the time of the police shooting. Officers claim that
Walker had fired at them during a chase which lasted for several minutes.
Walker exited the vehicle attempting to flee from the police when he was
gunned down. Police then claimed that a handgun was found in the vehicle
which Walker was driving.

Walker’s family has expressed extreme skepticism over this version of the
killing articulated by the police. The family and its lawyer point to the
fact that Walker was fleeing unarmed and consequently posed no threat to
the police.

Moreover, the administration and the police have refused to publicly
apologize to the Walker family for the circumstances surrounding the death
of their loved one. Such a posture has created an atmosphere in Akron which
has eroded even further the general attitude among African Americans
towards the mayor and the police chief.

The lawyer representing the family of Walker, Atty. Bobby DiCello of the
Dicello, Levitt, Gutzler firm, emphasized in the aftermath of the statement
by the medical examiner that the city administration is doing more to
protect the police rather than the family of the deceased. DiCello said
<https://news.yahoo.com/as-jayland-walkers-autopsy-is-released-lawyer-asks-of-akron-where-is-the-public-apology-180942956.html>:
“If [city leaders] were focused on protecting Jayland, they wouldn’t have
to protect anyone right now. Because nothing was found in his system, it
underscored the senselessness [of his killing]. He panicked and paid for it
with his life. They could have released the autopsy and an apology, but
they didn’t. The reason why is because they are afraid of the courtroom
process. The subject needs to be: Where is the public apology? Enough of
the quiet nice words. We are not interested in secret concern. We are
interested in a public apology for taking a life that was not necessary. …
At the end of the day, there shouldn’t have been a single bullet fired.”
United Nations to Investigate the Police Killing of Jayland Walker

A recently created United Nations Human Rights Council division has
expressed an interest in investigating the police killing of Jayland
Walker. This was revealed when the International Independent Expert
Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement
contacted the law firm representing the family of Walker.

This UN project was officially established during 2021. It represents an
outcome of the mass demonstrations which swept the United States and the
international community during mid-2020 in the aftermath of the brutal
police and vigilante killings of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia,
Breonna Taylor in Louisville, George Floyd in Minneapolis.
<https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/08/George-Floyds-brother-Philonise-makes-appeal-to-the-UN-Human-RIghts-Council-in-Geneva-on-June-17-2020-e1659617766462.jpg>George
Floyd’s brother Philonise makes appeal to the UN Human RIghts Council in
Geneva on June 17, 2020.

The UN Human Rights Council convened a full session during the summer of
2020 on the racial profiling and murders of African Americans by
law-enforcement in the U.S. The hearing took place at the UN offices in
Geneva, Switzerland. One of the brothers of George Floyd, Philonise,
addressed the hearing on June 17 asking for the assistance of the
international community in bringing justice to African Americans subjected
to racial discrimination.

Several African Union (AU) member-states, including Botswana, motivated the
convening of the UN Human Rights Council hearing two years ago. The hearing
was based upon a resolution passed at the aegis of Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik
Shabazz) during the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit held in July
1964 in Cairo, Egypt. The OAU, founded in 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
was transformed into the AU in 2002. At the time, Malcolm X was the leader
of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), which was patterned to a
significant degree on the OAU formed one year before.

On the UN Human Rights Council website there is language which describes
the mandate for the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance
Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement. The document reads
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrc-subsidiaries/expert-mechanism-racial-justice-law-enforcement>:
“The Expert Mechanism’s mandate is detailed in resolution 47/21. It is
established ‘in order to further transformative change for racial justice
and equality in the context of law enforcement globally, especially where
relating to the legacies of colonialism and the Transatlantic slave trade
in enslaved Africans, to investigate Governments’ responses to peaceful
anti-racism protests and all violations of international human rights law
and to contribute to accountability and redress for victims.”

This development represents the continuation of the legacy of Pan-Africanism
and Internationalism <https://www.panafricanperspective.com/mxatoau.html>
within the African American struggle in the U.S. As Malcolm X emphasized
during the last year of his life (1964-65), the plight of Black people in
the U.S. must be brought before the UN and other global bodies in order to
expose the human rights violations and crimes against humanity suffered by
now more than 40 million people of African descent.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20220805/de573751/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 1230709 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20220805/de573751/attachment.png>