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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Execution in Grand Rapids Illustrates Failure to End Police Terrorism | News Ghana</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Abayomi Azikiwe - April 21, 2022<br></div>
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<p><em>African immigrant Patrick Lyoya was shot at point blank range to
the back of the head while the police officer remains on the payroll and
at-large</em></p>
<p>This is a link to the police bodycam video of the encounter with
Patrick Lyoya which led to his death: (18) Bodycam footage from fatal
Grand Rapids police shooting of Patrick Lyoya – YouTube</p>
<p>Over two weeks after Patrick Lyoya, 26, was stopped, chased, tackled
and shot in the back of the head by a Grand Rapids patrolman, killing
him instantly, there still has not been any punitive action taken
against the white officer responsible for the death of the Congolese
immigrant.</p>
<p>The City of Grand Rapids has refused to even release the name of the officer since he has not yet been charged with a crime.</p>
<p>This incident in a major midwestern municipality clearly illustrates
the systematic refusal by the local, state and federal government
agencies to address the ongoing deaths at the hands of the police. Two
years after the brutal shooting deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,
George Floyd and many others, the relevant authorities responsible for
the funding and oversight of law-enforcement have refused to take any
action to reform the operational culture of the police.</p>
<p>Lyoya’s family immigrated to the United States from the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2014, according to quotes cited in the press
from his father. Both of his parents are demanding justice in the case.</p>
<p>A videocam from the police officer illustrates the aggressive
questioning and posture of the white Grand Rapids patrolman. After Lyoya
attempted to get away from the officer, he was pursued and tased. Later
the videocam shows Lyoya being tackled and further abused physically.
At the instance that the fatal shot was fired to the rear of the head,
the police videocam appears to have been turned off by the officer. An
independent autopsy requested by the Lyoya family confirmed that he died
from a gunshot wound to the back of the head.</p>
<p>Since the killing of Lyoya, people in Grand Rapids have demanded the
release of the officer’s name and that he be terminated from the police
department. They are also insisting that prosecutors file criminal
charges against the unnamed law-enforcement agent. The case has gained
international attention due to the fact that Lyoya was an immigrant from
Africa and was unarmed.</p>
<p>The government of the DRC and its Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama
Lukonde discussed the killing of Lyoya at a cabinet meeting on April 15
in Kinshasha, the capital of the central African state. The U.S. has
extensive business interests in the DRC which is a major producer of
strategic minerals.</p>
<p>An article published in the Guardian from the Agence France Press
(AFP) said of the situation that: “During a government meeting on Friday
(April 15), DR Congo Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde
‘forcefully condemned the cowardly assassination by a white police
officer in the United States of a citizen of Congolese origin Patrick
Lyoya, unarmed, during a traffic stop,’ according to the minutes of the
meeting. He said the U.S. ambassador in DR Congo had expressed ‘his deep
regrets and his government’s condolences following this despicable
act.’<br>
U.S. (Grand Rapids) police have released four videos from the incident,
one of which shows the officer — who has not been named — lying on top
of Lyoya as the two scuffled, and then appearing to shoot him in the
head.”
(<a href="https://guardian.ng/news/world/dr-congo-condemns-us-police-shooting-of-its-expat/">https://guardian.ng/news/world/dr-congo-condemns-us-police-shooting-of-its-expat/</a>)</p>
<p>This incident has revealed the actual social character of the U.S. to
not only the Lyoya family but to over 1.3 billion Africans living on
the continent. The U.S. promotes itself as the paragon of democracy,
human rights and peace. However, the country is one of the most violent
in the world with thousands killed annually.</p>
<p>A CBS report on the incident notes: “The father of Patrick Lyoya said
his son was ‘killed like an animal’ after recently released videos
showed the 26-year-old Black man being fatally shot by a police officer
during a traffic stop. The family fled from the Democratic Republic of
Congo in 2014 for a safer life in the U.S. ‘I came here to save my
family,’ Peter Lyoya told CBS News. ‘My son has been killed like an
animal. The one [who] was supposed to be protecting Patrick’s life, is
the one [who] killed Patrick and take Patrick’s life away,’ he added.”
(<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/patrick-lyoya-shooting-grand-rapids-michigan-police-father-statement/">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/patrick-lyoya-shooting-grand-rapids-michigan-police-father-statement/</a>)</p>
<p>U.S. Role in the Historic Destabilization of the DRC</p>
<p>The region where the DRC is today has been for centuries a center for
exploitation and national oppression. During the period of African
enslavement, the Angola and Congo areas were victimized by the
Portuguese and French role in the Triangular Trade in human beings and
natural resources.</p>
<p>By 1876, the Belgian monarchy had seized large swaths of territory in
order to force Africans to engage in rubber production. The Berlin
Conference of 1884-1885 awarded the Congo area to Belgian colonial
corporations. Conditions were so brutal that millions of Africans died
under the rule of colonial agents at the direction of the monarchy. In
1908, the colonial project in Congo was brought under the tutelage of
the government in Brussels.</p>
<p>Between 1908 and 1960, Africans were denied education, equal
employment, the control over their land and natural resources as well as
political rights. A rebellion during 1959 created the conditions for
multi-party elections which led to national independence on June 30,
1960.</p>
<p>The first elected leader was Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, a
Pan-Africanist and anti-imperialist with a mass base among the Congolese
people. Since Lumumba wanted to end Belgian domination over the
resources of his country, he was targeted for liquidation by the U.S.
administration of then President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Lumumba was
overthrown just three months into his tenure as prime minister. He
attempted to flee to the eastern region of the country where his
supporters had taken control of several cities and provinces.</p>
<p>However, he was captured with the complicity of the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) in January 1961. He was held illegally by the
puppet collaborators of the U.S. and other imperialist states. By late
January he was tortured to death along with two other cabinet ministers
in his government.</p>
<p>A series of neo-colonial surrogate regimes were imposed on the vast
country for 36 years until Mobutu Sese Seko was forced out of office in
May 1997. Nonetheless, the continued domination of the resources of the
DRC has hampered its capacity for a much-deserved political stability
and economic prosperity.</p>
<p>Consequently, the underdevelopment in the DRC and in other African
states, can be linked directly to the ongoing interference into the
internal affairs of these mineral rich countries. Therefore, many
Congolese nationals have migrated to the U.S. in search of economic
opportunities and social stability. However, the U.S. still remains a
racist-capitalist and imperialist country. The African American people
brought to the U.S. as enslaved persons have been denied full equality,
economic justice and self-determination for more than 400 years.
Africans from the continent are viewed by the ruling class and their
police agencies as being deserving of the same degree of brutality as
all Black people.</p>
<p>U.S. Government Guilty of Systematic Brutality and Terrorism</p>
<p>The police execution of Patrick Lyoya is a direct result of the
legacy of policing in the U.S. which dates back to the early period of
European colonial enslavement. Despite the mass demonstrations and
rebellions which swept many municipalities during 2020, the current
administration of President Joe Biden maintains a similar position as
successive leaders: they are all committed to the maintenance of the
status-quo as it relates to the role of police in containing the African
American people and other oppressed groups.</p>
<p>Biden made his position clear in the State of the Union Address
earlier in the year. He denounced the mass slogans calling for the
defunding of the police and instead urged more public money for
law-enforcement. Additional funding for police departments has been
bolstered by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) which was supposedly
designed to assist workers and oppressed peoples suffering from the
economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>Independent activists and mass organizations within the labor and
nationally oppressed movements will undoubtedly continue the demands
aimed at defunding and dismantling the existing system of policing. This
system of policing on a domestic level is reflected in the foreign
policy imperatives of the White House and Wall Street.</p>
<p>The Biden administration has pursued the same policies of war and
economic domination of the peoples of the world. Russia, China, Iran,
Cuba, Venezuela, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and a host of other states are
considered principal enemies of the imperialist ruling class in the U.S.
Therefore, the struggle against police terrorism with impunity is
inherently linked to broader issues aimed guaranteeing peace and
stability from the DRC to the streets of Western Europe and North
America.</p>
<p><strong><br></strong><a href="https://news.google.com/publications/CAAiENOAw7LsGXCOM4baC2AVg8cqFAgKIhDTgMOy7BlwjjOG2gtgFYPH?hl=en-GH&gl=GH&ceid=GH%3Aen" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong><span></span></strong></a></p> </div></div></div>
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