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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://popularresistance.org/akron-arrests-continue-targeting-demonstrators-demanding-justice-for-jayland-walker/">popularresistance.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Akron: Arrests Target Demonstrators Demanding Justice For Jayland Walker</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Abayomi Azikiwe, Popular Resistance - August 4, 2022<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_l6git09y0" alt="image.png" width="392" height="178"><br><p><font size="1">Above photo: <span>Akron Unrest Downtown During Independence Day Weekend.</span></font></p>
<h2>Car caravan was broken up by police as local authorities fail to bring police to justice.</h2>
<p>It has been several weeks since the police execution of Jayland Walker, 25, in Akron, Ohio on June 27.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2022/07/31/akron-police-arrest-3-during-protests-over-jayland-walker-shooting/10196502002/">article</a>
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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3>City Administration and Police Have Refused to Issue an Apology to the Family of Walker</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/as-jayland-walkers-autopsy-is-released-lawyer-asks-of-akron-where-is-the-public-apology-180942956.html">said</a>:
“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.”</p>
<h3>United Nations to Investigate the Police Killing of Jayland Walker</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<a href="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"><img src="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" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="261"></a>George Floyd’s brother Philonise makes appeal to the UN Human RIghts Council in Geneva on June 17, 2020.
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrc-subsidiaries/expert-mechanism-racial-justice-law-enforcement">document reads</a>:
“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.”</p>
<p>This development represents the continuation of the legacy of <a href="https://www.panafricanperspective.com/mxatoau.html">Pan-Africanism and Internationalism</a>
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.</p>
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