Teen Protesters Demand That Chicago Police Stop Killing Their Peers
Young people are at the forefront of protests against the police killing of unarmed teenager Paul O’Neal.
By Sarah Lazare / AlterNet
August 8, 2016
Yet another Chicago police killing of a Black teenager—Paul O'Neal—has touched off mounting protests across the city, many of them led by high school students who have had to grow up with images of young people who look like them being shot to death by cops.
The demonstrations picked up pace after the Independent Police Review Authority released body camera footage depicting the aftermath of the July 28 police killing of unarmed Black 18-year-old O'Neal, in which police can be seen roughly handcuffing the teenager while he lies in his own blood after being shot in the back.
The videos show at least two police officers firing wildly at O’Neal as he fled in a jaguar, including while other officers were in harm’s way. Footage also reveals the aftermath of the deadly shooting, in which the teenager can be seen lying on his stomach bleeding. The cameras show that police pushed O’Neal’s head into the ground and forcefully cuffed him while stepping on one of his legs after he had been shot.
The officer who fired the shot can be heard admitting that he did not know if O’Neal was armed, and police later confirmed he was not. Police say that the body camera of the cop who fired the bullet that killed O’Neal was not functioning at the time, and the Independent Police Review Authority claims that there is no other footage depicting the firing of the fatal shot.
The harrowing images touched off demonstrations in a city already outraged at police killings of African-American residents, including Laquan McDonald and Rekia Boyd. Just weeks ago, hundreds of Chicagoans testified about police brutality and racism at a forum held as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights investigation into the city’s troubled department.
“Knowing that it's only been four weeks since many youth gathered, for the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and someone else's death has become a hashtag is mentally draining,” said 16-year-old Maxine Wint, one of four teenage Black women who organized a large march on Sunday. “Knowing that if my little brother ever felt scared enough to run from the police, that he could possibly get shot, makes me scared for our future. We need to keep saying their names until we see change, we have to make their names visible, we cannot stay silent to the injustice that is happening in our country.”
Seventeen-year-old Eva Lewis, who also helped organize Sunday’s demonstration, told AlterNet, “Paul O’Neal died in my general neighborhood, which is the South Shore. After it wasn’t picked up by the media, we decided to organize a protest because of the situation but also for other victims of police brutality, with the goal of abolishing systemic oppression as a whole.”
According to Lewis, this organizing was the impetus for her and three other teenage women to form the organization BLM Chi Youth—and served as the precursor to Sunday’s larger event, where hundreds were in attendance. While she says that she was pleased with the success of the mobilization, she expects “there will probably not be justice for Paul O’Neal.”
“What we want is our freedom,” said Lewis. “If police are killing us now, in the same way that they first did when they were created to catch slaves, then obviously we haven’t gotten free yet.”
Three officers have been suspended as a result of the killing of O’Neal, but their names have not been released to the public. The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression declared in a statement that “everyone knows that a CPD officer's suspension means no more than a 'paid vacation from the streets.' CPD's killer cops are never charged and are unleashed back into the Black community.”
“Now the notorious IPRA investigation has begun,” the Alliance continued. “Such investigations have proven to be ineffective in holding police accountable for killing Black people in Chicago. The people have no expectation of justice or fairness from Chicago's system of mayor-appointed 'oversight' (i.e. cover-up) of racist police murders.”
Meanwhile, protests are mounting in a city where demonstrators have been holding a weeks-long occupation of Homan Square, the CPD black site notorious for torture and unlawful detention.
“There are so many people who have felt the impact of O’Neal’s death,” Mike Siviwe Elliott, chair of labor committee for the Alliance, told AlterNet. “These amazing activists are becoming more and more involved. The movement is growing through Black teenagers.”
According to 16-year-old Natalie Braye, who hails from BLM Chi Youth, there is a lot of work to be done.
“The United States was built on the oppression of people of color and women and we cannot move towards a more equitable society without acknowledging this fact,” she said. “People like to think we live in a post-racial society because we have a black president and the Civil Rights Act but there's still so many problems when it comes to race in this country. Black people are still targeted by the police simply because of their skin. As well, the justice system is clearly ineffective when it comes to the numerous cases of unjust killing of black and brown people. There is an obvious need for change in this country and it needs to happen now.”
Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for AlterNet. A former staff writer for Common Dreams, she coedited the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn Against War. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahlazare.
