Justice for Jayland Walker and Randy Cox!

UPDATE: Akron, Ohio, police threw tear gas canisters and stun grenades against people demanding justice for Jaylord Walker. Meanwhile the eight cops who killed Walker with dozens of bullets continue to get paid.

The war against Black people never stops. Akron, Ohio, police fired over 90 bullets at Jayland Walker, killing the 25-year-old Black man. Cops in New Haven, Connecticut, gave a “rough ride” to Richard “Randy” Cox Jr., paralyzing him.

Jayland Walker was a DoorDash driver who the cops chased shortly after midnight on June 27 for an alleged equipment violation. 

Police use the excuse of a broken tail light to brutalize poor and working people. Minnesota cops stopped Teamsters union member Philandro Castile dozens of times before a St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer killed Castille in front of his fiancee and 4-year-old daughter.

After Jayland Walker got out of his car and ran, eight police officers fired at him. Their bullets hit him over 60 times. Following Walker’s execution he was handcuffed by the cops. 

“His body is just riddled with bullets, his face is shot with bullets …” said Bobby DiCello, a lawyer for Walker’s family who saw the police body-camera video. 

The Rev. Roderick Pounds, pastor at Akron’s Second Baptist Church, also saw the video. According to Rev. Pounds, Jayland Walker’s “body was riddled from his face down to his knees.”

U.S. police go berserk with their guns. New York City cops fired 41 bullets at Amadou Diallo on Feb. 4, 1999, killing the unarmed African immigrant from Guinea. Seven years later, New York cops shot 50 times at Sean Bell, killing the unarmed Black man on what was supposed to be his wedding day.

Akron was known as the “tire capital of the world” before its tire factories fled south to run away from unions. Its last big tire factory shut down 40 years ago. 

Instead of being able to find a union job, Jayland Walker worked for Amazon before being employed as a delivery driver for DoorDash.

Fearing people’s anger about Walker’s murder, Akron’s mayor cancelled the city’s Fourth of July festivities. Frederick Douglass condemned the United States in the most famous speech given about July 4th.

“There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody,” said Douglass. The murder of Jayland Walker was certainly shocking and bloody. Since 2015, 210 people have been killed by Ohio police.

Ban rough rides!

New Haven police desecrated Juneteenth by paralyzing Richard “Randy” Cox Jr. on June 19. Cox was arrested that day by police on charges that included possessing a handgun.

The Second Amendment “right to bear arms” was never meant for Black people. 

Cox was also arrested for “threatening in the first degree.” That charge sounds like something out of a slave code.

Police handcuffed Cox and put him in a patrol wagon without a seat belt. When the vehicle made a sudden stop, Cox slid into a metal wall, seriously injuring his neck and spine.

Cops ignored his pleas for help, just as George Floyd’s pleas of “I can’t breathe” were ignored. Police dragged Cox out of the vehicle, possibly further injuring him. They mocked Cox about his posture.  

In 2015, Freddie Gray was given a “rough ride” by Baltimore police, killing the Black man. Baltimore exploded in righteous anger. Randy Cox may be paralyzed for the rest of his life.

New Haven is dominated by filthy rich Yale University with its $42.3 billion endowment. Despite its efforts to look liberal, Yale got those billions by being a training school for members of the ruling class, like the Bush family.

But many Yale students are outraged by this atrocity, as are the people of New Haven. Rough rides must be abolished and guns need to be taken away from the cops.

We need to demand that two groups of gangsters be abolished: the U.S. Supreme Court and the police.