Unjustifiable Murder: 19-Year-Old Kajuan Raye, Shot in the Back by Chicago Police
November 28, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From the Revolution Club, Chicago:
Kajuan Raye
On the eve of Thanksgiving, 19-year-old Kajuan Raye called his mother and told her he was on his way over to her house for dinner. They traditionally hold the holiday dinner on Wednesday and he was expected. But while Kajuan was waiting at the bus stop in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago with a friend, a Chicago police pig jumped out on him because "he fit the description." Kajuan was chased and shot down by a sergeant—shot in the back and murdered!
The pig who murdered Kajuan told the typical lies, saying that Kajuan had "turned and pointed a gun" at him. But almost immediately the cop's lies began to fall apart. After 24 hours of extensive searching, no gun was found! And the cop said that he shot Kajuan in the stomach but the medical examiner showed Kajuan had been shot in the back!
There has been exposure after exposure on every level in Chicago of cover-up and apology for murdering pigs. There is a Justice Department investigation of Chicago police "patterns and practices." And still, just like pigs across the country, they continue to murder Black people and get away with it! Just in Chicago, since the exposure of the Laquan McDonald murder and cover-up—Bettie Jones and Quintonio LeGrier murdered by pigs, Pierre Loury murdered by pigs, Paul O'Neal murdered by pigs, Joshua Beal and more, all murdered by pigs! And now 19-year-old Kajuan Raye murdered by CPD pigs!
This latest cold-blooded killing has many people seething and staring at the fact that this system's police can't stop killing Black youths. It is part of their job as an occupying army in the communities of the oppressed, enforcing the oppression of this system!
On Friday, November 25, more than 100 people—family and friends as well as people and organizations working to end police murder and brutality, gathered to mourn the loss of and demand justice for Kajuan Raye. A crowd filled the sidewalk and people kept coming, filling the street.
Members of the family told of Kajuan's life. How he lifted you up when he came into the room. Of a love for animals that led him to want to be a veterinarian, of his stature on the basketball court. The size of the crowd at the vigil testified to how many were touched by the life of Kajuan.
Family members exposed and condemned the attempts to de-humanize Kajuan—efforts aimed at somehow justifying the unjustifiable murder. And they stood strong on the demand for justice!
The Revolution Club was there, uniting with the outrage and determination to fight for justice, talking with family and friends, and providing literature that shows how this resistance needs to be part of getting organized for an actual revolution to put an end to these murders and the many crimes of the system once and for all. The Club was getting out Revolution newspaper, the statement "In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America," and the pamphlet "HOW WE CAN WIN, How We Can Really Make Revolution."
Chicago has put body cameras on some cops to quiet criticism of their brutality. But not in the area where Kajuan was murdered, despite the fact that this area of Englewood, Chicago's Seventh District, has one of the highest rates of murder by police in the city.
Kajuan's murder took place on the anniversary of the release of the video showing a cop gunning down Laquan McDonald. Hundreds of protesters were in the street shutting down stores on Chicago's Magnificent Mile shopping district over issues of police brutality on the day of the vigil for Kajuan. And the newscasters are already saying that this case will be a test for Kim Foxx—the state's attorney (lead prosecutor) who was elected to replace the state's attorney who covered up the murder of Laquan.
The new pig superintendent, Eddie Johnson, replaced the superintendent associated with the Laquan murder cover-up. One of his first statements on taking the job was that in 20 years of being a cop, he had never seen police brutality! Yet this pig who "had never seen police brutality" has been forced to take a rare step intended to head off the legitimate and widespread outrage at the murder of Kajuan Raye. Johnson has not merely put the murdering cop on desk duty, but has stripped him of his "police powers." The cop will continue to be paid.
There is still struggle over why after all the changes in personnel, the body cameras, the investigations and commissions—the police continue to kill and get away with it. Everyone needs to get clear on the point made by Bob Avakian:
The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and the order that enforces all this oppression and madness. (BAsics 1:24)
Justice for Kajuan!
Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cop to Jail—the Whole Damn System is Guilty as Hell!
It's Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution!
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