16-year-old Joseph Haynes: Shot Dead
by a Pig in an Ohio Courtroom
January 22, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On the 17th day of this new year, 16-year-old Joseph Haynes became the 55th person killed by police in the U.S. in 2018.
Joseph Haynes had just appeared for a hearing about a firearms charge against him in a courtroom in Columbus, Ohio, when deputy Richard Scarborough shot Joseph in the stomach, ending his life. Cops, of course, say the deputy “feared for his life.” But Joseph’s grandmother, Geraldine Haynes, says, “There was no reason why that cop would have been terrified of Joey.” Fighting back tears, she described what happened:
“They had an altercation in the courtroom and the judge gave us another court date and we was leaving. And the cop told Karen [Joseph’s mother]to get out of the courthouse, wouldn’t let her get her stuff or nothing. And then he started going over and pushing her up against the wall and stuff.... So Joey told him to leave his mom alone, leave my mom alone and he wouldn’t leave his mom alone so Joey went over there, ran over there and grabbed a hold of his shoulder and then the cop let loose of Karen and he slung Joey to the ground. And when he slung Joey onto the ground, Joey just quit, he just through. Then all of a sudden the cop reaches for his gun and shoots him.... Joey didn’t move once he was on the ground. I seen it happen, I was standing right next to him. All I know the cop had his hand underneath his thing [on his gun] and he shot him for no reason. Joey’s hands were up, like that [up in the air]... just one shot, you could smell the gunpowder and everything and I said, ‘You shot my grandson, you shot my grandson.’ And they told everybody to get back and then they took us into a room and wouldn’t let us into a room and wouldn’t let us see him or nothing.”
This killer cop should be facing murder charges. But instead he’s just been put on administrative leave and the Fraternal Order of Pigs quickly jumped to defend Scarborough. FOP spokesman Keith Ferrell, who did not witness the murder and says most of his information about what happened is from media reports, said, “It’s very clear to me and my experiences that he was attacked and that this was a fight for his life at some point.”
The murder of 16-year-old Joseph Haynes happened right in the system’s courtroom of [in]justice. And once again, all a pig has to say is “he feared for his life,” the ticket to get away with murder. Once again, it’s perfectly legal for a cop to shoot and kill an unarmed person.
As Bob Avakian has said:
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)
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