Police Claim 18-Year-Old Amonderez P. Green Killed Himself—Nobody Believes Them

October 29, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Police claim that Amonderez P. Green, an 18-year-old Black youth who died of gunshot wounds on Thursday, October 29 in Normandy, Missouri, next to Ferguson, was a suicide, and that he fired at them before shooting himself on Wednesday, October 28. But their story is contradicted by family members, witnesses, and neighbors who say police are lying—that police murdered Amonderez P. Green. And the police story—that cops shot at Green but missed, and that Green killed himself with a gunshot wound to the face, is contradicted by all the available video and audio.

Neighbors, family, and witnesses say Amonderez P. Green was not suicidal, just upset. His father, Jermell Simpson, posted a statement on Instagram saying, “We even told Ferguson [police—who were on the scene, although they deny they shot at Green]... we had everything under control.” Witnesses say he was climbing over a pole with two hands when he was shot. They describe at least two gunshots—even though police claim he shot himself in the face once, killing himself. Videos show police abusing and disrespecting the victim’s mother as she demanded to see her son. Simpson later told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the authorities’ account of events was a “total lie.”

A witness describes what happened.

Within hours of Amonderez’s death, protesters rushed to the neighborhood where this happened. Some protesters also confronted Normandy police officials at a press conference.

Editor’s note: Tyisha Miller was a 19-year-old African-American woman shot dead by Riverside, California police in 1998. Miller had been passed out in her car, resulting from a seizure, when police claimed that she suddenly awoke and had a gun; they fired 23 times at her, hitting her at least 12 times, and murdering her. Bob Avakian addressed this.

If you can’t handle this situation differently than this, then get the fuck out of the way. Not only out of the way of this situation, but get off the earth. Get out of the way of the masses of people. Because, you know, we could have handled this situation any number of ways that would have resulted in a much better outcome. And frankly, if we had state power and we were faced with a similar situation, we would sooner have one of our own people’s police killed than go wantonly murder one of the masses. That’s what you’re supposed to do if you’re actually trying to be a servant of the people. You go there and you put your own life on the line, rather than just wantonly murder one of the people. Fuck all this “serve and protect” bullshit! If they were there to serve and protect, they would have found any way but the way they did it to handle this scene. They could have and would have found a solution that was much better than this. This is the way the proletariat, when it’s been in power has handled—and would again handle—this kind of thing, valuing the lives of the masses of people. As opposed to the bourgeoisie in power, where the role of their police is to terrorize the masses, including wantonly murdering them, murdering them without provocation, without necessity, because exactly the more arbitrary the terror is, the more broadly it affects the masses. And that’s one of the reasons why they like to engage in, and have as one of their main functions to engage in, wanton and arbitrary terror against the masses of people.

BAsics 2:16 by Bob Avakian

The notorious Ferguson Police Department—now supposedly “under reform”—was involved in Amonderez’s death. The current official account says the Ferguson PD began the pursuit of Amonderez. Videos show them on the scene when Amonderez was chased and shot at by police. Amonderez’s father also says it was a Ferguson cop who pulled the trigger. What is very clear is that Ferguson PD has been trying to minimize their involvement in Amonderez’s death.

Clearly the truth is being covered up by police, and an outrageous injustice and horror has taken place.

No one should accept the Normandy police’s account of the death of Amonderez Green just because the police said it—and some of what they claim has already been clearly shown to be bullshit. But in any case, what IS absolutely clear is this: A young Black man was having a problem, and his family was trying to work it out and had asked police to back off—yet Amonderez Green was chased by police, shot at, and then ended up dead.

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