Don’t Let Them Get Away With Murder:
Georgia Grand Jury Issues Recommendations for the Cops that Killed Anthony Hill and Kevin Davis
November 3, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
On Thursday, October 29, 2015 a grand jury in DeKalb County, Georgia released “recommendations” to District Attorney Robert James regarding five cases of “police-involved shootings.” Two of the cases have gained national attention: the police killings of Anthony Hill and Kevin Davis.
The grand jury’s recommendations were: NO charges for the cop that murdered Kevin Davis, and a “more thorough interview” with Anthony Hill’s killer before deciding whether or not to press charges.
Both of these recommendations are outrageous and must be opposed!
Carl Dix, a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party and co-initiator of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, recently appeared as a guest on the FOX News show Justice with Judge Jeanine. The FOX News host, in line with the right-wing campaign to flip reality on its head, attempted to recast the ongoing murder of Black and Latino people at the hands of the police into the bullshit narrative of a “war on police.”
Toward the end of the interviewJudge Jeanine asks Carl, “If you are in trouble, who are you going to call?” Carl answers back, “Well look, if you’re in trouble and you call the police—often if you’re Black or Latino—then you’ve got another problem.” Carl goes on to point out the examples of some of the families of victims who attended and spoke at the Rise Up October demonstration in NYC—they called the police to help a family member and ended up having them killed by the police that they called to help their loved ones.
The police murders of Kevin Davis and Anthony Hill are two examples of exactly what Carl Dix is talking about. The police were called for help, resulting in two innocent Black men dead.
Kevin Davis, 44, called 911 to report that a roommate had stabbed his girlfriend. While on the phone with 911, Davis heard gunshots outside of his apartment. Fearing that the roommate had returned, Davis got his firearm so he could go investigate.
The shots that Davis heard were not from the roommate who had attacked his girlfriend. Instead, these were rounds fired into Kevin’s three-legged pit bull by Officer Joseph Pitts, who had entered the apartment unannounced. Davis was still on the line with the 911 operator, who failed to notify Davis that police had arrived. Within 16 seconds of killing the dog, the cop turned his gun on Kevin Davis. After two days in the hospital, with his family barred from visiting him, Kevin Davis died.
According to the grand jury, THIS MURDER doesn’t even deserve to go to trial! THIS is an OUTRAGE and it MUST be OPPOSED!
Anthony Hill was a 27-year-old Air Force veteran who suffered from bipolar disorder. His neighbors called police to help when they found him walking disoriented and without any clothes on around the apartment complex. The neighbors have reported that Anthony was not threatening. They called police out of concern that he needed help. But the cop who arrived on the scene, Robert Olsen, did not help Anthony Hill. The cop shot him down.
Olsen, like other cops have done all around the country, decided that execution was the best method of handling an incident of a person in need of help with mental illness. Olsen shot Anthony Hill despite the fact that Anthony was naked and obviously unarmed. Despite having a Taser and pepper spray, Olsen fired his gun. He stole a life and inflicted unimaginable pain on the many people who loved Anthony.
Olsen has provided a number of contradictory stories to justify the killing, and the grand jury said that because of this, “more inquiry” is needed. Whatever new lies the cop and the system come up with to justify killing Anthony Hill, the fact is: Anthony Hill needed help. He was not a threat to anyone. He was naked and unarmed. Anthony Hill did not deserve to die. Anthony Hill was murdered!
The Civil Grand Jury Is a Façade for IN-Justice and a Mechanism to Exonerate Killer Cops
In DeKalb, police have shot and killed at least 22 people since 2010, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News investigation. In response to widespread criticism, scrutiny and large-scale protests and resistance to these killings, DA Robert James announced in June that he would convene civil grand juries to consider evidence in cases where a police officer kills a civilian. Civil grand juries cannot issue criminal indictments; they are limited to providing “recommendations from the public.”
The civil grand jury provides a smoke screen with the illusion of “public involvement” aimed (just like a criminal grand jury) at exonerating killer cops. Why not charge the cops, put them on trial and let the public weigh in on the evidence without the secrecy afforded to grand juries? The question should answer itself. The system is rigged to let the cops off.
The grand juries assist the prosecutor in NOT prosecuting. In the hearings for Hill and Davis, the officers who did the killings were allowed to testify in front of the grand jury on their own behalf without cross-examination. Georgia is the only state that affords such a privilege to police, one not granted to private citizens. A recent investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that not one of the 171 police shootings in Georgia since 2010 has gone to trial.
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Anyone with an ounce of morality and a longing for justice should refuse to accept the recommendations of the DeKalb civil grand jury and should join with the movement determined to STOP police terror.
Since the civil grand jury announced its recommendations, there have been at least three actions opposing the decision not to charge Kevin Davis’s killer and demanding charges be brought against the cops. One of these actions took place at Clark Atlanta University during a campaign speech by Hillary Clinton. Activists disrupted the event with their fists in the air, chanting “Black Lives Matter” and saying the names of Anthony Hill and Kevin Davis.
Stop Mass Incarceration Network-Atlanta quickly called for a nighttime speak-out after the grand jury recommendations were released and then issued a petition demanding that the district attorney immediately file charges against the killer cops.
DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James has the full power and authority to bring criminal charges against both officers. The families of Kevin Davis and Anthony Hill have been crying out for justice ever since the DeKalb County police killed their loved ones. We demand that DA Robert James file criminal charges now! Justice for Kevin Davis and Anthony Hill! No more green lights for police murder! Killer cops should be indicted, convicted and sent to jail!
Add your voice by signing the petition and contacting District Attorney Robert James at (404) 371-2561, email dekalbda@co.dekalb.ga.us, Facebook Robert James DeKalb DA.
Stay tuned for news of protests DEMANDING JUSTICE FOR KEVIN DAVIS AND ANTHONY HILL! at: www.stopmassincarcerationATL.org
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.
