In Chicago, Police Kill 5 African American Teenagers in One Week in November
Uhuru News reports on November 18th that five young people from across African American communities in Chicago were killed in one week in early November of 2012. In one instance, fifteen year old Dakota Bright was chased down the street and then executed with a shot to the back of the head by Chicago Police on November 8, 2012 as he walked from his school to his grandmother’s house. Police reported he had a gun. Dakota Bright laid on the ground, dead and surrounded by police officers, while they tried to “locate” the gun. Over two weeks after the incident occured, the family had still not received an autopsy report, police report, or death certificate.
Kovell Curry writes that a statement was released by the family from the funeral on November 16, ‘to Chicago as a warning’. It read:
“Today the family was more than disrespected by Chicago police, while trying to lay Dakota to rest there were helicopters and a mob of police following the funeral procession. The police told one of our cousins to ‘shut the fuck up before you get fucked up next.’ They had rifles in their hands as if we were in a third world country at war. They are trying to scare us but we are not letting up on these killers.”
This matches much of what we are hearing across the Bay Area from families–their children are shot down while walking familiar paths between schools and family homes, they are consistently accused of carrying guns, and after they are shot, often at close range and in the back or on the ground, their bodies are left dead or dying for very long periods in public spaces surrounded by police. From here, the family waits months, even longer, for autopsy reports (that often don’t add up…), police reports, and death certificates.
For Kovell Curry’s full story in Uhuru News, see:
