BY JOHN STUDER AND SHELTON McCRAINEY
CHICAGO - "We have to continue marching until justice comes
in our community," Rev. Paul Jakes told more than 200
protesters overflowing the Old St. Paul Missionary Baptist
Church in Chicago's westside Black community November 15.
This was the second large rally at the church since two Chicago cops beat Jeremiah Mearday, an 18-year-old Black youth, on September 26 while he was on the way to the drug store to buy asthma medicine. Mearday's jaw was broken by blows from a large metal police flashlight.
The rallies follow a series of revelations and protests highlighting the killings of Jorge Guillen and Joseph Gould by Chicago cops, and attacks against numerous others. These actions have sparked a public debate over police brutality, especially after a public mobilization by the cops in defense of their reign of terror on the streets.
On November 7 some 75 - 100 cops, many in uniform and armed, jammed the courtroom when Mearday appeared to answer charges concocted by the police in an effort to justify beating him. This cop mobilization, organized by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), produced cries of outrage from opponents of cop violence, as well as from bourgeois political figures and the local news media.
The Chicago Sun-Times editorialized November 11 that the "silent presence of so many police officers was perceived by many as an act of intimidation."
At the church rally, a number of speakers commented on the FOP's claim to be a part of the trade union movement. Standish Willis, a prominent Black attorney, lawyer for many victims of police violence, and former trade unionist while a bus driver for the Chicago transit system, told the rally that the cops are "a military power occupying our community.
"The FOP is not a union," he added, "but a brotherhood of racist white men and women."
Following the public outcry and protests, Matthew Theil and James Comito Jr., the cops who brutalized Mearday, have been suspended from duty by the police department. The FOP has protested the suspensions and claimed that their mobilization in the courtroom was a way to show support for the two cops.
In addition to the suspensions, Theil and Comito are under investigation for charges by both the States' Attorney's office and the federal Justice Department.
Speaking at the church rally, Lawerence Kennon, another prominent Black attorney, noted that all too often cases of cop violence become known by name of the victim.
"This is called the Mearday case, like that case in New York is called the Louima case," Kennon said. "The fact is we've got to start getting out the names of the cops who commit these crimes, because that is what they are - criminals. This should be known as the case of the criminals Comito and Theil."
"Everybody knows these cops around here," Mearday's father, Sonny Lee Carter, told the Militant. "They are known for their brutality."
The demonstrations against the cop beating of Mearday, on top of the publicity about other cop beatings and murders, as well as the cop mobilizations protesting the suspension of Comito and Theil, led the police chief, Matt Rodri'guez, to announce November 14 that he was resigning December 1.
Mearday's next court hearing is scheduled for December 3 at 1340 S. Michigan. Rev. Jakes urged those at the church rally to mobilize to demonstrate outside the courthouse. "We will gather at 8 a.m. at the corner of Michigan and Roosevelt and march to show our support for Jeremiah," Jakes said.
Jakes then asked every group represented in the audience who would get people to attend the march to identify themselves. Dozens stood up, yelling out the name of their organization. Groups included a number of Black community democratic party precinct organizations, local Black politicians, community groups, Latino groups like Centro sin Fronteres, the police watchdog organization Citizens Alert, churches, and union groups, including the Teamsters and the Afro-American Firemen's Organization.
John Studer is a member of the United Steelworkers of America Local 1011.