BY ALYSON KENNEDY
CHICAGO - Residents of the predominantly Black community
of Englewood are celebrating the dropping of murder charges
against two local boys, aged seven and eight. At the same
time, many continued to condemn the unjust and racist
treatment of the children by the Chicago police department,
the media, and the mayor's office. The two children were
charged in the brutal killing of an 11-year-old girl after
police claimed they confessed to the cops.
Murder charges against the two Black children were dropped by the prosecuting attorneys and the case dismissed by the juvenile court judge September 4, three weeks after the charges were first made.
The cops had been unable to produce any believable evidence linking the murder of Ryan Harris, who was also Black, to the seven- and eight-year-olds. The final blow came when the results of crime lab tests revealed the presence of semen on the victim's underwear.
Community residents drove by the boys' homes honking their horns to celebrate the victory after the court hearing.
Many also gathered at a senior citizens center in Englewood following the court hearing to demand a public apology from Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard, Mayor Richard Daley, and the state's attorney's office.
Rev. Gregory Daniels said that the authorities "are too quick to rush to judgment in the African-American community. This wouldn't happen in Oak Lawn or Hyde Park even," he added, referring to predominantly middle-class neighborhoods.
The father of the eight-year-old told the Chicago Tribune, "Some authorities got too much power. They got lazy and didn't do what they were supposed to do" in investigating the murder.
The mother of the seven-year-old was also quoted by the Tribune. "There is still a child dead," she said. "I am a little bit disgusted. I'm empty. Sad. I'm real sad because the Chicago Police Department is supposed to serve and protect people. And they didn't give these boys a chance."
Calling the juvenile court decision to dismiss the case a "huge embarrassment both for the state attorney's office and for police superintendent Terry Hillard," the Chicago Tribune reported that the "Cook County prosecutors, speaking privately, acknowledged that the police investigation into Ryan's July 27 murder was less than thorough."
Public pressure and questions began to mount as day-by-day revelations showed glaring inconsistencies in the state's case against the two children. After being held in a local state psychiatric hospital, the boys were released. They were confined to their houses and had to wear electric leg monitors. The state was forced to remove the monitors on August 20.
Members of the Englewood Community and Family Task Force appeared before a Chicago Police Board meeting. Pamela Dominquez, a task force member, explaining why they were there. "We want this investigation to continue, and not stop with the two boys," she declared.
The boy's attorneys accused the state of withholding evidence in the case. They announced plans to file contempt of court charges against the prosecution. Among other things, the police refused to release statements from witnesses who said they saw the 11-year-old girl with an older man hours before the murder.
Attorneys also filed an "emergency motion" for the courts to reconsider the initial hearing where charges against the two were upheld. They presented documents that showed a detective working on the case had lied about statements one of the boys supposedly made.
The state attorney's office and the police chief publicly defended the investigation. Police Chief Hillard said at a news conference following the dropping of the charges that police frequently close cases without waiting for the outcomes of scientific tests. He also threatened that he is considering charging the boys as accomplices to the murder.
According to the September 6 Tribune, "Hillard insisted that his detectives conducted a proper investigation of the case. In fact he refused to rule out the boys as suspects even after the charges were dropped."
"They should have never been charged," Englewood resident Emma Jefferson said of the two boys. "If anyone should be charged now, it's the police for incompetence. Hillard needs another job. He needs a new office in a cell in Joliet [prison] - him and his officers."
Alyson Kennedy is a member of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Local 7-507 and is the Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois.