https://themilitant.com/2018/09/22/protests-in-dallas-demand-cop-who-killed-botham-jean-be-fired/
Protests in Dallas demand cop who killed Botham Jean be fired
By George Chalmers
Vol. 82/No. 36
October 1, 2018
Protesters attend Dallas City Council hearing Sept. 12, demanding Dallas
cop Amber Guyger be fired, jailed for shooting and killing of Botham
Jean, 26, in his own apartment. Protesters attend Dallas City Council
hearing Sept. 12, demanding Dallas cop Amber Guyger be fired, jailed for
shooting and killing of Botham Jean, 26, in his own apartment.
RICHARDSON, Texas — “The sound of the gunshots did not have the
resonance to be heard on our small island, but its impact was of nuclear
proportions,” Ignatius Jean told the more than 1,500 people who filled
the Greenville Church of Christ here Sept. 13 at the funeral service for
his nephew, Botham Jean.
Jean was shot and killed Sept. 6 by Dallas cop Amber Guyger. Jean, 26,
was a native of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia and a member of the
Church of Christ.
Guyger, 30, lived in the same downtown Dallas apartment building as
Botham Jean, one floor below. She claimed she went to the wrong floor
and mistook Jean’s apartment for hers, even though its big red rug at
the entrance doesn’t look anything like hers.
She first said she used her key to get in, but later claimed the door
was unlocked when she entered and fired two shots at Jean, one hitting
him in the chest. Her key was found in the lock. She thought he was a
burglar, she said, claiming he ignored “verbal commands.” Other
residents on the floor said they heard her yelling for Jean to let her
in and shooting him without any warning.
It wasn’t until three days later that Guyger was arrested, charged with
manslaughter and released on $300,000 bond.
The killing of Botham Jean came on the heels of the Aug. 28 murder
conviction of Dallas County police officer Roy Oliver for the 2017
killing of 15-year-old African-American Jordan Edwards. The next day the
jury sentenced Oliver to 15 years in prison.
“We need to know, are there special favors for the police? Why are there
no answers?” Dr. Ben Foster, pastor at the Church of Christ in Garland,
told the Militant at the service. “Are they protecting the cop?”
“I sat behind Botham in Bible class at school. He made a difference in a
lot of people’s lives. He showed us how to live. I never saw him angry.
I want justice,” said 25-year-old Courtney Davis from Plano. Botham Jean
graduated from Harding University in Arkansas, where Davis goes to
school. The school held a vigil for him the day after the shooting and
many students and teachers attended the funeral.
There were a number of people who came from St. Lucia for the service.
“My heart is heavy,” Madilene Burnett said. “My parents know his mom.
When the body is sent to St. Lucia the service will be large.” She said
that when the word spread of Jean’s killing, a vigil was held there.
Family, clergy denounce killing, smear
“The undeniable reality is he was slain in his home, where he had the
right to be and was abiding by the law,” Sammie Barry, minister of the
West Dallas Church of Christ where Jean was active, told a press
conference attended by clergy, the family and its attorneys following
Jean’s funeral. “We are here and demand justice for our dear brother Bo.”
Allison Jean, Botham’s mother, denounced the cops at a Sept. 14 press
conference for releasing a report on the day of her son’s funeral
claiming there was 10.4 grams of marijuana in his apartment.
“Give me justice for my son because he does not deserve what he got,”
she said. “I will not sit back and see that justice does not prevail.”
“Twenty-six years without a blemish and it took being murdered by a
white Dallas police officer in his own home to make Botham Jean a
criminal,” Lee Merritt, one of the family’s attorneys, added.
Guyger, a five-year veteran of the Dallas police department, has been
put on paid administrative leave. In an earlier 2017 incident, she shot
Uvaldo Perez, who was a suspect in a criminal investigation, but she
wasn’t indicted.
Since the killing, there have been series of protests and vigils
throughout Dallas demanding that Guyger be fired, prosecuted and jailed.
“The officer needs to be fired immediately,” attorney Merritt told the
crowd at a Sept. 14 protest outside the Dallas police department. “And
we cannot forget O’Shae Terry who was killed in Arlington Sept. 1. The
cop pulled out his gun and shot him five times. We need to see these all
the way through to conviction.”
Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate in
Texas, also spoke. “This is another example of why working people need
to build a movement independent from the capitalist rulers, their state
and their parties,” she said. “Police brutality is a class question. You
cannot reform the police. We must continue to fight police brutality
against working people.”
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Iraq protests shake up moves to form new gov’t
•‘Militant’ wins a round, fight against prison censors goes on
•‘We need to get a union into the place where I work’
•Protests in Dallas demand cop who killed Botham Jean be fired
•Are frenzied liberals afflicted with ‘Trump derangement syndrome’?
Feature Articles •Social catastrophe from storms are a product of
capitalist rule
Also In This Issue •Great Russian artists of 19th century and 1917
Bolshevik Revolution
•Pa. prison authorities curb letters, books, newspapers
•Colo. meatpackers win suit against right to pray firings
•Manila book fair draws over 100,000 participants
Editorials •Join and build the Socialist Workers Party 2018 campaign
On the Picket Line •SF hotel workers rally, say ‘One job should be enough’
•Striking hotel workers in Chicago rally for yearlong health care
•Industrial glass strikers in Montreal win solidarity
Books of the Month •Imperialism pauses only when it faces a people ready
to fight
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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