© Joshua Lott / Reuters A demonstrator holds a sign as protesters try to disrupt Black Friday shopping in Chicago, Illinois, November 25, 2016.
Claiming "unjustified and excessive use of force," the family of Kajuan Raye has sued the police sergeant who fatally shot the unarmed teen last week in Chicago, Illinois. John Poulos, the accused sergeant, also fatally shot an unarmed black man in 2013.
The Chicago Police Department has not named the officer responsible for Raye's death on November 23, but a lawsuit filed Tuesday by Raye's mother identified Poulos, 44, as the shooter, according to the Chicago Tribune. In addition, Ja'Mal Green, a Chicago activist and spokesman for Raye's family, also identified the sergeant as Poulos on his Facebook page and during a press conference on Tuesday.
Chicago PD Superintendent Eddie Johnson called Green's actions "divisive" and "inappropriate," the
Tribune reported. Green said Tuesday that offering information about the officer responsible for two deaths of unarmed men is all the reason needed.
"They don't want to put out the name and background of this sergeant, but yet as soon as they killed Kajuan Raye, they automatically called him a thug," Green said at the news conference when asked by reporters about posting Poulos' photo online.
"They automatically said he had a gun. They automatically put out their narrative. Why can't we put out ours? John Poulos is this police officer. Put his picture out. Tell the people that he shot two unarmed black males. Put his background out. You want to keep making us look like criminals, he's a criminal. He's a criminal. Kajuan Raye didn't shoot anybody. (Poulos) shot two unarmed black men. That's the criminal that needs to be prosecuted. Put out his background."
Late on November 23, Raye, 19, was in the West Englewood neighborhood of Chicago, reportedly waiting for a bus with a friend. A Chicago PD sergeant responded to a call in the area about a battery in progress when the sergeant found a man, later identified as Raye, that "matched the description of the offender," Johnson said last week. The sergeant approached the man, but the man ran away, police said. The sergeant chased the man, who at some point "turned and pointed" a weapon at the sergeant, Chicago PD has claimed.
The sergeant, a white man, fired his own weapon in response, hitting Raye in the back. Raye was soon pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The sergeant was not wearing a body camera. A comprehensive search for a gun at the scene, the one Raye reportedly pointed at the sergeant, came up empty, according to police, and no weapon has been found since.The sergeant's claim that Raye had a gun is "simply ridiculous," said Michael Oppenheimer, attorney for Raye's family.
"It is another attempt to cover up another fatal shooting by the Chicago Police Department," Oppenheimer said Tuesday.
Over the weekend, Johnson stripped the sergeant of his policing rank, saying he has "concerns about this incident," the Tribune reported.
Poulos was responsible for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man during a foot pursuit in 2013. Similar to the Raye killing, Poulos said the man, Rickey Rozelle, had pointed a weapon at him during a chase, leading the sergeant to fire, hitting Rozelle in the chest. No weapon was recovered, however, only a chrome watch, the Tribune reported. Poulos was not punished for Rozelle's death. Rozelle's family has a pending lawsuit against the Chicago PD sergeant.Between 2010 and 2015, Chicago PD officers fired 2,623 bullets at citizens, killing 92 people and injuring 170 others, according to an analysis by the
Tribune. So far this year, the department's officers have shot 24 people after shooting 28 in 2015.
The Chicago PD is
under investigation by the US Department of Justice over its use of force and accountability policies stemming from the October 2014 police killing of Laquan McDonald. In November 2015, the department finally
released a dashcam recording of the incident, showing McDonald, who was holding a knife, was shot by Officer Jason Van Dyke. The officer, who shot the teen 16 times just seconds after arriving on the scene, was charged with first-degree murder. The video of the shooting spurred
mass protests in Chicago and beyond.
anything anymore.......the narrative is cops are out to just kill people. And for a while i was falling for it but now I'm not so sure as the following sure makes things.....shall i say cloudy.....about what is really going one.
don't shoot the messenger.
i post this because SOTT was all over this story and convicted this cop before the jury did....even followed up re-posted articles with comments.
#1
Holtzclaw must live in an alternate reality to even be considering going back to work. That kind of aloof behavior is similar to how many psychopaths have reacted to being asked about their deadly crimes against innocent people. Does he actually believe that 9 unrelated women are all conspiring against him? To most logical people, the evidence is overwhelming and he would be best served by cooperating. But psychopaths aren't logical, so he'll fight the charges and probably end up getting a much harsher sentence as a result, which, if the allegations are true, is to the benefit of the public.
#2
Holtzclaw is a former Eastern Michigan University football player. Football is one of many sports where aggression is cultivated, and often translates into aggressive behavior of players off the field. Despite their pathological traits and misbehavior on and off the play field, they get excused again and again. If police departments weren't so ponerized [sic], this man would never have been allowed to remain on active duty after being involved in the wrongful death of Clifton Armstrong.
#3
We can only hope that the jury has some common sense. This predator should be locked away forever.
Now on to the link.........and maybe we should all start being more doubtful of all news stories no matter where they are posted (even the one I've linked to here) as it seems there is a narrative that needs to be perpetuated, truth be damned....and lastly, many of the woman "involved" are going for the money grab.
[Link]
Prosecutors failed to present a single, corroborating witness or a single piece of direct forensic evidence proving Holtzclaw committed any of the 36 alleged assaults allegedly perpetrated at 17 different crime scenes.
Holtzclaw never once asked for a lawyer during a two-hour interrogation by sex-crimes detectives—which came just 12 hours after he allegedly forced a 57-year-old woman to perform oral sex on him during his last overnight shift on June 18, 2014. In fact, Holtzclaw was completely forthcoming and consistent in his description of the 15-minute traffic stop involving northeast OKC resident and star accuser Jannie Ligons. He readily agreed to take a lie detector test “anytime,” voluntarily submitted to a buccal swab, handed over his uniform for DNA analysis, and signed a waiver allowing detectives to search his home, computers and phone.
“I want everything” done, Holtzclaw told detectives—even when they falsely claimed to have incriminating video that “doesn’t look really good” and purportedly showed “a whole lot of action being performed.”