CLAREMONT, CALIF.
Officials honor racist killer cops
By John
Parker
Claremont, Calif.
At Claremont City Hall, weekly protests of a racist police
shooting are growing bigger and louder since city and law
enforcement officials honored the killer cops involved.
Last January a young Black man, Irvin Landrum Jr., was shot
repeatedly by two cops as he stood outside his car during a
traffic stop in this Los Angeles County city. Hany Hanna and
Kent Jacks, the two cops, claimed Landrum pulled a gun and
fired at them first. Landrum was 18 years old.
A Sheriff's Department investigation last March found that
Landrum's gun had not been fired at all. In fact, the
investigation couldn't find fingerprints, or even smudges of
fingerprints, on the gun.
But that's not all. A reporter's filing of a Public Records
Act request forced Police Chief Robert Moody to admit recently
that the gun Landrum allegedly used was a collectors' item last
registered to a police chief.
Despite this overwhelming evidence against the cops' version
of events, the district attorney's office in October said the
cops were not "criminally culpable" for the shooting.
This exoneration produced the same reaction in Claremont's
Black community as had happened in nearby Riverside when cops
were let off after killing another Black youth, Tyisha Miller.
Miller was shot while she slept in her car, say witnesses.
It was also reminiscent of the time when the Los Angeles
District Attorney refused to bring criminal charges against
cops who killed a frail Black homeless woman, Margaret
Mitchell. Witnesses said Mitchell was running away from
pursuing cops when they shot her.
Especially among the families of the victims, the first
reaction to the exoneration was anger and rage, followed by
protest.
However, in this latest example of the police and their
supporter's callousness and inhumanity, the authorities added
insult to injury. City and police officials answered the family
and the Black community's demands for justice and dignity with
a cold slap. The officials chose to honor these racist killer
cops.
The Claremont Police Department in late December voted Hanna
and Jacks officers of the year. A week before that, the city
manager named them city employees of the year.
Pitzer College professor Halford Fairchild, a supporter of
the Landrum family, responded: "The city is so hardened in
defending these officers they've actually gone on the
offensive. It's snubbing their thumbs at the Landrum
family."
Throughout the year, members of Landrum's family have led
the weekly protests in this predominantly white city. Every day
this case exposes to more and more people the nature of the
police, from Claremont to Los Angeles and beyond.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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