ATLANTA
Protests erupt after cop kills Black youth
By Jimmy Raynor
Atlanta
Chanting "No justice, no peace--no racist police," some
150-200 spirited demonstrators marched past crowded bars and
restaurants in the Buckhead section of Atlanta Aug. 3. Two
weeks earlier, on July 14, Atlanta Police Officer R.S. Bunn
shot and killed an 18-year-old African American youth, Corey
Ward, in his car.
Bunn, part of an undercover detail, claimed that he heard
breaking glass in a parking lot and then saw an SUV with six
young African American males exiting the lot. Drawing his gun,
he ordered them to stop. When the vehicle kept going, he says
he shot the driver in self-defense.
Ward's friends say Bunn did not identify himself as a police
officer and they thought they were being attacked.
Ward's family and friends, with the aid of the National
Youth Connection, United Youth Adult Conference, Concerned
Black Clergy and others, organized a protest of 250 people on
July 22 at police headquarters. They have held several news
conferences and community meetings.
Bunn first made headlines two years ago for hitting a young
woman in the face, breaking her eye socket and permanently
damaging her eyesight. According to Bunn, Ylia Lavender refused
to turn down the volume of her car radio.
At least six complaints of excess force have been filed
against Bunn in his few years in the Atlanta Police Department.
Several more people have come forward since Ward's killing to
add to his record of misconduct and brutality.
Reprinted from the Aug. 15, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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