WW interviews father of Chicago police brutality victim

On Aug. 7, Chicago police shot 13-year-old Ellis Woodland Jr., an African American, three times while he was on his way to a baseball game after visiting his father in the Cabrini-Green public housing development.

This ruthless shooting of an unarmed child sparked a wave of anger in this near north side African-American community. This racist attempted homicide and the cops’ attitude of arrogance and contempt led to a large community demonstration days later outside the police station in the heart of Cabrini.

Willie J.R. Fleming, chair of the Hip-Hop Congress of Cabrini-Green, was one of the march organizers.

The demonstration was violently attacked by the cops, but the protesters fought back. Seventeen-year-old Maurice Taylor was taunted by cops using racist epithets.

Taylor began arguing with a racist cop. Taylor received a brutal beating at the hands of members of the Chicago Police Department several days later that landed him in the hospital with serious injuries.

Cabrini, initially an Italian and now an African-American working-class neighborhood, has been gentrifying at a rapid pace.

Greedy real-estate and condominium developers want to get their hands on what is considered to be some of the most valuable land in Chicago outside the “Gold Coast,” which Cabrini borders. These developers benefit directly from cop terrorism directed at the African-American community in general and Black youth in particular.

Workers World Chicago reporter Eric Struch interviewed Ellis Woodland Jr.’s father, Ellis Woodland Sr.

Workers World: The media, after they covered, or barely covered, the shooting; and then had a little bit of coverage of that demonstration at the police station afterwards where Maurice Taylor got beat up, or where the cops targeted him and beat him up later—after that, there was just absolutely nothing in the press. People drive through here and they see the buildings getting torn down, but there’s really nothing in the press from the viewpoint of anybody who lives here about what’s going on.

Ellis Woodland Sr.: To be honest with you, it seems as if the press has, not intentionally, but has worked against us. I’ve been a victim of more harassment. My son, he’s been harassed as well. Since that matter, it has got worse.

WW: I heard that before they stopped him for this bogus BB gun incident or whatever that they stopped him a couple days before and stole his house keys.

EW: Yeah, it was a situation where a group of kids were questioned about their names, and when his name was mentioned, and his name was the same as mine, they went a little further and took the keys out his pocket and were not giving them back to him.

WW: So when there was that demonstration in front of the police station, was that a spontaneous thing where everyone was kind of pissed and got together at the same time and went over there and did that, or was there a leadership of that people decided that this is what we have to do? How did that come together?

EW: The people all felt it wasn’t justice, people felt it was unjust, as well as I did, so we tried to be heard. But that’s been overshadowed by more police harassment. I don’t know whether the answer is for the community to come out and get further harassed or let nature take its course.

WW: I want to talk for a minute about how people feel about the transition that’s going on here, about the CHA [Chicago Housing Authority] deciding to knock down all the white buildings and all the red buildings. How is that affecting people over here?

EW: Basically, history is repeating itself. This place was taken from nationality after nationality. Now they’re trying to take it again. Daley took it from the Italians. Why they want to take it from us? Father Daley, that is.

WW: Is there any sort of organization here that is getting people to fight back against this? I know there is this group, the Hip-Hop Congress.

EW: The Hip-Hop Congress has been the only people that have been speaking up on behalf of the community to the point where they can be heard.