Cops shoot Black 13-year-old in Chicago

Ellis Woodland, a 13-year-old African-American youth from the Cabrini-Green neighborhood on Chicago’s Near North Side, became the latest victim of cop terrorism on Aug. 7. Woodland had just left his brother’s birthday party and was on his way to a neighborhood baseball game when he was accosted by two white cops, who accused Woodland and his friend of participating in an alleged robbery. Woodland, having been harassed by cops who stole his house keys just days before, decided to make a run for it. The cops gave chase and fired four shots, hitting Wood land in the stomach, thigh and arm. He is now listed in critical condition at Children’s Memorial Hospital.

The cops are trying to claim that Woodland pointed what appeared to be a Smith and Wesson 9mm semiautomatic at the officers. The “weapon” the police have produced to back up their dubious claim is actually a Daisy PowerLine 93 CO2 BB gun. Woodland’s father, Ellis Woodland Sr., said, “I never bought him a BB gun. His mother never bought him a BB gun. They shot him, handcuffed him and left him for dead.”

BB guns are illegal in Chicago. Daisy Outdoor Products does not sell BB guns at retail outlets in Chicago, nor do they ship them to the city. While there is no concrete evidence of this in this case, it is widely known that many cops carry an unregistered gun not issued by the department in the squad car for use in just such a situation.

Everyone in the community who knows Woodland knows he is not involved in any “gang activity.” His father was involved with street organizations years ago. He says, “The police harassed me every day, every day. And now it’s got to the point where they were harassing my son. I didn’t raise my son to be like me. I didn’t raise him to get shot down like a dog.” Woodland attends the Dvorak school on the West Side and lives with his mother. He is described by his relatives as an “A-B student” and by school officials as a “pretty good student.” Ellis Woodland Sr. says of his son, “I got some bad kids, and he’s not one of them.”

The mood in the community after this terrorist act was explosive. More than 200 Cabrini-Green residents held a militant demonstration in front of the Near North police district building, located in the heart of Cabrini-Green at Division and Larabee. One of the demands of the demonstrators was “Chicago police: Stop trying to kill our children!” Community activist Deirdre Brewster said: “This is a community that is fed up. It’s obvious.”

The recent Burge report, which exposed institutionalized police brutality and torture in Chicago [see Workers World, Aug. 17], has apparently strengthened the atmosphere of impunity within the Chicago Police Department. The cops felt bold enough to beat and Mace several demonstrators. Several Cabrini-Green residents arrived on the scene to defend the demonstrators. Brandishing baseball bats and sharpened broom handles, they forced the violently aggressive cops to back down.

The recently constructed police station at 1160 N. Larabee was built in anticipation of extensive condominium development in Cabrini-Green. The cop station is there to make the condo-colonialists feel safe. Cabrini-Green is surrounded on three sides with the most expensive property in the city of Chicago. A 63-year-old former resident named Jimmie Blossom put it this way: “I know they want the neighborhood. It’s prime property. They are trying to get the poor people out of here. It’s crap, man. I was brought up here.”

At the demonstration, when Thomas Strong, Woodland’s uncle, asked the cops why nobody from the station had bothered to address the family about his nephew’s shooting, a reply came from the crowd, “Because he’s Black and he lives in Cabrini-Green!”