Guillory and Brown. Photo: Facebook
[Speaking Truth To Power]
Over the last few years, African Americas have seen a steady stream of mayhem and murder perpetrated against Black people by prejudiced policing practices and the white supremacy that underpins it.
Some of the worst cases were the murders of Walter Scott and Laquan McDonald who were both shot in the back multiple times and were clearly not a threat to the lives of police; the standard excuse they use to justify their killings and murders of Black people. Why shoot someone who is not a threat –as videos in both these cases show– in the back unless you’re guided by extreme racist animus?
The latest troubling incident is that of 27-year-old Louisiana native, DeJuan Guillory. Was his death at the hands of a Louisiana officer, yet another case of cold-blooded back shooting?
We have bits and pieces of the July 6 killing of 27-year-old Guillory by Officer Paul Holden LaFleur in Mamou, Louisiana. Police in Louisiana are engaged in the same kind of cover-up and lack of transparency; just as when Alton Sterling was killed last July 5. In Louisiana, their version of NYPDs 48-hours rule, is a 60-days rule, where police dont have to explain their criminal actions against Black Louisianans. Image if a civilian suspect in a crime was to say she or he needed 60 days before answering questions?
Guillory, by all accounts was a responsible father of three. Guillory’s girlfriend, DeQuincy Brown, 21, has related the story of his killing to her lawyer, Joe Long. According to Brown, this incident started when LaFleur pulled her and Guillory over while they were both riding their ATV down a local dirt road. LaFleur asked them for their IDs and an argument ensued between Guillory and LaFleur when he became angry because they had none.
Apparently, LaFleur got into Guillorys face and a tussle started. Brown said she convinced Guillory to calm down, whereupon, he turned and walked away from LaFleur. It was then that LaFleur reportedly pulled out his gun and ordered Guillory and Brown to lie on the ground. Guillory complied and lay on the groundwith his hands behind his back.
At one point, LaFleur reportedly told Guillory to ”shut the fuck up or Ill shoot you.” Guillorys last words, according to Brown’s account were: ”Please dont shoot me I have three kids.” LeFleur is said to have then shot Guillory once in the back. He apparently momentarily stopped, before pumping three more shots into the back of this young Black man.
Louisiana police claim both Brown and Guillory attacked Le Fleur as he was handcuffing Guillory. Reportedly, Guillory was partially handcuffedone cuff is said to have been removed from the only cuffed hand, after the autopsy. This allegation makes the full disclosure of Guillorys autopsy report even more crucially important in assessing the truthfulness of LeFleur and the Louisiana police.
Did LeFleur shoot this young Black man in the back Walter Scott and LaQuan McDonald style? Did he just shoot him because he was protesting his arrest too vehemently? The shooting of someone in the back has to be one of the most dastardly coward acts. In Western movies, any gunfighter who did this was despised and reviled. Over and over again, police shoot Black men down dead in this very manner without shame. This is because they really don’t consider their victims worthy of consideration as human beings.
This officer has not been charge with anything in this killing; Brown, the survivor, has been charged with attempted murder. After four days in jail she was released on a $75,000 bond. But tellingly, the statements that LaFleur or the Louisiana authorities have made don’t explain or justify why she should be charged with attempted murder.
Nowhere in this tall Louisiana tale is any evidence offered to justify the charge. It appears more like an attempt to cover up LeFleur’s own murder of Guillory. The tale will likely be modified before the 60-days allowed to concoct more tales expires.
No doubt the police in Louisiana will cover-up and support a murderer in blue. Police always do this when they kill Black people. How many times have you seen other officers come out to denounce murder of a Black man by another officer; it’s always the videotapes that expose the killers.
Even then, justice is never assured. Consider the execution-style killing of Alton Sterling on July 5, 2016. Officers Howie Lake II and Blane Salamoni are out walking free in the street after the cold-blooded killing of Sterling. Who cares about Black lives? If the pair had killed a dog in the same manner White people would be up in arms. Not so when another “negro” is sent six-feet under.
In the Sterling case, both of these officers claimed their body-cams fell off; at the same time. Their intent was clear: kill the “negro” outside of camera-range. This allows them to then make up whatever lie best fits their purpose. The prosecutors, courts and judges will all render the expected judgments and verdicts; everyone is on the same page.
In the Walter Scott case in South Carolina, murderer Michael Slager thought he would never pay the price for executing a Black man who was running, at snail’s pace, away from him. The police department would go with any tale he cooked. He did not bank on a pedestrian capturing the execution on his phone camera.
In Sterling’s case even the video doesn’t matter; impunity prevails. The authorities in Louisiana are clearly more supremely corrupt and galling in their cover-up of Sterlings murder.
As is the modus operandi of police when they kill a Black person, the character assassination of Guillory is already in full effect. The police refuse to give pertinent information relative to this killingbut they have made sure it is known that Guillory had a rap sheet. Somehow, once they say the victim has a “rap sheet” that is supposed to automatically exonerate police conduct and criminality.
So why havent the police released the video of Guillorys encounter with Officer LeFleur, since they claim that there is video? Why should we not already know everything that happened in this case? Anytime the police conduct interrogations, and someone appears less than forthcoming, this is taken as a suspicious sign that they are hiding something. When the police act like criminals by hiding evidence and not telling us the story why should we believe anything they say?
The Black community long ago lost faith in police investigations into killings of unarmed Black people.
This is a dangerous condition that the political establishment must heed, recognize and address. In 2016, after the killings of African Americans by police a Texas military veteran, Micah Xavier Johnson, killed five police officers in Dallas in a sniper attack. Before he was killed he told police that he was “upset about recent police shootings” CNN reported.
