DC community confronts police over possible lynching
Washington, DC – On Monday, April 13, a man was found hanging from a tree behind the 4th District Police Station in Washington, DC. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers unceremoniously cut him down from the tree and carted him away.
Despite the alarming and suspicious nature of the case, no news station reported on it, and the police made no public statement. The only sources of information were videos posted to social media by community members showing the man's body hanging from a tree as officers scrambled to stop people from filming or taking pictures.
As alarm grew in the Black community in response to the videos of a possible lynching victim, concerned individuals began visiting and calling the police station looking for answers, including a journalist from the Washington Informer, the Neighborhood Commissioner, and the Councilwoman of Ward 4, Janeese Lewis George. The police refused to provide answers, saying only that they deemed it a suicide, without explaining why.
For three days, the police ignored the community and remained silent. On Thursday, April 16, the DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (DCAARPR) was notified about what appeared to be a police lynching of a Black man, though details were limited due to MPD stonewalling.
Within a few hours, DCAARPR took to social media and announced an emergency rally outside of 4th Disctict Police Station to demand answers. The post immediately went viral, given the horrific nature of the case and people's desire to fight back. Within an hour of the social media post, MPD finally was forced to make a public statement.
In their statement, they went out of their way to point out that the victim was a 19-year-old Latino man, not a Black man, in hopes of dulling people's anger and undercutting DCAARPR's planned rally. Despite their attempt to divide the community, a massive crowd of Black, brown and white people showed up at the police station the next day to give them hell.
During the rally, Kristen Bonner of DCAARPR spoke, stating, “MPD is telling us this is a suicide. We have reason not to believe them. We have reason not to trust them. They have not done anything for our communities that says they are protecting us – that says they are keeping us safe. If anything, they are the purveyors of violence and terror and racism in our communities, and to that we say shame!”
Tamira Benitez, 4B-05 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner also spoke, “Three days have passed and we have no information. No email, no text, no phone call [from MPD]. When you go in person to get information, it’s like a burden to them.”
Benitez continued, “So we don’t need people like these, getting a shit ton of money out of our $22-plus billion budget to treat us like we’re nothing. As an ANC Commissioner, I don’t need to be friends with MPD to get the information I need to get.”
Merawi Gerima of DCAARPR stated, “If they say it's a suicide, we say show us the evidence. If their policies prohibit that, we say their policies are not good enough and that's why we're out here, because their policies allow them to kill us with impunity. Our policy is community control of the police so that we can hold them accountable in situations like this.”
When protesters realized that the Fourth District was also the precinct home of officer Jason Bagshaw, a known killer cop, they confronted him, chanting “It is right to rebel, Jason Bagshaw burn in hell!”
The demonstrators eventually took Georgia Avenue, one of the busiest streets in DC, in the middle of the city's notorious rush hour and marched for nearly a mile, attracting Black and brown people from the neighborhood to join them in chanting “Indict, convict, send these killer cops to jail, the whole damn system is guilty as hell!” and demanding community control of the police.
At the close of the rally, community members committed themselves to the struggle for community control of the police – on the journey towards transforming DC into a city where everyone can get their needs met.