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COMMENTARY: Highland Park Is a Tragedy, But So Is Akron, Ohio, And Jayland Walker.

The eight officers were placed on administrative leave. And last weekend hundreds protested in downtown Akron. We just didn’t see much coverage on it. It would have only reinforced what we know—that police violence, specifically toward the BIPOC community is real and keeps happening again and again.

Published

2 years ago

July 11, 2022

Oakland Post

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a talk show on www.amok.com

Emil Guillermo is a veteran journalist and commentator. See his work on www.amok.com.

By Emil Guillermo

If you were celebrating on the Fourth of July, you have to be troubled on the fifth, sixth, seventh, and all the rest of our days.

This past weekend, some of our fellow Americans were flinching from gunpowder blasts. And it’s not from the fireworks.

It’s from guns. And it’s a reminder that our freedoms just don’t seem to be working right now for all of us in America.

We may have to think seriously about giving up some rights for the greater good.

It surely can’t go on much longer the way it is.

Not when seven are dead and more than 30 are injured when a gunman shot up a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill.

Not when the police chief of Akron, Ohio, finally released officers’ body camera videos of the killing of Jayland Walker on Sunday, nearly a week after Akron cops put more than 60 gunshot wounds into an unarmed Walker.

The Sunday release of the body-cam footage and the NAACP-led protest that occurred over the holiday in Akron would have led the national news most weekends.

But not when you have a live shooting at a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb considered one of the safest places in America.

If you don’t know Highland Park (population 30,177), it’s to Chicago what the Lamorinda area is to Oakland. Affluent ($147,067 plus median income), 80-90% white. As a “white flight” suburb, mass shootings aren’t supposed to happen there.

So, when it does, the media get super-focused on Highland Park.

Meanwhile, Akron barely got mentioned in the news. You need both instances together to give you the rich, full picture of America’s gun problem.

It’s not the same for everyone.

For people of color, we have to fear the bad guys and the good guys.

Surely, minority communities know the Highland Park kind of gun violence perpetrated by an alienated male with an AR-15 type weapon. The Black community felt the pain at the Tops Supermarket shooting in Buffalo where 10 people died in May. The Hispanic community suffered in Uvalde when 21 people were killed last month.

But then you have the kind of shooting that took Jayland Walker’s life.

Reports say Walker had a handgun on a seat in his car. It wasn’t loaded. And he didn’t use it. Walker was stopped by the Akron police during a routine traffic stop. He had one traffic ticket and no criminal record. So why did it take eight officers to stop him, ending in a seven-minute pursuit that left Walker dead?

At one point, Walker stopped, exited his car wearing a ski mask, and fled on foot. Police used tasers at first, but when that didn’t stop Walker, the officers opened fire.

Akron Chief Stephen L. Mylett confirmed Walker was unarmed when confronted and told the lawyers for Walker that evidence he’d seen, indicated the officers were not threatened.

Who knows if Jayland Walker and his family will ever see justice? We only know for sure that Walker won’t be the last Black man who dies by police violence.

That’s why we need to keep shining a light on Walker’s case, so that in a year people won’t wonder, “Jayland Who?”

Emil Guillermo is a veteran journalist and commentator. See his work on www.amok.com

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

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2 days ago

April 26, 2024

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

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1 week ago

April 19, 2024

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Oakland Schools Honor Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties

Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice. His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.

Published

1 week ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Fred Korematsu. Courtesy of OUSD.

By Post Staff

Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice.

His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.
One OUSD school is named in his honor: Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy (KDA) elementary in East Oakland.

Several years ago, founding KDA Principal Charles Wilson, in a video interview with anti-hate organization “Not In Our Town,” said, “We chose the name Fred Korematsu because we really felt like the attributes that he showed in his work are things that the children need to learn … that common people can stand up and make differences in a large number of people’s lives.”

Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland on Jan. 30, 1919. His parents ran a floral nursery business, and his upbringing in Oakland shaped his worldview. His belief in the importance of standing up for your rights and the rights of others, regardless of race or background, was the foundation for his activism against racial prejudice and for the rights of Japanese Americans during World War II.

At the start of the war, Korematsu was turned away from enlisting in the National Guard and the Coast Guard because of his race. He trained as a welder, working at the docks in Oakland, but was fired after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Fear and prejudice led to federal Executive Order 9066, which forced more than 120,000 Japanese Americans out of their homes and neighborhoods and into remote internment camps.

The 23-year-old Korematsu resisted the order. He underwent cosmetic surgery and assumed a false identity, choosing freedom over unjust imprisonment. His later arrest and conviction sparked a legal battle that would challenge the foundation of civil liberties in America.

Korematsu’s fight culminated in the Supreme Court’s initial ruling against him in 1944. He spent years in a Utah internment camp with his family, followed by time living in Salt Lake City where he was dogged by racism.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford overturned Executive Order 9066. Seven years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco vacated Korematsu’s conviction. He said in court, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.”

Korematsu’s dedication and determination established him as a national icon of civil rights and social justice. He advocated for justice with Rosa Parks. In 1998, President Bill Clinton gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom saying, “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls … To that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.”

After Sept. 11, 2001, Korematsu spoke out against hatred and discrimination, saying what happened to Japanese Americans should not happen to people of Middle Eastern descent.
Korematsu’s roots in Oakland and his education in OUSD are a source of great pride for the city, according to the school district. His most famous quote, which is on the Korematsu elementary school mural, is as relevant now as ever, “If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don’t be afraid to speak up.”