On the evening of April 11, the Chicago Police Department struck again, taking yet another Black life. Around 7:40, in the city’s Homan Square neighborhood, cops gunned down 16-year-old Pierre Loury in an alley just two blocks away from his home near the 3400 block of Grenshaw Street.
The murder comes amid an epidemic of police violence and terror against Black communities that has been raging throughout the city. It is an epidemic that has also been inspiring a movement of resistance among the people of the city, animated by a determination that this murder and terror has to stop and has to stop now. That movement must now tragically add one more young name to the already too long a list of those for whom it seeks justice.
The incident began when police pulled over a car that Loury was in claiming that it “matched the description” of a vehicle involved in a separate shooting. In the aftermath, police have refused to provide any detail on the supposed shooting that prompted the stop.
Loury fled from the car on foot and the cops gave chase, cornering him against a chain link fence in a nearby alley where he was shot to his death. Cops then claimed that Loury engaged them in an “armed confrontation,” which justified their use of deadly force.
However, at a vigil the following evening attended by over 100 people at the site where Loury was shot, a far different picture of the encounter was painted.
Family members and those who knew Loury said it was inconceivable that he would fire a gun at police as described. Indeed, witnesses to the shooting said that far from engaging in a “firefight” with CPD, Loury was callously gunned down while attempting to jump a fence and presenting no threat to anyone.
At the vigil, people lit candles and tearfully remembered Loury. Family members spoke of their deep grief at having their loved ones taken away from them so suddenly and so soon.
“Why?” was the question asked at the vigil, “Why is there no accountability?” Not only CPD, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel also needs to be “held accountable for the practice of lynching” according to one speaker at the vigil who decried that this has now become “standard practice” in the city.
After the vigil, attendees took to the city streets to spread their demand for justice and accountability. The people marched to the nearby Homan Square facility, the CPD’s notorious black site where countless young Black people are detained, disappeared, and tortured by the police.
“The reign of John Burge has not yet ended,” one participant said as marchers formed a circle with raised fists to block the intersection outside the torture site, “and this place is the proof.”
After a pause, the march continued north to the Eisenhower Expressway, shouting “Justice for Pierre!” and “All power to the people!” Protesters were able to briefly shut down the expressway as they marched and chanted throughout the city’s west side.
As the evening made clear, the movement for Black lives and for demanding justice for victims of police brutality and murder is not going anywhere. As it grows, the existing power structure will have no choice but to come to terms with those who accept nothing less than full liberation and an end to oppression.
As summed up by a speaker at the vigil referring to police murder and the city’s lukewarm response thus far, “What we need is for this to stop, right now. No task force. No commissions. No reports. We need this to stop.”
