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Date Posted: 03:14:27 01/15/00 Sat
Author: s
Subject: f

Officials honor racist killer cops

By John Parker
Claremont, Calif.

At Claremont City Hall, weekly protests of a racist police shooting are growing bigger and louder since city and law
enforcement officials honored the killer cops involved.

Last January a young Black man, Irvin Landrum Jr., was shot repeatedly by two cops as he stood outside his car during a
traffic stop in this Los Angeles County city. Hany Hanna and Kent Jacks, the two cops, claimed Landrum pulled a gun and
fired at them first. Landrum was 18 years old.

A Sheriff's Department investigation last March found that Landrum's gun had not been fired at all. In fact, the
investigation couldn't find fingerprints, or even smudges of fingerprints, on the gun.

But that's not all. A reporter's filing of a Public Records Act request forced Police Chief Robert Moody to admit recently that
the gun Landrum allegedly used was a collectors' item last registered to a police chief.

Despite this overwhelming evidence against the cops' version of events, the district attorney's office in October said the cops
were not "criminally culpable" for the shooting.

This exoneration produced the same reaction in Claremont's Black community as had happened in nearby Riverside when
cops were let off after killing another Black youth, Tyisha Miller. Miller was shot while she slept in her car, say witnesses.

It was also reminiscent of the time when the Los Angeles District Attorney refused to bring criminal charges against cops
who killed a frail Black homeless woman, Margaret Mitchell. Witnesses said Mitchell was running away from pursuing
cops when they shot her.

Especially among the families of the victims, the first reaction to the exoneration was anger and rage, followed by protest.

However, in this latest example of the police and their supporter's callousness and inhumanity, the authorities added
insult to injury. City and police officials answered the family and the Black community's demands for justice and dignity
with a cold slap. The officials chose to honor these racist killer cops.

The Claremont Police Department in late December voted Hanna and Jacks officers of the year. A week before that, the city
manager named them city employees of the year.

Pitzer College professor Halford Fairchild, a supporter of the Landrum family, responded: "The city is so hardened in
defending these officers they've actually gone on the offensive. It's snubbing their thumbs at the Landrum family."

Throughout the year, members of Landrum's family have led the weekly protests in this predominantly white city. Every
day this case exposes to more and more people the nature of the police, from Claremont to Los Angeles and beyond.

- END -

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