Pigs In South Central LA Murder Dijon Kizzee with 15 Shots to His Back
Two Weeks of Repression and Resistance

by Members of the Revolution Club, LA, and the National Revolution Tour

| revcom.us

Who Was Dijon Kizzee?

Dijon Kizzee was a 29-year-old Black man who was born and raised in Los Angeles. On August 31, 2020 Dijon was murdered in cold blood by members of LA Sheriff's Department (LASD).

Sheriffs allege they suspected him of violating vehicle codes while riding on his bike. He ran away on foot yelling, “they’re going to kill me.” With people watching, and shouting for these pigs not to shoot Dijon, they fired 15 shots into his back (shots that continued after he had fallen still) as he tried to get away from these murderers who have a reputation for being killers of Black men.  

Dijon Kizzee was a human being whose life mattered, and still matters. He leaves behind family members and friends who loved him. His Aunt Fletcher Fair described him as “a good young man” that took care of his sick mother until her passing. He leaves behind his dedicated and grieving partner, who shares some of their moments together on her social media. Between videos of them teasing each other or going out together, the stacks of handwritten letters they exchanged, and the screenshots of texts showing their patience and love for each other... it is impossible to not feel the humanity of Dijon, and the richness and love he added to the lives of those who knew him, and the pain of the loss. 

Dijon Kizzee, courtesy of the Kizzee family


A gathering for Dijon.

All of this happened against the backdrop of the righteous uprising since the police murder of George Floyd this spring, when thousands took to the streets, in a sustained way, demanding an end to police murder of Black people. And right in the aftermath of Dijon’s murder, and the days that followed, there were vigils, speak outs, and a few small protests that developed as news of his death circulated online. People mobilized, taking to the streets to demand justice. Members of the Revolution Club were standing with people in the community and from around LA, bringing out the need to get organized for a real revolution to end this madness AND the need to unite to stop the impending threat of the fully unleashed genocidal racism of Trump/Pence fascism.  

The Clampdown: Continued and Escalating Fascist Repression 

On September 5, Black Lives Matter LA called for a family-oriented protest demanding justice for Dijon, along with demands for various police reforms. This call brought out a couple hundred people, including family of Dijon and other families who had been affected by police violence. The Revolution Club, running with some people from the area where Dijon was murdered who have stepped into the revolution, joined in with this march right after marching in Refuse Fascism’s national day of protest to initiate 60 days of struggle demanding “Trump Pence Out Now,” two intimately connected struggles and demands being taken up as part of building for revolution. 

During this family-oriented event, where children in roller skates played, LASD posted up in riot gear, with temporary barriers already in place and shot tear gas into the peaceful crowd, unprovoked. Declaring unlawful assembly, sheriffs moved in, all the while barraging the crowd of demonstrators with chemical irritants, rubber bullets, flash bangs and physical brutality. 

The following night, the mother of a young girl who was hit by the tear gas that evening called for an emergency protest in response to this wrongful violation of people's rights to peacefully demonstrate. Roughly 50 people came out, and minutes after assembling to rally at the Sheriff’s station, the LASD declared the gathering unlawful. 

Sheriffs again closed in while unleashing an arsenal of painful “dispersal munitions”: rubber bullets, tear gas and physical assaults. In a taunting display of cruelty, and echoing the murder of George Floyd, this assault from the sheriffs included them driving their knees into the necks of several of the dozen or more people who they would arrest as they were pinned down on the ground. And many of those arrested were taken AFTER the sheriffs dispersed and pursued people throughout the neighborhood, continuing to fire their “dispersal munitions” at fleeing protesters. Several were seriously injured, including one revcom who was brutalized so badly he needed to be hospitalized for injuries. 

Around the Country, Trump Shouts About “Law and Order” – the “Order” of Fascism

In response to the struggle that has been unfolding around the country and in South Central LA against murder by police, the fascist Trump has been ramping up his talk of “Law and Order” (which took a leap in his pig-filled, nazi-spewing Republican Convention) and more loudly condemning protesters as “rioters,” “arsonists,” “violent mobs.” He has repeatedly called for “retribution” against those protesting police murder and those who take down racist statues. He recently praised an extrajudicial killing by U.S. Marshals in Portland, saying, “And I will tell you something—that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this,”1 and Trump promises to more fully use federal agents as a personal army to put down protests, tweeting: “They are not ‘peaceful protesters,’ as Sleepy Joe and the Democrats call them, they are THUGS—And it is all taking place in Democrat run cities. Call me and request Federal HELP. We will solve your problems in a matter of minutes—And thanks to the U.S. Marshalls in Portland!”2 

Just one day after Dijon Kizzee was murdered in LA, the genocidal racist Donald Trump was visiting Kenosha. In this city, where the police had just shot Jacob Blake in the back in front of his children... where the Kenosha County Sheriff was on camera at a press conference in 2018 literally calling Black people garbage people who need to be put in warehouses and prevented from reproducing... the city where a white supremacist militia thug murdered 2 people protesting the shooting Jacob Blake two days after Trump had called for “Second Amendment people” to be part of putting down protests… there, in that city at that time, Trump praised the police and police chief, defended the racist militia thug’s murder of protesters, and said nothing about the shooting of Jacob Blake by the police. 

Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, protesters killed by Trump-supporting militia gunman in Kenosha. Trump defended the killer, falsely claiming he was acting in "self-defense" and attacking the protesters as "violent." Credit: @TKarmen7

Think what it will mean if this fascist regime is able to stay in power, tighten its grip, and more fully unleash the “Law and Order” of Trump fascism. Think about that as police unions all over the country announce their endorsements of Trump and pledge themselves to his program. Keep this in mind as you read on about the scenes of clampdown on basic rights that have been unfolding in LA.  

Think of this as you read how the murder of Dijon Kizzee, and the repression that followed, is being carried out by an LA Sheriff’s Department that faces mounting exposure of being filled with organized white supremacist gangs whose intent and purpose is targeted terror and murder of Black people and Latinos. A whistle blower recently revealed that the sheriff who murdered 18-year-old Andrés Guardado in June was “chasing ink,” seeking to earn membership into one of these racist gangs, the “Executioners.”3 Note well: these white supremacist gangs exist within an institution which is already notorious for racist terror against Black and Brown people. That, apparently, is not enough for these genocidal racists. 

Back in South Central LA, More Repression 

In response to the Sheriffs’ attacks and arrests in South Central, the Revolution Club called for a press conference to denounce the fascist repression and call for people to come back even stronger and more united, continue to demand justice for Dijon, and highlighted the connection between this repression by LASD and the genocidal racist Trump’s calls for retribution and violence to “put down,” “dominate” and “quell” protests for Black lives. 

Keyanna Celina, an organizer for Coalition for Community Control Over the Police and her daughter, Massiah, the 7-year-old girl who was tear gassed Saturday night, spoke at this press conference. As the young girl held strong and recounted her experience being tear gassed while demanding justice for Dijon, she was interrupted by Black Trump supporters including Joe Collins and his campaign manager, with straight lies about representing the wishes of the family of Dijon Kizzee, and repeating the line of attack of the sheriffs by decrying “outside agitators.” Before long LASD moved in to push people off the street, reinforce barricades, and eventually occupy the entire block, disallowing any gathering. 

The whole week afterwards any gathering of protesters has been declared an unlawful assembly. Sheriffs move in with brutal violence, without name tags or badge numbers, to inflict pain and repression onto protesters. Harassment and arrests are made AFTER people disperse, while walking home and even while cleaning up debris in the neighborhood left behind from LASD ‘s “less than lethal” stringer bombs and rubber bullets. 

Video footage on twitter by a neighborhood resident shows sheriffs going door to door demanding information on, or surrender of any housed protesters. Protesters are pulled over and searched while leaving protests. As part of this repression, four members of the press have been the target of violence and arrest. 

A National Lawyers Guild press conference exposing excessive force used by LASD on protesters and demanding an end to the violations of the right to assemble was interrupted by LASD, with video showing legal observer and law student David Cunningham being assaulted by a visibly agitated sheriff who was unable to conceal (or felt he no longer had to conceal) his disdain and desire to physically harm anyone on the side of justice. 

More Resistance and Revolution... 

In the face of night after night of an onslaught of fascist repression, several groupings of people and organizations, including the Revolution Club and Coalition for Community Control of the Police, called for people to come out even stronger the next Saturday.  

This protest celebrated Dijon’s life, demanded murder charges for the pigs involved in his execution and forged unity among broad forces, organizations and communities. People gathered at Dijon’s vigil to make signs, have coffee and prepare to march to the LASD station with the demand for justice for Dijon and his family. 

Diverse forces brought together a crowd of around 300. This included family and friends of Dijon and the mother of Anthony Weber (16-year-old Black youth also murdered by LASD in the same area in 2018). There were youth, people in their 20s and 30s, many who were part of various organizations, people from neighborhoods of South Central, and masses from across Los Angeles County. As Najee Ali, spokesperson for the attorney of Dijon Kizzee’s family, said in the days prior, “The family and the community is saying anyone who wants to come protest, we don’t care where you’re from, you’re welcome. You are not outsiders. Welcome to South Central LA to fight for justice.” 

Noche Diaz speaking in South Central on September 12.

The aunt of Dijon Kizzee speaking to the gathering in South Central on September 12.

As the march went toward the LASD station, residents of the neighborhood came to their windows, some raising their fists in solidarity, some coming out from their homes onto their porches, and into the streets, and some joining in. One photo taken during the march captured the multi-generational impact of police brutality, and what heart the resistance to it brings out of people: a Black woman around 30, with a young Black boy maybe 10 or 11 years old, along with an older gray haired woman all outside at the edge of their yard, all standing together. Two of them raising a first in support, and the young boy smiling while they watched the protesters flooding the streets declaring, “Black Lives Matter!” As the day came to a close at Dijon’s vigil, people wound down with freestyle rap, singing, and poetry that was accompanied by instruments brought out by people.  

Speakout in the streets of South Central, Part 1, September 12

Speakout in the streets of South Central, Part 2, September 12

The different organizations, family, and others spoke at the beginning of the rally and at the LASD station. Representative for the National Get Organized for an Actual Revolution Tour, Noche Diaz, brought fiery disdain for a system that would have some pass up as normal the wanton murder of Black people, and that the people this system encircles with murderous repression and all those who want to see this ended must encircle them, rising up and becoming the thousands standing together. And he called on people to be part of working for revolution to put an end to this system, replacing it with a system based in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America authored by Bob Avakian. 

Saturday demonstrated a different possibility for the future that can only be created when people stand together, combining power to seize the political initiative away from these fascist forces, utilizing our diversity to strengthen the side of the people, continuing the struggle for justice and fighting to win. 

 

1. Trump Calls for ‘Retribution,’ Not Justice, in Portland Shooting, Peter Wade, Rolling Stone, 9/13/20.   [back]

2. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1303371151792513024.   [back]

3. Los Angeles deputy says colleagues are part of violent gang called 'The Executioners', Fox11 Los Angeles, 08/04/2020.   [back]

 

 

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