There is absolutely NO justification for this cold-blooded murder of an unarmed man by a cop. This was a wanton and totally senseless killing. Even IF it turns out that the license plates did not match the car, this certainly would not justify a death sentence by any human logic. Many people are calling this what it is—a summary execution.

Patrick Lyoya had two young daughters, aged two and three, and was an older brother to five siblings. Peter Lyoya, Patrick’s father, said his son had a “big heart,” worked hard, and should have “had a long life ahead of him.” He wants the cop who killed his son to be prosecuted. He said (through a translator), “Patrick loved playing soccer and spending time with his loved ones but now he can’t do that anymore… We came from Africa, and I knew that here in America we came for peace; we came for protection. [But] there was no safety here for Patrick… Me personally, I want, first, justice to be done for Patrick. I am the parent. What has happened to me because Patrick has been killed, I don’t want another parent to go through what I went through.”

Once Again: Killed for Driving While Black

Traffic stops for very minor violations—or nothing at all—happen all the time in the USA. A New York Times investigation found that over the last five years cops have killed more than 400 people stopped in their cars who were not wielding a gun or knife or under pursuit for a violent crime. The investigation also found that the cops and courts significantly overstated the danger to the cops at these stops in order to justify the shooting.

Grand Rapids is a city of about 200,000 people, and 18 percent of residents here are Black. There is a community of 7,000-8,000 Congolese people, mostly refugees.

Activists who voiced their anger for hours at the City Commission and then marched and rallied in the streets described years of police brutality in Grand Rapids, including how in 2017, cops looking for a middle-aged woman wanted for an alleged stabbing, handcuffed an 11-year-old girl at gunpoint while she was leaving a house. Some months before this, Grand Rapids cops held five innocent teenagers at gunpoint. And in 2020 a cop shot a protester in the face with a gas canister.

At a press conference by Grand Rapids city officials, there was a sickening display of crocodile tears. This included Black faces in high places—like City Manager Mark Washington, who announced the release of four videos of the shooting of Patrick Lyoya and then said, “It was painful to watch, and I immediately asked, ‘What caused this to happen and what more could have been done to prevent this from occurring?’”

Well first of all, Mr. House Slave Frontman Defender of the System—if you want to stop things like this from happening, STOP YOUR PIGS from brutalizing and murdering the people. But then again, we know you and others in authority, and more generally this whole system, will not and cannot stop the police terrorizing and brutalizing—because this system needs its armed enforcers to keep the people down, to oppress the people, and to maintain the status quo through the most violent and vicious means. If this were not so, then why do these pigs kill time after time, and get away with it time after time?

People are demanding the arrest and prosecution of the cop who took the life of Patrick Lyoya. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets and rallied outside the Grand Rapids Police Department chanting, "Black lives matter," "No justice, no peace" and "Name that murderer." Saturday, April 16 marked the fifth consecutive day of protests in Grand Rapids against the murder of Patrick Lyoya.

Yet another Black man killed for no reason at all by this system and its armed enforcers. Yet another unjust murder by a system that needs to be done away through a real revolution as soon as possible.