On Friday, September 8, the Philadelphia district attorney held a press conference announcing that pig Mark Dial was being arraigned on murder and other charges for killing Eddie Irizarry, a 27-year-old born in Puerto Rico, after a traffic stop.

This  announcement of charges came more than three weeks after the shooting. But the fact was, from the start, the police had had body cam footage they refused to release showing the pig killed Eddie Irizarry in cold blood… and tried to cover it up.

Eddie Irizarry came to Philadelphia from Puerto Rico seven years ago, and lived in North Philadelphia until his death. His family—who affectionately called him “Junito”—said he was a mechanic and loved working on cars; he enjoyed riding dirt bikes and listening to music. He was introverted and kind, they said, and did not speak or understand English (so could not have understood any of the pigs' commands). Shaka Johnson, a lawyer for the family, said Irizarry had struggled with schizophrenia, a disorder that other members of his family have lived with. He had no criminal record, and “never once had a negative encounter with police,” according to Johnson—until he was gunned down at point blank range by a murdering pig.

On August 14, Eddie Irizarry was shot six times by the pig Dial. At the press conference following the killing, reporters were told Irizarry had been driving erratically, turned down a one-way street the wrong way and then parked. The cops who had been following him drove up in their van, got out and approached the car. The police claimed Eddie got out of the car with a knife, ignored “multiple commands” to drop the weapon, and “lunged” at the officers, who then shot him.

That lie didn't last 24 hours—because Eddie Irizarry had never gotten out of his car. A bystander posted a video on Instagram within a day that showed the two pigs pulling Eddie out of the car, with a clearly visible bullet hole in the windshield showing they had already fired into the car with Eddie in it. Were the pigs immediately arrested and charged with the killing, and their lying story to cover it up? Not even close.

Two nights after the killing, the police commissioner, who by then had viewed the pigs' body cam footage, held a press conference and “changed the narrative,” saying Eddie Irizarry was actually sitting in his car when he was shot multiple times by one of the two cops who approached him. She refused to say why they were telling a completely different story, but now it was claimed the other pig yelled, “He's got a fucking knife” moments before six shots were fired into Eddie. The pigs allege there were two knives, one a small pocket knife, on the passenger seat—neither in Eddie's hand. (The family's attorneys would later explain that Eddie carried a pocket knife that he used for his work as a mechanic to strip wires and remove parts.)

The attorneys found and released surveillance camera footage nine days after Eddie Irizarry's murder. They played the video twice to reporters as Eddie's father and two aunts looked on wearing "Justice for Junito" T-shirts. It shows from above the two pigs getting out of the van with guns drawn. One rushes to the passenger side door while Dial runs up to the driver's side door and immediately fires five shots through the closed window into Eddie Irizarry, then one more through the windshield. After this video was released, the police commissioner announced the murdering pig will be suspended for 30 days with the intention to fire him… but no mention of charges being filed.¹

The family refused to give up. Loved ones and friends held a candlelight vigil near where Irizarry was killed, releasing balloons in honor of the man they described as "humble." "I'm here with my whole family because we want justice," said Eddie's aunt, Zoraida Garcia. "They murdered my nephew, here, in cold blood and I want answers.” They also held a protest and march and a press conference with community leaders demanding release of the police body cam footage.

Body Cam Footage Finally Released

The body cam videos from Dial and his partner were finally shown for the first time by the district attorney at a September 8 press conference, and released to the public at the insistence of the family. The footage of the fatal shooting is gruesome; it shows the close-up of Dial firing his weapon at close range through the rolled-up driver's side window of Irizarry's sedan.  

Afterwards, the DA made the outrageous statement that the body cam video “speaks for itself.” Yet he and the authorities below and above him had those videos from the day of the murder, and refused to release them while repeatedly spreading lies over and over to defend Eddie's murderers and portray Eddie as a “criminal” who got what he deserved.

Once again people everywhere have to ask: What kind of a system creates and relies on crude, lying and murdering pigs like these to “serve and protect” its interests over the people—and then does all it can to cover their crimes? A system that needs to be swept away as soon as possible through an actual revolution and replaced with a fundamentally different system that opens up a whole new way to live. 

And everyone has to ask this as well: Am I going to continue to live with this system, to put my hope in its reforms and politicians that never change shit… or am I going to check out and throw into the only way this madness can be ended: through revolution?