Revolt Against Police Violence in Oregon: Please Join Us

Last September, police shot and killed 27 year old Fouad Kaady. This incident was part of an escalating pattern of violence exhibited by this back-water little gang of thugs. But it has sparked a real revolt. Here's why.

Fouad Kaady was not only unarmed at the time of the killing, he was also grossly injured and in shock. He had been in a wreck, and was severaly burned. His clothes had burned from his body, and he had skin actually hanging from his arms. He was in awful pain, and wandered away from the crash scene in a daze. A woman saw him walking naked down the street and called for help, because she could see that he was badly hurt.

Rather than an ambulance responding, two police officers arrived. When they found him, he was sitting on the ground along the roadside. Instead of immediately calling for medical attention for him, they began barking commands at him to lay face down on the pavement so that they could handcuff him (for "hit and run" because he left the scene of the accident he was in). He was too confused and injured to comply, but instead just sat there. Any medic would have implored that he NOT lay down on the ground, since his skin was so badly burned. But the police continued to bark at him to lay down, and when he did not, they commenced to taser him repeatedly. As a result, he fell backwards onto the hot cement. Reacting as anyone would to this torture, and finally leapt up in blinding pain, trying to escape the abuse. In a daze, he jumped onto the police car. Perhaps to keep from getting footprints on their shiny car, the police shot him to death less than a second later.

Both officers have admitted that they knew at the time they shot him that Mr. Kaady was unarmed. Both admitted that they knew he was badly injured. And both described him as being "in shock" when they encountered him. And yet, they inexplicably began tasering him anyway, they failed to call for medical attention for him, and they shot him.

The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) decided to conduct its own investigation into itself. In the worst case of crony "justice" I think I've ever seen, they spent the next two months "investigating" this crime by trying to find any shred of evidence they could that might justify what their officers did, that might exhonerate the killers. They never once asked hard questions of the shooters. They never asked why the killers' stories did not match those of nine other witnesses. (Officers said that Kaady was shouting "Im gonna kill you!" when they shot him, but strangely enough, no one else who was there heard this.) Instead, they went to everyone who had ever known Fouad Kaady and asked if he had ever done drugs, if he had ever been in trouble with the law, if he had ever fought with his parents, if he had ever done anything wrong.

What they wanted was some kind of "evidence" that they could give to the press that this young man was not worth bothering with, that he was no one we should care about anyway. They never found what they were looking for. There was no dirt, there were no skeletons in his closet. Not that it matters, because none of this was relevant to the fact that their officers, in cold blood, shot and killed an obviously unarmed, very injured man.

Late last week, the CCSO concluded its "investigation" of this matter by clearing the officers of any wrongdoing. They did so on the grounds that, although the officers gunned down a helpless, unarmed man, they nevertheless "followed procedures."

We are standing with the Kaady family on Saturday to demand that any "procedures" that would allow such a thing to happen be immediately abandoned. We demand justice. The CCSO believes that it can run rough shod over this little community, and that they can get away with murder. THey believe, in thier racist little enclave, that since Fouad Kaady was of Lebanese descent, the people of the county won't care. They are wrong. They have been abusing, harassing, and killing people long enough. Please, if there's any way that you can, please come down here and help us stop this violence. I know it's a long way, but this is the road to justice. We must stand together to stop police violence, wherever it shows its face.

Please come up to 2223 Kaen Rd, Oregon City, OR and stand with us for justice.