COMMUNITY JUSTICE RESOURCE CENTER NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
 

Sentenced to Death: Driving While Black
By the Prison & Jail Project

Two weeks before Christmas, Kenneth Walker was shot to death by a Muscogee County sheriff’s deputy because he and three Columbus, Georgia companions were “driving while Black.”

Kenneth Walker was 39 years old. He was married to Cheryl and left behind three-year-old daughter Kayla. He was a college graduate; for the past 15 years he was an employee with Blue Cross Blue Shield.

On Wednesday night, December 10th [2003] Kenneth Walker was a passenger in a GMC Yukon. He and three male friends--Warren Beulah, Darryl Ranson and Anthony Smith- were en route to a local Columbus restaurant, an almost-weekly ritual for the four men.

Their vehicle was being followed on I-185 by members of the Metro Narcotics Task Force, i.e. the Drug Squad. According to the sheriff’s department, the Drug Squad had “information from a confidential informant” that the GMC Yukon was occupied by “armed and dangerous drug dealers.”

The Drug Squad goons pulled the GMC Yukon to the side of the roadway. In a matter of minutes, the cops- with guns drawn and pointed at their “suspects”-had pulled Kenneth Walker and his friends from the vehicle and ordered them to lie face down on the paved roadway. A Muscogee County sheriff’s deputy then shot Kenneth Walker two times in the back of the head.

No drugs and no weapons were found on any of the four African American men. None of the four had criminal records. Yet because they were Black and in a nice automobile, these [four] men were suspected, stopped, [and] threatened at gunpoint by law enforcement officials. Three of the four were arrested and detained for eight hours. They were the lucky ones. Kenneth Walker was shot to death as he lay on the highway.

On January 5th, the Prison & Jail Project’s John Cole Vodicka was invited to speak at a rally in Columbus sponsored by the local chapter of Rainbow/PUSH. The Prison & Jail Project has committed its staff and resources to assist those attempting to hold the Muscogee County sheriff’s office accountable for what happened to Kenneth Walker on the night of December 10th. The P&JP has joined with Rainbow/PUSH, the NAACP, the National Action Network and others in calling for Muscogee County Sheriff Ralph Johnson’s resignation, and asking for an independent federal investigation into the shooting death of Kenneth Walker.

“The War on Drugs does little more other than to promote unbridled racist police repression in our African American communities,” said Cole Vodicka. “We see up close in our work at the P&JP the humiliation and brutalization of hundreds upon hundreds of people of color who come into contact with the police, sheriff’s deputies, jailers, District attorneys, public defenders, probation officers and judges. It is time to take a stand in Columbus, Georgia and put a stop to the arrogant, tyrannical and often racist behavior of our law enforcement institutions.”

The P&JP will join with those in Columbus seeking justice for the family of Kenneth Walker. In the coming weeks we will join picket lines, attend rallies and demonstrations, and attempt to draw national attention to what’s happening in Muscogee County, Georgia.