San Jose, CA – On August 9, around a dozen people gathered in front of MLK Library in San Jose for a vigil to demand justice for Corey Ruiz, a 34-year-old African-American man who was murdered by the police on July 22 in Madison, Wisconsin. Community members brought flowers, candles and signs with slogans like, “Justice for Corey, jail killer cops” and “Justice for victims of police violence.”

John Duroyan with the San Jose Coalition Against Trump, the coalition which organized the vigil, read a statement on the murder of Ruiz from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, stating, “We won’t wait for empty answers. We won’t sit back quietly while they try to force us to passively support a system that lets cops kill adults, teenagers, children, and even infants through their negligence and aggression.”

Duroyan continued, “We know exactly what this is: A modern lynching justified with the language of law and order. It’s time to hit the streets and demand an end to police terror! Justice for Corey Ruiz!”

At the vigil, community members discussed the parallels between the murder of Corey Ruiz and other racist and police murders which occurred on San Jose State University campus, directly adjacent to where the vigil took place. These include the murder of Antonio Guzman Lopez, an undocumented man murdered by San Jose State University police in 2014. Lopez’ murderer faced no repercussions.

Additionally, in 2008, African American SJSU student Gregory Johnson Jr was found hanging in the SJSU Sigma Chi fraternity house where he lived. Despite numerous suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, SJSUPD and SJPD engaged in cover-up tactics and refused to seriously investigate Sigma Chi’s majority-white, wealthy fraternity members for any wrongdoing.

As the vigil concluded, community members chanted, “Justice for Corey! End police brutality!”

#SanJoseCA #CA #InjusticeSystem #CoreyRuiz

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