CHICAGO—Outraged protesters June 7 shouted at a wall of police officers shielding the office of Mayor Richard M. Daley from their attempts to call the mayor to account for the weekend police shootings of an unarmed woman and a Northwestern University athlete who was to graduate this month.

"We are tired of how the white, racist police are coming into our community," said Rev. Paul Jakes, protest leader and chair of the Christian Council on Urban Affairs. "Why is it continuously Black young people getting killed? We don’t hear about any young white folks getting shot down on the streets. We’re saying … it’s over now. (You) stop it, otherwise we’ll put a stop to it," he said referring to the mayor.

The simmering outrage boiled over after the June 6 shooting of Robert Anthony Russ, 22, and the June 4 shooting of LaTanya Haggerty, 26, a computer analyst.

Reports indicate that police pulled Mr. Russ over on the expressway for driving erratically. According to reports, as Mr. Russ sat in his front seat officers opened the back door of his car and pointed a gun into the vehicle. Mr. Russ was killed allegedly when he grabbed the officer’s gun, which fired into his chest.

The shooting has been ruled "justifiable."

"Bobby was a really nice guy, real easy to work with. There’s not a bad thing to say about him," Northwestern Athletics Department spokesperson Kyle Coughlin told The Final Call, expressing the surprise of many at the news.

Ms. Haggerty died when a Black, female officer shot her after the woman dropped what reportedly turned out to be a cell phone while exiting her car. Police had been in pursuit of the car in which Ms. Haggerty was a passenger for a traffic stop. The car’s driver, Raymond Smith, 24, of Chicago, had jumped out of the car after allegedly trying to run over the officers, but was apprehended. He has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault.

While the Chicago Police Department did not return repeated calls, a police source told The Final Call that the officers violated police code by pursuing the Haggerty car into another district even after initially being told by a sergeant to end the chase.

Shouting "No Justice! No Peace! No racist police," the 50 demonstrators representing numerous anti-police brutality organizations had the wooden doors to the mayor’s office drawn shut on them after Rev. Jakes and attorney Larry Kennon were invited into the mayor’s office to meet with his press secretary. But the two men declined to go further into the back rooms of the mayor’s office where their supporters outside could not see them.

"We’re trying to hold down an affront that will take place that may even lead to a race riot," said one of those supporters, Dr. Nehemiah Russell of the Ad Hoc Committee to End Police Brutality. "This is very intense."

Perhaps in response to the protest, Mayor Daley called home Police Superintendent Terry Hilliard who was traveling to Idaho for a police conference at Final Call press time.

The Chicago shootings come as anger still simmers in New York over the police shooting of unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo and the trial of officers accused of beating and sodomizing Abner Louima. Also, protesters are staging demonstrations in California around the Riverside Police shooting of 19-year-old Tyisha Miller.

In Louisville, a controversy is brewing as Black officers with the Fraternal Order of Police try to downplay a statement by Michael Canteen, president of the Louisville Black Police Officers Organization. Mr. Canteen said police managers "condone and even encourage the use of force, in certain situations, as a way to reduce crime and send a clear message to the public."

On May 21, Los Angeles officers fatally shot a mentally ill homeless woman who allegedly lunged at them with a screwdriver. But recent eyewitness reports indicate the woman was fleeing the officers, not attacking them.

A grand jury has been impaneled to determine if the June 2 shooting by New Jersey officers of an unarmed Black man who was driving a white woman home is justified. (See page 9.)

Meanwhile, a survey recently released by the U.S. Justice Department shows that 31 percent of Blacks in Chicago were dissatisfied with police, compared with 11 percent of whites. In New York, the figures were 23 percent for Blacks, 11 percent for whites. The survey included 12 cities.

"I’m hearing a number of people in the community who are outraged and frustrated say we cannot depend anymore on police to investigate themselves or on our elected officials to do anything," said Los Angeles activist Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson. "It’s like those who are sworn to uphold the law are breaking the law at our expense. I’m hearing a lot of people say we’re going to have to protect ourselves."

Rachel King, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, said the Clinton administration could put more bite into its statements about police brutality.

She said a 1994 law gives the Justice Department authority to bring "pattern and practice" lawsuits against police departments who demonstrate brutality. "But in the last five years, the Justice Department has done nothing," she said.

"The problem persists because there has not been any significant retribution or justice for these abuses," said Nation of Islam Eastern Regional Minister Benjamin Muhammad in New York. "While for the first time you have four white officers indicted for murder in New York, the fact is they are still working on the police force and still drawing salaries every day … even though they were indicted for murder."

Rev. Jesse Jackson called the police attacks a "new wave of terrorism" and called for an investigation by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

And Pat Hill of the African-American Police League (AAPL) said the organization is calling for:

Giving the Police Board subpoena powers.

Dismantling the Office of Police Standards, a police conduct monitoring group, replacing it with a civilian police review board.

Taking away the power of the mayor to appoint the police superintendent.

Other proposed changes include adding more Black officers to the force and to positions of authority. In Chicago, 26 percent of the force is Black in a city that’s 45 percent Black.

A June 3 report by the Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Human Rights characterized the Chicago Police Department as a "predominantly white agency" with whites holding 71 percent of sergeant positions and 76 percent of lieutenant positions in 1998, figures that reflect many departments in major cities.

"But we also must call on our Black middle class to become more vocal," said Officer Hill, echoing a sentiment expressed by Dr. Hutchinson.

"When the victims were so-called gang members, the Black middle class was silent," she said. "Now we’re losing members of our middle class. That means we’re not far from the community where the superintendent lives."

"We said three months ago that these types of incidents will continue," added AAPL President Barbara Pillow. "We’ve had three policemen killed in the last six months. Now we’ve had three citizens killed in the last six months. I’m wondering if we’re going tally for tally, tit for tat. And unfortunately the summer is just beginning."