On Friday night a community rally will be held to denounce the continued police harassment of West Side youths following the police shooting of 18-year-old Aaron Harrison Monday night. The rally will also demand an independent federal investigation into the shooting and the post-shooting campaign of police harassment.

Harrison's mother, Ms. Annie Johnson, viewed his body at the morgue and confirmed that he had been shot in the back. Multiple witnesses have taken the brave step of publicly stepping forward to contradict police claims that Harrison had a gun.

Yesterday alone, at least five neighborhood youths were allegedly falsely arrested in moves that community leaders are denouncing as retaliation. As if to underscore just how out of pocket Daley's police have become, yesterday's Chicago Tribune complained about how police deliberately smashed two of its photographer's cameras while he was trying to cover the police/community confrontation Tuesday night (www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/chi-copshootaug08,0,4622511.story)

Other featured speakers at the 8 PM, Friday rally will include:

* Beauty Turner, activist and Assistant Editor of the CHA newspaper, Residents Journal

* Former Alderman Wallace Davis, proprietor of Wallace's Catfish Corner

* Marshall Hatch, Pastor of the New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church

and

* Shabazz Streeter, President of Brotherhood United.

At 4 PM today (Thursday, August 9) there will be a press conference at the corner of Mozart (2834 W.) and Roosevelt Road, near the site of the killing, to discuss Friday night’s rally and other next steps in the struggle to win justice for Aaron Harrison.