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Black Man found Hanging in Lasalle County

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#JUSTICEFORBOO

My father William Young was found hanging from a tree and the LaSalle County Police Department failed to do an in-depth investigation. WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR DONATIONS, OUR GOAL IS TO JUST TO RAISE AWARNESS. Read more….

I know these past couple of weeks have been draining. With all the hatred being thrown at those fighting for equality in the justice system (literally thrown, i.e teargas), I hate to add yet another story of strange fruit hanging. But alas, a lynching of a black man in America happened and as you can guess, no justice was served.

Only this time, that man was my father. On September 18th, 2018, William Young (aka Boo) was found hanging from a tree in the woods and LaSalle County Police Department ruled it a suicide and lied about multiple details. So I need your help. As painful as it is, I cannot move forward without trying my absolute best to obtain justice for him.

I need your help to garner attention for this case and to demand the FBI and Attorney General to have my father's case re-opened, a more in-depth investigation, and fire and convict the officers involved in the initial handling of the case.

When someone dies, their loved ones always boast about how amazing they were, even if the person didn't really do anything that amazing. When I say my father was amazing, I truly mean it. Thousands, and I mean THOUSANDS of people showed up at his funeral because of his great impact in the community. He was a family man, and he would have never abandoned my family the way they said he did. He was an amazing soul, a man of God. He was a preacher. He later on worked with special needs children who often got in trouble. Anyone that knew him will say he was a very funny man; Always cracking jokes every chance he got. The content of his character should not really matter when talking about an injustice like this. It shouldn't matter if the black men who are murdered are great people. But I share this information about him so nobody can discount his character or vilify him like they do so many black men in the media.

Either one of two events has happened. My father was brutally murdered and the police declined to do a full investigation, out of racism or sheer laziness, I'm not sure. Or, my father was brutally murdered by the police. Either way, here are the details as of now:

-On Sept. 17th, 2018 my father signed the lease for a new house he was very excited to move into.
-The next day, Sept. 18th, I received a call from my father. He was driving for Uber at the time, and was upset that he worked late and wasn't able to pick up my little sister anymore. He said he had one last Uber ride to complete and then he was going to visit his friend. His friend was in another city and he had to pass through Lasalle County to get there.
-We hung up the phone and that was the last time I spoke to him.
-When I got off work the next day, I got a phone call telling me my father was found hanging from a tree in Lasalle County, IL.
-We were told there was surveillance footage of him stopping at a gas station, where he purchased an iPhone charger. There was footage of him pacing back and forth.
-His iPhone charger was broken at the time, so I'm guessing his phone died, he got lost, and stopped to buy a new one.
-He was found dead 30 mins away from that gas station.
-Police Department said he attempted to kill himself 4 different ways before he allegedly hung himself.
1. By drinking windex.
2. By stuffing his clothes in the tailpipes of his car. 
3. By taking pills. (He had a prescription for his back injuries in the car.)
4. Lastly, he just decided to hang himself with jumper cables that they say were in his car, a 2016 Altima.
-The Lasalle PD told my family he died at 7am, but we later found out he actually died at 4am.
-They moved his body and performed an autopsy without consent from my family and without notifying my family first.
-They performed an autopsy on his body before my family could even identify him, they also would not let my family view his body when they arrived on the scene.
-His car had damages on the passenger side like it had been rammed by another vehicle, which they decided not to disclose.
-There was grass in the back seat, cigarette butts, and all of his belongings all over the car. All evidence that there was some kind of struggle.
-The Police Department refused to contact the corporate office of Uber to see who his last rider was.
-They would not let my family view his body and they threatened to cremate him if we didn't find a funeral home for his body ASAP. We didn't want to bury him without a full investigation but ultimately had to because we couldn't afford to keep his body not buried and also to avoid any more suspect behavior from the Lasalle County PD on my father's body.
-Later on, there was one news article about my father, JUST ONE, and they somehow failed to disclose he was found with jumping cables around his neck CONNECTED TO A TREE. Instead, the article author lied and said he was found lying down on the grass in a random spot.

Obviously, something isn't adding up here. Obviously someone is lying. Knowing how racist that general area is, knowing the history of police brutality across this nation, there is more than enough information to conclude that something truly awful and illegal happened to my father and the police were apart of it or the very least, covered it up. Either way, I demand justice for #williamyoung #boo

If you read all this and still try to find a way to justify what happened, I beg of you to ask yourself these questions:

-Why would a man who just bought a house the day before decide to kill himself and allegedly try 4 different ways in a random area he had never spent time in before?
-Why would a black man with a serious back injury climb a tree to hang himself?
-Why was his car suddenly damaged?
-Why wouldn't they let my family identify William Young?


Some people will wonder why I am speaking up now. And to them I say, maybe I should've took action for his justice as soon as it happened, but until you're in such a surreal situation, you will not understand how difficult it was for me to talk about this tragedy. Even to myself. I couldn't process what happened, and I honestly didn't feel anyone would have cared. Because historically, they haven't. Since before Ahmaud. Since before Breonna. Since before George. All the way back to Emmett Till. That's what trauma does to your brain. But with the uprising of the #BLM revolution taking the nation and the world by storm, I felt I couldn't stay silent anymore. And I wouldn't be alone.
 
I love you pops! I will do everything in my power to bring awareness to your death and make it right. I ask that you take a few minutes out of your day to help me on my journey to justice.

#JUSTICEFORBOO  #blacklivesmatter #WILLIAMYOUNG #BLM #longliveboo  #blackfathersmatter #defundthepolice
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    Organizer

    Deja Young
    Organizer
    Chicago, IL

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