The following is a brief round-up of police brutality struggles in which the Party for Socialism and Liberation participated in organizing, along with our partners in the ANSWER Coalition.
Albuquerque
Since 2010, 25 unarmed people, majority young Latino men, have been shot in cold blood by racist police in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thirteen of these shootings have been fatal.
In May 2010 an unarmed young man, Alan Gomez, was fatally shot in the back by Albuquerque police right in front of his home. While the police claimed he was armed, in reality he only was carrying a spoon in his hand. The ANSWER Coalition, in coordination with the families of victims, initiated a demonstration that drew families and community members who had lost loved ones to police terror.
This event, which drew wide media attention, ignited what was to become a community-wide struggle against police corruption and brutality that continues to this day.
Since that time many organizations have come together to demand justice for all the victims and an end to police terror, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center, Vecinos Unidos, the American Civil Liberties Union, Cop Watch, plus scores of families and outraged community members.
New Haven
In New Haven, Conn. The Party for Socialism and Liberation has been involved in the struggle for justice for Jewu Richardson, who faces false charges on assaulting an officer, after being shot himself by the police. The case has already been to trial once, resulting in a mistrial. After nine days of arguments and three days of jury deliberation, the judge declared a mistrial after the six-person jury could not come to consensus on any of the charges against Richardson. Now the District Attorney, after Richardson rejected a new plea deal, has decided to retry the case.
New York City
In New York, the courts just threw out the indictment of Officer Richard Haste, who followed unarmed 18-year-old Ramarley Graham into his home last February, busted in without a warrant and then shot him dead in front of his grandmother and little brother.
The process now has to begin all over. It took over a year, filled with marches and protest activity, before the Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson finally indicted Haste. Graham’s parents are pressing on despite the recent setback, and have called for 14 vigils to symbolize these 14 months of anguish.
Since the killing of Graham, there have been several other police murders in the city. Shantel Davis, 23, was shot and killed by an officer in Brooklyn after her car crashed; she was unarmed. Noel Polanco, 22, an unarmed Army reservist was shot and killed by cops in an unmarked vehicle who had been chasing him in what appeared to be an act of “pure road rage” according to a witness.
Reynaldo Cuevas, 20, was killed by an officer as he fled robbers in the Bronx store where he worked. A month later, in a separate incident, a police car rammed a dirt bike in the same neighborhood, killing the driver and leaving Reynaldo’s 17-year-old cousin with permanent brain damage. Most recently, 16-yearold Kimani Gray was killed in East Flatbush, leading to days of rebellion led by neighborhood youth, who were arrested in mass as the area was put into virtual martial law.
No charges have been filed against the cops in any of these cases. In February, ANSWER helped initiate a Unity March from the Bronx to Harlem to Stop the Cops. Hundreds showed up in the pouring rain. PSL members also participate in local Cop Watch groups, and continue to support the series of struggles for justice taking shape across the city.
Sacramento
On June 5, the PSL participated in an ANSWER Coalition-sponsored event to hear reports of local police brutality and the growing struggles against it. More than 45 people participated in that event. On June 9, more than two hundred people marched in the small city of Manteca just south of Sacramento to demand justice for Ernest Duenez Jr., an innocent and unarmed man who was brutally killed by Manteca PD.
San Francisco
In San Francisco, a $2 bus fare was enough of an excuse for the SFPD to kill Kenneth Harding on July 16, 2011. The case became national news due to the horrific video of police standing over a dying Kenneth as BayView residents looked on in anger. ANSWER reached-out to the community and joined other activists to raise awareness of the case and connect it to other Bay Area struggles.
On May 6th, 2012, the Bay Area movement against police brutality was set into motion after 18-year old Skyline High school student Alan Blueford was tragically murdered by Miguel Masso, an infamously brutal cop who has yet to be tried. The Blueford family, especially Alan’s parents, Adam and Jerilynn Blueford, showed great courage in the immediate aftermath of the killing and rallied the community to demand justice for her son. The Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition was formed and ANSWER, with the help of PSL members, played a critical role in organizing the take-over of City Council meetings, direct actions and forums which continue to this day.
In February of this year, another video caught the brutalization of a young community college student, Kevin Clark, resulting in an action that ANSWER helped organize and lead. In the overly-gentrified Mission District, known as the Latino neighborhood, the rising police presence has increased to intimidate the remaining poor and working-class people, particularly communities of color, to make the new, mostly white, population feel safe.
Currently, ANSWER is organizing for transportation to the July 21st Anaheim Unity March.
Southern California
In May, the southern California area was rocked by over a dozen police killings in a matter of a couple weeks. This spike in murders from Bakersfield to Santa Ana was the basis for the launching of the upcoming California Unity March to Stop Police Brutality. The demonstration will be led by families of those who have been murdered by police agencies throughout the state on July 21st in Anaheim.
The PSL was on the ground in Anaheim on July 22, 2012, organizing with the community that had been attacked with police dogs and bean bag bullets the day before after filling the streets to demand justice for Manuel Diaz, who had been executed by Anaheim officers.
On that day the PSL joined a spontaneous protest in front of the Anaheim Police Department and helped mobilize the demonstrators to storm the front lobby of the station and shut it down for hours.
Just in the past 12 months, the ANSWER Coalition in Los Angeles (of which the PSL is a leading member group) has been involved in organizing numerous actions against police killings.
Just days after the Anaheim attacks, a march organized by ANSWER and Nida’s Rida’s of about 500 people shut down the streets of Downey on July 28 to demand justice for Michael Nida, who was murdered by Downey Police with an MP5 machine gun eight months before the demonstration.
In addition, the ANSWER Coalition and the PSL helped initiate and organize actions with the family of Jason Bitz (killed by a Santa Ana cop), Sokha Hor (shot by Long Beach police), John Cabrera (shot by Long Beach police) and Martin Hernandez (killed by Anaheim police).
Most recently, on April 20, over 200 people marched through the streets of Watts on the Lynwood Sheriffs station demanding justice for Jose de la Trinidad. Jose exited his vehicle, was asked to put his hands up and walk backward toward the officers, and after complying was promptly shot in the back.
The LASD has orchestrated this exact same tactic to kill another man since then named Rigoberto Arceo, for which the ANSWER coalition organized a June 26 march on the city’s town hall meeting in Cudahy, Calif.
Syracuse
The death of Chuniece Patterson in Nov. 2009 provided the spark for a new wave of anti-police and antiprison activism in Syracuse. Patterson, 21 years old, bled to death over 12 hours from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy while jail deputies and nurses sat idly by. By the time the family’s case against Onondaga County was ready to go to trial in June 2012, the movement in the streets had forced the County to offer a settlement. But the Patterson family rejected the settlement because it would have allowed the County to avoid admitting negligence.
The ANSWER Coalition, of which the PSL is a member, is currently filing a Freedom of Information Law request to obtain video testimony given by jail nurses that was shown during the trial.
In late 2011, the Syracuse community won a new Citizen Review Board after nearly a year of struggle in the streets and in the Common Council. The previous CRB had been gutted of any real power as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Police “Benevolent” Association.
Members of the PSL here have started a campaign to strengthen the CRB and expose the inherent repressive nature of the police. Working with victims of police violence as well as their families and other grassroots organizations, we are organizing a speak-out this summer at the Southwest Community Center, which is located at the intersection of the local Black and Latino communities.
