June 8 marked the third anniversary of the killing of Ernest Duenez Jr. by John Moody on behalf of the Manteca Police Department. Members of the community as well as families who have been victimized by the police across the state joined the Duenez family in remembering the cold-blooded killing of a young man in his own driveway by officer John Moody.
A video has been released showing the murder and has gone viral. Watch it here (warning: very graphic!)
From that very driveway began a mile-long march to the Manteca police station. Chants including “Justice for Ernest, Jail for Moody” and “How do you spell racist, M-P-D” filled the air as the people of California expressed their ongoing outrage against the devaluing of Black and Brown lives throughout the state. The continued lack of police accountability and the absence of any impartial investigation into the killings of Ernest Duenez Jr., James Rivera, Andy Lopez, Oscar Grant, Alan Blueford, and countless others speak to the deliberate state policy of terror against people of color. This exercise of police terror is a necessary part of the capitalist system that places the protection of wealth and private property over the preservation of health and personal safety of its citizens. It is for this reason that we call for a new system based on the needs of the people and not the profits of a few.
