“We are not trying to reinvent the wheel we are simple here to ask that the police department follow their own mission statement,” said Motecuzoma Sanchez, a victim of police brutality. Sanchez with the SoJust Coalition, a group demanding more police oversight and an Iraq veteran proclaimed that as a former Marine, military personnel had more accountability than police officers in civilian neighborhoods.
“Absence of action will leave us victims, they will not hear us until we start taking action,” expressed Steven Payan from Sacramento who told about an April 2009 incident where a Latino was shoot in the back of the head after being stopped by three police officers in Woodland, CA. Emilio Mataka of Grayson, CA stressed the importance of citizen knowing their rights when stopped by a police officer.
Mr. and Mrs Pinasco told of the August 24, 2008 shooting of their 21 year old son Joey Pinasco Jr. killed by two California Highway patrol officers. Joey Pinasco, Jr. had no criminal record and was unarmed when the two California Highway patrol officers emptied their guns and reloaded their weapons after shooting more than 20 times, six of the shots were to Joey’s head. According to Mr. and Mrs Pinasco, police refuse to talk to eyewitnesses of the shooting.
Luis Magana, a local activist and affiliate of the American Friends Service Committee devoted to service, development and peace programs throughout the world shared his experience of being arrested by four different police agencies. In one specific incident Magana was arrested in connection of a missing young lady. According to Magana, he was taken to a park in a police car where a police officer then held a gun to his head and demanded that he (Magana) show his immigration card. Mr. Magana also told of a recent crime in Stockton where five men were shot and two were killed and said that police were tying it to gang activity. “I know the families for years; it is unfair how the police are charging this case as gang related.”
Photo: Who’s Policing the Police meeting, L to R – Bro. Brian Muhammad, Interpreter, Luis Magana
“There are people from various cities all over California that have been abused by the police, if this movement grows the police will have no choice but to answer the phone.” stated Brian Muhammad the Nation of Islam’s Student Minister for the Stockton Study Group. Many issues of concern were presented in the meeting such as the normalization by youth of Stockton being the 2nd most violent city in the country, Cop Watch and inmates dying in prison.
“The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said that dissatisfaction brings about a change,” shared Christopher Muhammad the Nation of Islam Student Minister of Muhammad’s Mosque in San Francisco, CA, “if you don’t get up you sentence your children to the same hell. You present the beginning of a global movement. You have power but you don’t have power by yourself. Law enforcement is running amuck, unchecked. Seventy-five percent of the city’s budget is paying for police and the fire department. You have power but you don’t have power doing nothing.”
Less than twenty-four hours following the “Who’s Policing the Police” community meeting in Stockton, California James Rivera, Jr. age 16, was shot and killed by the Stockton police. According to Stockton police, Rivera matched the description of a person wanted for a carjacking at gunpoint the day before. A far cry from guilty, “matching the description” is nothing more than “racial profiling” to Black and Latino men in America. Following a pursuit witnesses say that the Stockton police rammed the vehicle driven by James Rivera, Jr. into a triplex housing unit. Though the vehicle was apparently lodged into the complex and was not easily removed, the two officers and a sheriff's deputy claimed that they opened fire because they believed the vehicle driven by Rivera was moving back toward them.
A week after the killing, a City Council meeting was held where an overflow of news media and Supporters gathered in the halls of the 1st and 2nd floor carrying signs that protested the killings of James Rivera, Jr. and Joey Pinasco, calling for an investigation of the shootings and chanting “No Justice, No Peace”.
During the City Council meeting witnesses and neighbors expressed anger and believed that excessive force had been used by the Stockton police with no regards to the community. Citizens were given two minutes to go before Stockton’s Mayor Ann Johnston and the City Council to make their statement and some even stating that they too had been victims of police brutality in the city of Stockton. There has to be someone who has the courage to stand up, something has to be changed,” declared Mrs. Pinasco, “You (City Council) have the power to make a change.”
“We are here to support James Rivera’s family,” stated Adriana Lewis (Joey Pinasco’s sister), “until your loved one is killed by law enforcement will you see and know of the corruption that exist. We ask that you (City Council) stand up and do what is right, stop ignoring us.
For more information on Joey Pinasco visit the Justice for Joey website @ http://www.joeypinasco.com/.
No comments:
Post a Comment