We Are All Oscar Grant!

After 18 months since the murder of James Rivera Jr.-The Community Deman...

2012-01-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

Friday January 6th-11am Stockton Courthouse-Community Demands Answers March/Rally

2012-01-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, December 13th in Stockton Ca.

2011-11-24T17:11:00.000-08:00

Author of ‘Our Enemies in Blue,’ Kristian Williams argues that policing in America has more to do with enforcing race and class inequalities than stopping crime or keeping people safe. An organizer with Portland Copwatch, Williams argues that those that organize against police brutality must harbor no illusions about the role of police within our society. The police grew out of slave catchers, border patrols, and strike breakers and that role remains the same today - only more powerful and with better weapons. Williams offers an analysis of the police and also an insight on how to organize and confront police violence - head on.

On Tuesday, December 13th, Modesto Anarcho will host in this event at 7pm (food at 6pm), 421 Miner Street, Stockton Ca.

Saturday OCT 22- Caravan of Resistance- From Stockton to Manteca to Modesto- In Solidarity with National Day Against Police Brutality

2011-09-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

RAIN OR SHINE!

11:00 am Stockton
Meet @ Stockton Police Station 22 E. Market St.

12:30 pm Manteca
Meet @ Manteca Police Station 1001 W. Center St.

2:00 pm Modesto
Meet at the Stanislaus County Jail 1115 H St.

Community Forum on State Repression Cesar Chavez Park @ 4pm

Press Release & Demo at Justice for James Rivera July 22nd 2011, Stockton, Ca.

2011-07-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

* * * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 22, 2011 * * * (STOCKTON, CA) California residents gather to help each other cope with the statewide disaster of police brutality and call for justice for its victims, including Ernest Duenez, Kenneth Harding, Charles Hill, Jagtar Singh Kang, David “Deacon” Turner, and Carrick “Eric” Vigen, to name a few. All six were killed by law enforcement in as many weeks, in Manteca, San Francisco, Yuba City and Bakersfield. Event organizers – including Mothers Cry for Justice, the Oscar Grant Committee, and the Central Valley Coalition Against Police Violence – are coming together from across the state as well.

The groups chose today, in Stockton, because it has been one year since James Rivera, Jr., was killed by members of the Stockton Police and San Joaquin County Sheriffs departments, and the family still has no closure and no answers. The officers who killed Rivera last year fired over 30 bullets at the 16 year old, were cleared of wrongdoing, and are still patrolling the streets today.

“Since the videotaped murder of Oscar Grant and 11 month slap-on-the-wrist sentence for Mehserle, it seems police are getting more violent, more often,” said Cary Downs, stepfather of James Rivera, Jr. “Our family still has no closure, we still worry about our loved ones being victimized by police, and it seems like every week another family gets thrown into this trauma. This is happening to African American families, white families, and especially Latinos and other immigrants who may not speak much English—and it’s just got to stop.”

Mesha Monge-Irizarry is the Director of the Idriss Stelley Foundation, named after her son, Idriss, who was killed in 2001 at the Metreon movie theater, shot by nine S.F. police officers who fired over 48 rounds. Irizarry has a clear plan: “We need Civilian Review Boards in every city, and the Boards need full power to discipline officers.” She continues, “and until grieving families enter, en masse, into a class action lawsuit for illegal and lethal, racially-biased policing, until we petition the Department of Justice and march to Washington, DC, our youth will keep dying violent deaths at the hands of the ‘Thugs In Blue.’”

“Law enforcement cannot be trusted to investigate themselves, especially with corruption running rampant among officers in Fresno, Contra Costa, San Francisco, and Stanislaus Counties, including bribery, conspiracy, drug dealing, murder, prostitution, buying guns for minors, and stealing evidence. In San Francisco alone corruption has forced the District Attorney to throw out over 800 cases,” says Tomas Mas of Modesto Copwatch. “And they commit perjury regularly, as we saw in the Mehserle trial.”

Coalition members are like a new kind of “First Responder,” explains Rachel Jackson of the New Years Movement. “We’re a bit like the Red Cross or Search & Rescue teams. We see a disaster – in this case police violence – and we set out to support each other, mobilize, train and build the movement for human rights in the process.” Jackson concludes, “With rampant racial profiling, mass incarceration and torture in prisons, and increasingly militarized police, we have our work cut out for us. But if we can change things here in California, folks can make change anywhere.”

On a quick note as we were marching a female Police Officer asked us what this was about. Words were mentioned regarding about James Rivera & whatnot. One of us said "you should be ashamed and at your dept." She says like 3-5 times. "why, it wasn't me, it wasn't my dept." For the Record, it was in fact her dept. Both San Joaquin City & Sheriffs dept. in the murder of James Rivera.

Organizers are seeking: 1) An end to police acting as judge, jury and executioner, and a stop to firing squads on our streets; 2) Independent, criminal investigations of all officers who kill and/or abuse citizens; 3) An end to the criminalization of our youth and the militarization of our streets. We are “the people,” not “the enemy!”

After the Rally, the public was invited to a memorial celebration and vigil for James Rivera, Jr., from 4:30pm to 7:00pm, at Salters Drive & Bancroft Way, where James Rivera, Jr. was killed in 2010.

More at: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/07/22/18685732.php

Ernest Duenez Jr killed by Manteca Police on July 8th 2010

2011-07-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

According to the Cousin of Ernest Duenez Jr:

On June 8, 2011 my cousin Ernest Duenez Jr was unarmed and fatally shot mulitple times in the body and face by a Manteca Police Officer in San Joaquin County. According to several witnesses, Ernest posed no threat to the officer as he exited the back of the truck with his hands up. His leg became entangled in the seatbelt and as he fell to the ground he was shot by the officer without hesitation. Each shot ensuring death being the only outcome for Ernest including the final shot to the face. The officer made the decision to use excessive deadly force with such disregard for my cousin's life. Such reckless behavior by law enforcement happens all too often and has affected too many families including mine.

Manteca PD has released different accounts of the incident all which have proven to be untrue and haven't made a comment regarding my cousins death since. It has been a month and they are yet to release the name of the officer (who was allowed to return to work 2 weeks later) or the video recorded on the police car camera. They refuse to answer any of the questions my family deserves to know pending a 6 month investigation. If Manteca PD can release multiple false statements within hours of the shooting, why can't they answer our questions NOW! Especially the biggest question of all "What justification did the officer have for taking my cousin's life." The lies and lack of response by Manteca PD proves they have no consideration for the lives effected by this tragedy. This officer should be taken off the force so his itchy trigger finger and bad judgement can't take the life of another in our community. My family is represented my renowned Attorney John Burris (also represented the family of Oscar Grant, victim of Bay Area Bart Officer in 2009) in a civil lawsuit against the City of Manteca for the wrongful killing of Ernest.

You can help make a difference! Be apart of our fight for justice and answers now! Simply visit www.facebook.com/justiceforernest like our page, share with your friends and encourage them to do the same. Please help us spread the word from SAC TO THE VALLEY TO THE BAY WE WILL TAKE A STANCE FOR OUR RIGHTS WHEN LAW ENFORCEMENT EXECUTE OUR LOVED ONES AND TRY TO GET AWAY WITH IT.

My cousin was not perfect, but he didn't deserve a death penalty while in the upswing of his life. Ernest was a beloved son, brother, uncle, nephew, grandson, cousin, husband and father of a 1 year old son. One behalf of my entire family I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this.

Please also visit:

http://www.kcra.com/r-video28414395/detail.html
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20110701%2FA_NEWS%2F107010317

"When there is injustice for one there is injustice for all."

For more information or to find out how you can help please visit us on facebook at facebook.com/justiceforernest or email us at justiceforernest@gmail.com

Source: http://www.purpreynolds.com/2011/07/be-voice-for-ernest-duenez-jr.html?showComment=1311043945212#c2430670609656303079

More: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110701/A_NEWS/107010317

Justice for James Rivera, Jr!!!

2011-07-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

July 22, 2011 – Justice for James Rivera, Jr – Stockton, CA

Join family, friends and community to protest police violence and to celebrate the life of James Rivera, Jr., the 16 year old murdered by Stockton police and County Sheriffs on July 22, 2010. This year, on Friday, July 22, 2011, there will be two events that day:

Stop Police Brutality!

Gathering: 11am-1pm

121 So. Center St. (near Greyhound)

Stockton, CA 95202

Join Family & Friends in

Remembrance of James Rivera, Jr.

Vigil: 4:30-7pm

Corner of Bancroft Way & Salters Dr.

Stockton, CA 95209

Sponsored by Mothers Cry for Justice, a group of family members, friends, and concerned community members seeking justice for James Rivera, Jr., and all victims of police abuse and violence. WE ARE ALL OSCAR GRANT! For info or directions: motherscry4justice@gmail.com.

Rather than reading background from organizers, the following is the statement from James' family on June 12th in Oakland, at rally protesting the release of Johannes Mehserle:

First of all, our hearts and prayers go out to the Oscar Grant family and friends, and all other families affected by this tragedy and other tragedies that have changed our lives forever, [whether] it be directly in or lives or outside of our lives. We are here to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. We are the voices that need to be heard and must be heard.

My name is Carey Downs, Jr. I am the stepfather of Mr. James Earl Rivera Jr., who was shot and killed by officers Gregory Dunn of the Stockton Police Dept., officer Eriz Azavard of the SPD, and officer John Nesbit of the SJ Sheriff’s Dept. Our son, our brother, our friend was killed a day before his 17^th birthday, a day that has changed our lives forever. Our son was robbed of the right to live – in a shooting that has gone unquestioned for nearly one year now.

His life was cut short because these three officers made a deadly wrongful decision to shoot an kill an unarmed child: Our Son, James Rivera, Jr. I see that theses three officers do not understand the meaning of “Protect and Serve,” because if they did, our son would still be alive today. In our hearts he will forever remain!

Once again, together we stand. Divided we fall.

We Are All Oscar Grant

Thank You

RALLY AND MARCH demanding JUSTICE FOR RITA ELIAS! STOP POLICE BRUTALITY AND CORRUPTION!

2011-05-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

In the past year we have watched innocent people in Modesto shot down and murdered by the local police and the Sheriff’s Department. Craig Prescott and many others have been killed by guards in the Stanislaus County Jail. Modesto Police have shot and killed multiple people under scrupulous circumstances. Currently, several police officers are under investigation for charges such as drunk driving, spousal abuse, and drug use. Kari Abbey, a Stanislaus County Sheriff has also been arrested for the murder of Rita Elias last year. However, she has only been charged with second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter – receiving no charges for the large amount of weapons, counterfeit cash, and drugs that were found in her home.

We believe that the Sheriff’s Department and the Modesto Police are not accountable to the community and their corruption and brutality cannot be reformed. We need to build a movement on the streets that stands up to police terrorism.

Stop Police Brutality!
Justice for Francisco Moran!
Justice for Craig Prescott!
Justice for Jesse Watson!
Justice for Brian Reed!
Justice for Ricky Miranda!
Justice for Rita Elias!

We are calling on people to gather in West Side Modesto at 6:30 pm and march at 7pm.

Organized by Central Valley Coalition Against Police Violence
wearealloscargrantcv.blogspot.com

Where: 6:30, gather at MLK and Paradise in West Modesto, march at 7pm

To get in contact with organizers, email wearealloscargrant.cv@gmail.com
--
Solidarity,
CV Crew

Central Valley Coalition Against Police Violence

WE ARE ALL OSCAR GRANT!
http://wearealloscargrantcv.blogspot.com/

Off duty CHP officer murders escapee from 72 hour watch Ricky Miranda

2011-03-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

Modesto man fatally shot ID'd as ex-Enochs, current Stanislaus State student
Family that helped care for Ricky Miranda say he was despondent Saturday and called for help

By Kerry McCray
kmccray@modbee.comand Kevin Valine
kvaline@modbee.com

MODESTO -- When Enochs High School wrestling coach and his wife tried to get help for a troubled teen they never imagined officers would knock on their door hours later to tell them the young man was dead.

Duane and Julie Brooks identified the 19-year-old man shot and killed by an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer Saturday afternoon as Ricky Miranda, a former standout Enochs’ wrestler and California State University, Stanislaus, freshman.

The Brooks said officers broke the news that evening to them at their rural Oakdale home. The Brooks were longtime friends of Miranda and took him into their home when he was in high school.

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2011/03/20/1608468/modesto-shooting-victim-idd-as.html#ixzz1HH4nW9zH

More: http://www.modbee.com/2011/03/19/1607298/off-duty-chp-officer-shoots-behavioral.html#storylink=omni_popular

Brian Reed shot & later died. Murderd by MPD.

2011-03-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

Modesto police identify man shot by officer
By Rosalio Ahumada
rahumada@modbee.com

UPDATE: A woman who lives across the street from the northeast Modesto home where an officer-involved shooting took place Thursday said officers repeatedly told the man to "drop the knife" before hearing six to eight gunshots.

The man was identified this afternoon as Brian Reed, 41, of Modesto, according to officer Scott Nelson, a Modesto Police Department spokesman. Reed remains in critical condition in a Modesto hospital.

Nelson said Reed had a "locked blade pocket knife" during the confrontation.
Story continues below video

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/12/31/1491965/modesto-police-officers-shoot.html#ixzz1HGyJJrGD

Modesto Police YET shoot again - Man in Critical Condition!

2010-12-31T11:16:00.000-08:00

Man shot by Modesto officer still in critical condition
By Rosalio Ahumada
rahumada@modbee.com

UPDATE: The man shot by a Modesto Police Department officer on Hagstrom Court on Thursday remained in critical condition this morning, according to officer Scott Nelson.

Nelson received the victim update at 7 a.m.

The department spokesman released no further details about the incident, but expected to have an update sometime Friday afternoon, he said.

A police officer shot and critically injured an armed man Thursday evening after a disturbance call ended in a confrontation at a northeast Modesto home, a Police Department spokesman said.

The man, in his early 40s, was taken by ambulance to nearby Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, officer Scott Nelson said.

Police did not release the man’s name or his exact age. No other injuries were reported.

The incident — the department's eighth officer-involved shooting since last December — occurred shortly before 5:30 p.m. at the home in the 1800 block of Hagstrom Court, just north of Briggsmore Avenue and east of Rose Avenue.

Police received a report of a man and a woman involved in a disturbance at the home. Nelson said the woman reported the man was threatening to commit suicide.

It was unclear whether the incident was a domestic dispute. Police had not confirmed the relationship between the man and the woman.

Nelson said two officers arrived at the home and confronted the man, who was armed. He declined to say what weapon the man was carrying, but he did say no shots were fired at the officers.

Initial reports suggest the man was uncooperative, Nelson said. One of the officers fired his weapon, hitting the man. The woman involved was not hit by gunfire, and she was cooperating with investigators.

Police declined to release any further details about the shooting. Nelson said investigators were still interviewing witnesses, so releasing more information Thursday night could hurt the investigation.

About 7 p.m., officers were canvassing the neighborhood looking for more witnesses.

Yellow crime scene tape was tied around the front yard of the home as patrols cars blocked off the street. The officers involved in the shooting were placed on paid administrative leave, per department policy. Their names were not released.

Stanislaus County district attorney’s investigators were at the scene, which also is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.

Including Thursday’s shooting, the Modesto Police Department has had 14 officer-involved shootings in the past three years.

Earlier this month, Modesto police said 10 of those before Thursday's incident were ruled justified by the Police Department and the district attorney’s office. The other shootings were in various stages of review.

On Dec. 11, four Modesto police officers shot into the cab of a pickup truck, killing the driver, Jesse Eugene Watson, 36, of San Jose and wounding a woman in the passenger seat.

Authorities say the truck had fled the scene of a burglary and crashed into a power pole after a high-speed pursuit. The driver then drove in reverse toward the officers and rammed a police car, prompting the officers to fire.

Prior to that Modesto police shooting, two officers responding to reports of an intoxicated man wielding a knife shot him in a southeast Modesto home on Sept. 6.

Francisco Moran, 45, of Modesto was holding a metal spatula when he lunged at the officers, not a knife. He died of his injuries.

Nelson said each officer-involved shooting is tragic, and the department owes it to the public to thoroughly investigate and evaluate each case separately.

“We try not just to look at the frequency,” Nelson said. “We have to look at each incident individually.”

The latest shooting comes as a probe of the department is being conducted into allegations of police brutality in an anonymous letter received by city officials.

The city hired Palo Alto attorney Bob Aaronson to investigate the claims against four officers. The anonymous letter also claims department managers looked the other way despite the alleged incidents involving the officers.

Aaronson has launched his Modesto investigation.

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or 578-2394.

Modesto CopWatch to Jeff Jardine’s “Modesto: A sleepy little burg — with anarchists?”

2010-12-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

As participants in the recent protest at the MPD’s re-accreditation meeting Modesto CopWatch members were deeply disturbed (although not very surprised) by the lack of facts, perspective, and, well, anything of value in Jeff Jardine’s column about it, which served as a weak answer to critics who asked why the Bee had not covered the event a week ago.

Mr. Jardine assumed he wouldn’t get a response to his e-mail, why? It merely shows his ignorance of the people involved in the protest. Jardine has the nerve to assume that we wouldn’t engage in conversation with him as he writes his ignorant and obviously bias opinion about us. The truth is, simply, that his message had not been read yet, as soon as it was we immediately began a response.

It is true that the mainstream media (even down to the level of the pathetic Modesto Bee) is useless to us and our cause. It is owned by and serves the interest of businesses and the profits they chase. Rarely do these news sources go against the owners and advertiser business interests. The Bee routinely takes the word of the police as truth while ignoring eye-witness accounts that go against the cop’s story. Reporting that MPD shot a man with a knife when there were plenty of people on the scene that weren’t interviewed is a good example of this. Jeff Jardine’s horrible attempt to cover this protest after the Bee initially ignored it is another example.
From the start Jardine’s column suggests a laughable premise: Modesto was an innocent farm-town but has since lost its innocent because “anarchists” live here.
Aren’t we the car theft capital of the country? Wasn’t Modesto just judged to be one of the worst cities in the nation due to pollution, drug use, lack of services, jobs, housing, education, and even entertainment? Not to mention that the history of Modesto and the Central Valley is one of blood and struggle from Estanislao to Cesar Chavez (remember the history of Gallo?) and still continues today. Did you miss the 10,000 that marched through town for May Day 2006?

Currently, Modesto’s “good ol’ boy” dusty innocence takes the form of environmental racism/classism where the most harmful chemicals and pollutants are strategically placed in the darkest and poorest parts of the Valley (Covanta, the landfill, pesticides, diesel fumes, etc). It takes the form of continued criminalization of poor youth of color with police and prisons while cutting education and opportunities for young people. Dealing with the homeless, mentally-ill, and addicted like the major causes of our town’s problems as opposed to the symptoms of its failures. It takes the form of deals for developers, big-business, and conservative-elites against the interests of jobs, affordable housing, and even the health of the working-class and poor.

Guess what we’re trying to say is: Jardine’s pathetic attempt to make his article interesting is written from an extremely narrow point of view and ignores the story of those who have struggled in this area for generations. If someone ever writes “A People’s History of Modesto” get Jeff a copy (RIP Howard Zinn, a great anarchist).
It’s no wonder why Jardine’s article is lacking of any important content, he wasn’t even there. Another Bee reporter was, and she didn’t bother to actually write about what happened. Instead they ignored it until people complained and then they have a columnist write a weak opinion piece to try and make up for their lack of journalism. Then Jardine has to rely on the reporting of Modesto Anarcho to get the real facts of what took place on Monday night. He shows how MA did a better job than his newspaper at covering an event while simultaneously attempting to discredit the group.

The rest of the column’s contents are no better, the “anarchist” focus merely gives Jardine an opportunity to ignore the real who/what/whys of the incident and instead play on the reader’s emotions and fears about anarchism (or at least what they think anarchism is).

Of the dozen or so participants in the protest a few of them are involved in the Modesto Anarcho group, who have been running web-sites, publishing a journal and other literature, and putting on various other community service events and projects (almost monthly) in the area for nearly a decade. The beliefs of Modesto Anarcho have always been available for the public to read for themselves, which they should do before making judgments.

A few others protesters are part of the Modesto CopWatch network (go to youtube.com/209copwatch to see the videos). Jardine mentions a 20 person protest (that went down despite rain), but not the West Side protest in which 100 attended, free BBQs for the homeless and hungry attended by 50-75 each, and an anti-police abuse Hip-Hop concert on Crows Landing where over 300 gathered for the cause. The Bee wouldn’t know about these events because, in most cases, they didn’t cover them.
The other protest participants were students, youth workers, and other working-class community members, and a few were friends and immediate family members of Rita Elias and Francisco Moran. The backgrounds, jobs, interests, genders, ages, and ethnicities of the protesters spanned a wide spectrum from teenagers to middle-aged, half were white and half were Latino (the protesters made up ALL of the Spanish-speakers in the room and ALL of the under 30 year olds). Almost all were born and raised in Modesto and all currently live here, despite what Chief Harden says about us “allegedly being part of the community.” How many of our cops are actually from here? Of the other 15 or so people in attendance, all were 40-70 years old, 90% white, 90% male, and most were involved in law enforcement or city government. Was this supposed to be a representation of the population of Modesto?

We did wear masks bearing the faces of Rita and Francisco once we walked into the meeting, but what Jardine fails to report is that we also protested outside of MPD for an hour prior, mostly with no masks, chatting with various passers-by, and receiving numerous encouraging honks from drivers who supported the protest. The Bee was notified about this, but their reporter did not approach any participants or ask any questions about it.

Also, 2 of people from the group that addressed the crowd took off their masks while they spoke, and almost all of us took them off at the end of the meeting. A few approached the assessors and asked, out of all the PDs they’ve assessed, how many have been denied accreditation. Their response was that they couldn’t remember, not even a rough estimate. This shows how much of a mockery the accreditation organization and process is and the protest has given people a chance to see that. As another speaker stated that night, it’s ridiculous to even consider renewing accreditation to a department that is under investigation for corruption and brutality.

Jardine admits that the actions of local law enforcement “merit serious questioning” and that the type of current internal investigation “is not exactly a magnet for public’s trust.” If this is true then the natural question should be: “Then what are WE going to do about it?” Is the Bee doing anything to question LE or make the process more transparent? Instead of using his position to press the issue and raise awareness of the problem, Jardine takes the easy way out and writes a thin piece passing judgment on a protest based on things he heard second hand and complaining about anarchists.

Jardine says anarchists don’t care to get involved or hold government accountable. On the contrary, anarchists want people to get involved and hold so-called “leaders” accountable in the most powerful ways, directly. Instead of relying on bureaucrats and bosses to do the right thing while in the meantime you continue to suffer, get together with your fellow workers, neighbors, students, families, friends, and/or crews and get $#!+ crackin yourself! Don’t be afraid of the responsibilities that real freedom comes with.

Yes Jeff, there are Anarchists and CopWatchers here, and why would that be? Why, in a place where cops kill people in the streets and in the jails, would we want to protest the police? Why, in a place of horrible pollution and air quality, would people want a world where profits aren’t more important than our environment and health? Why, in a place where home foreclosures and unemployment rates are among the highest, would people want a world where workers aren’t exploited and families aren’t taken advantage of? Why would we want more to be put toward education and our youth and less for police and prisons? Why would we want to replace bosses with worker councils? Why would we want to give excess food to the hungry? Why would we want to put the homeless into empty homes? Why would we want to get rid of a system that is motivated by creating a profit margin?

Jardine says anarchists scorn the first amendment while relying on its freedom. We have nothing against the first amendment, we just wish America followed it. NO LAW establishing a religion but in God We Trust is on our currency, our kids recite One Nation Under God, we say Christian prayers before government meetings, swear on the bible in court, and let religion define who can join the military and our definition of marriage. NO LAW prohibiting or abridging the freedom of speech, but we have gag orders, disturbing the peace laws, censorship of literature and music. Freedom of the press? Printing presses, licenses, TV and radio station all cost big bucks and a small group of the rich own more and more of the media every day. Ask the WikiLeaks guy about freedom of the press. The right to peaceably assemble? Loitering and cruising laws, city curfews, permits that cost money, and privatized parks you have to pay for to even step in. What should be said is that we don’t believe that these rights come from the constitution or the US government, they comes from the birth-right of all people to live free and free of oppression.

Jardine remarks that “the Constitution can't guarantee anyone will take you seriously when you scream profanities in a public setting.” As stated before, the meeting was poorly attended, cops made up most of the crowd, so there was no one to convince to take us seriously. We weren’t speaking TO the community, we were speaking FOR the community, and the community that we know, and work with on a daily basis, tell us constantly that they are “f—king tired of the pigs in Modesto.” What is more profane, saying a “bad word” or shooting someone 7 times for holding a spatula and then lying about it? Individuals in the group also booed and yelled out things like “lies” and “stop killing our people” during Sheriff Christianson’s and District Attorney Fladager’s comments, guess it’s just hard sit back and hold your tongue while people, paid by our tax dollars, lie right in front of us. The other community members who spoke (that weren’t cops) were not interrupted.
Harden tells Jardine that he wasn’t “offended or disturbed” by us, but on the other hand admits he had to threaten arrest. To everyone there it was obvious that the chief was bothered by what members of the group had to say. When a friend of Francisco Moran’s family asked Harden to stop calling and harassing them, his face and bald head turned noticeably red.

Harden’s comment that the meeting’s purpose was to hear from community members is a complete joke. 1) The meeting was minimally advertised in the community and even less in Spanish and I’m sure not at all to the homeless or mentally-ill. 2) The meeting was at 6pm on a Monday for only one hour. Most people were probably just getting home from work. 3) The meeting was at the police station and was crawling with cops. Most people who live in fear of the police are not going to set foot in that building. When the NAACP held a similar meeting at the King-Kennedy Center over a hundred attended and a dozen shared their stories of police abuse. 4) Although Modesto and the surrounding areas are over 50% Latino, and that is where most of the police abuse occurs, there was no translator for Spanish speakers to participate.
As for Christianson, to suggest that there is no need to be disruptive, because we can sit down and talk about issues, is ridiculous. When he met with the NAACP and other community members it was brought up by several different people that the Sheriff’s Department does not allow a third party to join a victim of police abuse to the police station when they give a statement. This means if you get beaten by a Stanislaus County Sheriff, in order to make a complaint you need to come in alone for your interview. Even MPD has the decency to allow that. When asked why exactly Christianson wouldn’t allow this basic aspect of the process, he replied it was because they never had done it before and then asked the citizens to drop the subject and move on because he wouldn’t change his mind (you can see the video on youtube). Sitting down with Christianson has proven time and time again to be useless. On the same note, Modesto CopWatch has made several calls to Chief Harden to sit down and talk about the recent officer-involved shootings and he never responded. At the meeting, one protester asked Harden if he would set up an appointment to meet and he replied “no, that’s not going to happen.”

Jardine states, “I don't believe that shouting ‘cops, pigs and murderers’ did much to advance their cause.” Maybe the 2Pac song should have been called “Wonda Why They Call U Pigs” and explained the history of police terror in our communities. We choose to follow Malcolm X or the Black Panthers, who repeatedly used the term pig, by being brutally honest about the character of those we are dealing with. Cops who murder are pigs, and should be called nothing less. Did we forget Fred Hampton, Rodney King, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, Oscar Grant, and countless others beaten and murdered by police. How about NYPD’s “Hip-Hop Cops” that conducted illegal surveillance on rappers, singers, and DJs or LAPD’s Rampart Division that planted evidence, committed abuse, lied, stole, and sold confiscated drugs? How about the Oakland Riders or the Modesto Road Dog case? Craig Prescott was spilling the truth about the involvement of jail guards in the trafficking of drugs to inmates. We know how that turned out. Can you explain why Chip Huskey got only one year and doesn’t have to register a sex offender?

Forward to our local revelations of the “beat & release” practices (which is no surprise to most of Modesto’s poor communities and people of color). It was also recently reported that 27 Fresno police officers were involved in 2 or more civilian shootings from 2002-2007 (some had shot 4 different people during that time). In addition we could mention how in his book “Let’s Get Free” Paul Butler states that 90% of officers who took the stand in his cases as a federal prosecutor lied in their testimonies. According to the documentary “After Innocence” of over 200 men who were freed from prison because of new DNA evidence, a fourth of them had been beaten by police and forced to give a false confession.

New videos from all over the Central Valley, state, country, and world of police abusing citizens are constantly surfacing. Police corruption rings and cover-ups have been revealed everywhere since the creation of police forces. Cops all over have been arrested or fired for domestic violence, eliciting prostitution, molestation, and substance abuse, just to name a few. MPD (like most other departments in the country) does not give officers random drug tests after their initial hiring. Cops aren’t even tested after they shoot someone, but if you drop a crate off of a forklift you’d immediately get tested for various substances).
We need to stop thinking of police officers as greater than ourselves, they have problems and make big mistakes and do “morally” wrong things every day, but beyond that and worst of all is their over-all place in society as protectors of the rich and their property and, as I once read, “they back the bosses in every strike. The ones who stand between every hungry person and the grocery shelves stocked with food, between every homeless person and the buildings standing empty, between every immigrant and her family. Police Everywhere, Justice Nowhere.” Even more importantly, we need to start thinking of ways to work directly within your own communities, neighborhoods, families, and crews to keep police from brutalizing and killing us (like CopWatching) and also creating alternatives to the police by making sure we know how to protect ourselves and our communities.

Even right now as we come together to write this we’re reading that four MPD officers just shot and killed another person who was trying to run in a vehicle, it’s even one of the same cops who killed Francisco Moran. The circumstances seem to be almost the same as in the cases of Joey Pinasco (killed by CHP in Escalon in ‘08) and James Rivera (killed by Stockton PD in July). The cops swear the cars came towards them while all other witnesses say the vehicles didn’t move and police just opened fire. Whatever happened to shooting the tires? I guess this ain’t the movies, and this ain’t no dusty little farm town.

- Modesto CopWatch, some of those knockin the dust off

Masked Protesters Disrupt Police Accreditation Meeting ; People gather before entering into police station.

2010-12-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

On December 6th, a group of about 15 protesters marched into the Modesto Police station during a public meeting chanting, "Cops, Pigs, Murderers!" The group was dressed mostly in black and wore masks bearing the likeness of two people killed by Modesto Police and Stanislaus County Sheriff's in September of 2010, Francisco Moran and Rita Elias.

The meeting was held to discuss if the Modesto Police Department will again receive accreditation from CALEA (a national organization founded by cops and for cops), which the department won three years ago. The meeting (which started at 6pm) had a very low attendance, with many of the audience being police both in-and-out of uniform and representatives from other city government departments. Gaining accreditation means that police departments supposedly meet 'standards of excellence' in their cities, compared to other police departments.

In Modesto, this is laughable, being that the department has killed numerous people in 2010 alone, and is currently being investigated for corruption and police brutality. An out-going police sergeant recently sent out an email detailing the department's method of "beat and release," stating that police would beat people only to leave them at the local hospital. A subsequent email was published by some anonymous police officers in Modesto, backing the email, and stating that numerous complaints from within the department itself have protested abuses to the chief and others — all to no avail. It goes on to mention several officers by name for abuse and murder — one of them an officer involved in the shooting of Francisco Moran, who was armed with only a wooden spoon when he was shot down.

Holding banners reading "Fire to the Prisons! Revolt on the Inside, Revolt on the Outside!," "From LA to Oakland to Modesto, Resist Police Terror, 209 Rise Up!," and "RIP Francisco Moran, RIP Rita Elias," the protesters first rallied outside, then marched into the police department to disrupt the meeting. They heckled and shouted down the first couple of speakers, including head Sheriff, the hated Adam Christianson. At one point, Chief Mike Harden got up in front of the accreditation meeting and declared that he would have anyone shouting "arrested."

Several people got up and addressed the crowd from the group, stating the idiocy of even considering issuing accreditation to the Modesto Police while they are being investigated for corruption and brutality. The meeting was quickly over, only lasting about 1 hour, and the group then marched out.

We also found the comments of the head of the NAACP to be equally pathetic. He claimed that the problem with the police was one of 'bad apples,' and that the NAACP would continue to support MPD as long as it continued to dialog with them. Clearly, the NAACP needs the police just as much as the police need it. Both groups work with each other, in order to appear that one is hard on the other - when both groups have no interest in any real change. The NAACP continues to offer false opposition and criticism that gets us no where. Their comments tonight only further address this reality.

Protesters gathered at the accreditation meeting not because they believed that the committee would "bring justice," or "hold the police accountable," but because we wanted to disrupt the meeting and expose it as the farce that it was. We achieved this tonight. Our action is complemented by the following.

According to IndyBay.org, earlier in the day, a banner was dropped on the freeway in Modesto stating "Modesto to Greece, COPS KILL, Revolution not Investigation!" This brought attention to the ongoing revolt in Greece, kicked off in 2008 in part due to the police murder of a young man in December, and connected it to ongoing struggles against police violence in the local area. The post online read:

"On Monday, 06 December 2010, a banner was dropped in Modesto over a busy freeway during the morning commute hour. The banner read: \\\"From Modesto to Greece, Cops Kill. Revolution, Not Investigation!\\\" This was done in solidarity not only with comrades in Greece, as December 6th is the two-year anniversary of the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos in the Exarcheia district of Athens, but especially with those resisting police violence and murders locally.

The investigation of the Modesto Police Department will not change anything. It is in resisting the police on our streets here, in Greece, and everywhere that we will find freedom."

Napa Pigs Murder Alternative Mental Health Advocate.

2010-12-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

The family of a Napa nurse shot to death by police last week in front of his home say law enforcement officers overreacted to the 60-year-old's actions and want access to documents so they can conduct their own investigation.

Richard Poccia was shot outside his home on the 1400 block of Meek Avenue about 3:15 p.m. Sunday. Napa police opened fire on him after he pulled a knife from his waistband, according to a preliminary investigation conducted by the Napa County Sheriff's Department.

Napa County Sheriff's Capt. Tracey Stuart declined further comment Friday.

But that knife was not mentioned in early reports of the incident, said John Runfola, a San Francisco attorney who held a news conference with Poccia's widow, daughter and friends Friday. They want to see the coroner's preliminary report, any 911 calls and any communications among law enforcement.

"This was not the way to take care of this incident," Runfola said. "They (law enforcement officers) overreacted."

"He was dedicated to helping people who were sick and, in the end, when he needed help, the authorities came in and did not give him help and he wound up dead," said his daughter, Gabrielle Poccia.

Poccia, a nurse who worked in AIDS wards, psychiatric hospitals and intensive care units in the Bay Area for 24 years, had been suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and was on disability, Runfola said, adding that he had been particularly distraught last weekend.

On Sunday morning, Poccia's wife, Samanda Dorger, visited a neighbor who was concerned about Poccia. A retired Napa law enforcement officer and an active officer joined them, though Dorger said she did not invite them.

She asked the officers not to go to her house and they agreed. Dorger said she left to go shopping and run errands.

But someone called police after Dorger left.

According to the preliminary Napa sheriff's report, police were told that Poccia had weapons in the house and was proficient in martial arts.

Police went to the house and asked him to come outside.

He emerged with his hands in the air and began talking with officers, but his demeanor suddenly changed, the police report said. He reached into his waistband and took out a knife and was shot by one officer with a Taser and by another with a rifle.

RICHARD POCCIA's Website:

http://beyondanonymous.com/

All latest articles here:

http://interceder.net/list/Richard-Poccia

Oscar Grant’s Killer Johannes Mehserle Gets Two Years In Prison - COLORLINES

2010-11-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

Oscar Grant’s Killer Johannes Mehserle Gets Two Years In Prison - COLORLINES

Ex-Modesto cop claims officers 'pummeled' suspects

2010-10-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

Ex-Modesto cop claims officers 'pummeled' suspects

By Merrill Balassone
mbalassone@modbee.com

A vivid account of police brutality came to light Tuesday after a judge ruled an e-mail written by a retired Modesto police sergeant be released as evidence in a murder case.

In the e-mail, Sgt. Craig Plante writes about the "good ol' days" when veteran police officers taught new recruits the "unwritten rule:" You could beat "anyone who ran from us."

"The bad guys knew it as well as we did," Plante wrote. "If we chased you, it was coming. … You were pummeled, taken to Scenic Hospital, put to the front of the line, patched up and booked."

The biggest "B&R event" — when officers would beat and release people — was Modesto's Graffiti Night festivities, Plante wrote. Police would remove their name tags before doing it, the sergeant said. Plante said he wore another officer's name tag from 1986 through 1991, the only dates referenced in the e-mail.

"You'd start hitting, they'd start running and eventually they'd escape into the crowd," Plante wrote. "The SWAT (team) had their own 'Strike Squad.' … They'd pour out and start clubbing people … until everyone ran away."

Police Chief Mike Harden confirmed Tuesday that Plante sent the e-mail to his colleagues on his last day of work, Sept. 12. Harden said he was "deeply disappointed," but said there was no specific name or incident mentioned in the e-mail that the department could investigate. He said Plante's e-mail was merely "self-aggrandizing."

"It's either a reflection of his career or it's made up," said Harden, a 27-year veteran of the department. "I think it's inaccurate. It's not how this Police Department was run then and surely not now. This department does not willy-nilly use force without a legal justification to do so."

In an e-mail to The Bee late Tuesday, Plante said he first heard a veteran officer use the term "beat and release" after breaking up fights at Graffiti Night, when thousands of people jammed downtown Modesto and McHenry Avenue to celebrate classic cars. He said these were not "one-sided affairs" but officers "fighting with groups of people," some of whom evaded arrest by fleeing into the crowd.

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/10/27/1400583/cops-e-mail-becomes-evidence.html#ixzz13bwR1LrP

Anger fueled protests get mad solidarity!

2010-10-04T22:41:00.000-07:00

Recently, in West Side Modesto on Paradise and MLK Jr. BLVD., about 100 people gathered in protest against the police killings of Francisco Moran in early September 2010, and the recent murder of Rita Elias by (supposedly) an off duty Stanislaus County Sheriff. Banners read, "RIP Francisco Moran, RIP Rita Elias," "DISARM MPD," and "From LA to Oakland to Modesto, Resist Police Terror, 209 RISE UP!" Family members and friends of Elias wore shirts with her image, and earlier that day they had helped fundraise for her funeral expenses and for her three children that she leaves behind. Police and Sheriffs (despite rumors) made no attempts to contain or disperse the angry and growing crowd, which protested from 6pm - 8:30pm.

rita_protest_sept._2010.jpg
rita_protest_sept._2010.jpg

Many people saw the protest and joined. "My father was killed in the Stanislaus County jail. They broke his jaw. I grew up without a father because of this," said one man. People talked on the megaphone about the need for united community action against the police, urging unity across racial barriers in the fight against out of control departments. Flyers were handed out for a larger march happening on Saturday, October 23rd. The march will meet at 10th and J Street, and then march on the jail and the Modesto Police Station. The demonstration will be held to remember and fight for all those that have been killed inside the local jail and on the street by the police. Family members and friends of loved ones killed are invited to come out and bring their stories to the public.

The crowd also took to the various intersections, marching around while chanting "Justice for Rita! Justice for Francisco Moran!," "Fuck the Police and the Modesto Bee!," "Cops! Pigs! Murderers!" The huge display of public support for the demonstration was immense. At some points, it was hard to talk due to the amount of honking passing motorists gave to the protest.

But, surprise, surprise, as people were taking to the streets of Modesto, the Sheriff's Department was quick to produce their story which they hoped would absolve them of any wrong doing, and further public outrage. According to the Sheriffs, Elias had a realistic looking BB gun in her hands and threatened the off duty officer with it.

Some media outlets that came to the protest last night, refused to run interviews with Elias family and show footage of the demonstration, yet still ran with the police side of the story, totally absolving the Sheriffs of any wrong doing. The BB gun, they claim, helped justify the murder. Of course, police are not going into detail as to why the officer got into an argument with Elias in the first place, or why she was over at her house to being with. Furthermore, just as police always do, they will be investigating the shooting themselves. Can we really expect anything resembling justice?

Of course, witnesses and family members paint a much different picture of the shooting. An investigative report on the Voice of Modesto online news site describes interviews with friends and family of Rita Elias conducted yesterday:

I talked to several people at the fund-raiser and have heard information that conflicts with what has been reported in the Modesto Bee.

The Bee has reported that Detective Kari Abby was at the home of Ms. Elias on personal business. The house Ms. Elias lived in was owned by the Abby family. There has been speculation that Detective Abby was there to evict Ms. Elias. First of all, it is inappropriate for a detective to involve themselves in the personal business of family members. Evictions are carried out by deputies, but they are on-duty and would not be involved in evictions that involve their own family members. I was also told that no eviction paperwork has been filed at the courthouse and the two men that shared the home with Rita were told there was no rent due.

A friend of Rita’s who lives four blocks away, told me that she heard gunshots at 6:00 p.m., not 6:30 as reported in the Bee. She was adamant about this, ”the shots were definitely at 6:00 PM”. She also said the first shot was “in the air” about the height of someone standing up. Then there were a few seconds before the next shots. The rest of the shots sounded “low” as if someone were leaning over to the ground. If the first shot put her on the ground, why was it necessary to lean over her and empty a gun into her body. She wasn’t going anywhere after that first shot to the face.

It’s hard to tell what really happened. I was told that a man who lives near Rita stepped outside just a few seconds before the first shot. He said that it was a man who shot Rita, not a woman. He saw the entire shooting episode. A man shot Rita, left the scene, then 15 minutes later, Sheriff Deputy Kari Abby came on the scene with two other men. Why is Detective Abby taking the fall for the man who shot Rita? A neighbor of Rita’s was in a barber shop the day after the shooting and overheard a deputy saying that the reason he was so upset about this is that the women who was shot didn’t even have a gun? Who really shot Rita Elias? Why is the Sheriff’s Office participating in yet another cover-up?

Additionally, as if it wasn’t enough that their family member was murdered, the Sheriff’s Office has refused to let Rita’s family view her body. She has not been identified by any member of her family. Does that seem cruel to anybody else? I spoke with Luis Elias, Rita’s father. While fighting back tears, he told me they have not let him see his daughter yet. While the investigation is on-going, and the family is trying to raise money for a funeral, right now this grieving father simply wants to see his daughter. If I were in his shoes, I would not believe it was my family member who was killed until I could actually see them. What possible negative affect can come about as a result of her family identifying her? It won’t affect the outcome of the autopsy. It won’t affect any information gathered from witnesses. The Coroner’s Office says it doesn’t have room for an entire family to view a body. However, there is not reason they can’t let Mr. Elias and another family member identify Rita. It is just a cruel way of controlling a grieving family. The Sheriff’s and Coroner’s Offices should be ashamed.

I was also told that the nine witnesses to the shooting each reported that Rita did not have a gun in her hand. The Sheriff’s Office is now saying that Rita had a replica gun.

While the tragedy of the murders of Francisco Moran, Rita Elias, and all others that have died at the hands of the police on the streets and in the jails continues to unfold, we must stand together. Our tasks are great. We must support each other, not only through the deaths of our loved ones, but also against attacks by the police and the media. We must raise money to help pay for funerals and help put food on their kids' table. And, we must turn our rage into action against the police themselves. We must not be afraid to raise our voice, and come together to organize against institutions that preserve their power through fear, intimidation, and the threat of violence. Together, we live, work, and go to school with hundreds of thousands of other people who like us, have a similar relationship to the police.

As we discover that we all share similar experiences, we organize ourselves and begin to act. The divisons between us based on the color of our skin and where we live in this city begin to slip away, as we understand where are true enemies are. When this happens, those in power will do everything they can do to lie, disrupt, and stop us from confronting the conditions that make our lives miserable. They have the power of the media, the government, and money on their side - but we have each other. And there will always be more of us, than them.

Source: http://www.modestoanarcho.org/
and even more recently...

http://thehive.modbee.com/node/21529

Protest Rally Thursday West Modesto, Justice for Rita Elias! Justice for Francisco Moran!

2010-09-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 30th, there will be a protest rally in West Modesto on the corner of Paradise and MLK JR Bvld at 6pm.

Justice for Francisco Moran!
Justice for Rita Elias!
No more deaths in the jail or on the street!

Bring signs, banners, noise makers, your stories, co-workers, neighbors, and friends!

RIP Rita Elias: Off-Duty Sheriff Kills Woman in Modesto

2010-09-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

On Friday night, Rita Elias, 31, died after off-duty sheriff's detective Kari Abbey, shot and killed her after an hour long argument. Kari Abbey, a 6 year veteran to the force, and a detective of four years, was at an apartment complex owned by her parents. She got into an argument with Elias after the woman became (rightly so) angry after being served with an eviction notice. It appears that the Abbeys own the apartment complex in which Elias was living.

After about an hour of arguing, witnesses reported hearing several shots. According to ABC News 10, the pair even broke into a fist fight at one point. This begs the question, if a heated argument raged for an hour, why didn't the Detective call the police - being that's something that the cops themselves tells us to do in situations like these. The Sheriff's Department contends that Elias had a gun, and that Abbey shot and killed her because she feared for her life. Elias family however, "...disputed investigators' assertion that she was brandishing a gun when she was shot."

As one commenter on the Modesto Bee site wrote: "The officers father owns the property where the shooting occurred. If you rent from this man and he comes to collect the rent or post an eviction, be cautious, his daughter may shoot you if she feels her life is in danger even if she is ILLEGALLY trespassing."

Another shooting death in a city already reeling from the murder of Francisco Moran, who was killed after police lied about the 45 year old man welding a knife during a domestic call. The knife turned out to in fact be a wooden spoon. The Sheriff's Department is no stranger to blood on it's hands in recent months either. In the past year, 6 people have died in the Stanislaus County Jail, half, admittedly on the part of the Department, due to run ins with police tasers. Half of the families of those who have died in the jail are suing the Department, costing cash strapped tax payers in Stanislaus millions of dollars. Alfred Huskey also further embarrassed the Department in the past year, after he was found guilty of molesting and raping his step-daughter from an early age. Disgustingly, Huskey only received a year in jail and does not have to register as a sex offender.

Several things are for sure. The Modesto Bee and other mainstream media will continue to toe the line of the police. We'll have to go out and talk to other people if we want to know the truth. The police will, continue, to, lie. Lastly, the courts and the legal system will always favor the police. It is in our streets and communities, and the degree that we have control over them - against the government, anti-social elements, and the wealthy, that we will find justice.

*Article & update report by Modesto Anarcho

Not even a month later (20 days from last killing), Stanislaus County Pigs (this time) kill a women supposedly with gun!

2010-09-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Sep. 25, 2010 Off-duty Stanislaus County detective kills woman (SUPPOSEDLY) brandishing gun By Rosalio Ahumada rahumada@modbee.com

An off-duty Stanislaus County Sheriff’s detective shot and killed a woman brandishing a gun Friday night, authorities said. At about 6:30 p.m., the detective was in the 1700 block of Donald Street in west Modesto on personal business with her family when an argument ensued between the detective and the victim, according to deputy Andrew Winter. At some point during the argument, the victim brandished a gun (AGAIN, SUPPOSEDLY), Winter said. Story continues below video. There's another video from the scene below, as well as a map.

Fearing for her safety and that of her family, the detective shot the woman. The detective was carrying her weapon in a concealed manner.

The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Investigators have yet to identify the victim, and were still trying to locate family members.

The detective, whose name has not been released, was placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure in such cases.

The department’s internal affairs unit, along with members of the Stanislaus County district attorney’s office, were at the scene throughout the night conducting their investigation, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.

Investigators also were interviewing witnesses.

Within minutes of the shooting, Donald Street was flooded with sheriff’s patrol cars and other department vehicles.

The street was closed to traffic, and residents were told to stay inside as investigators spoke to witnesses. Several people were driven away in patrol cars, apparently to be questioned elsewhere.

It’s the seventh shooting since December involving a law enforcement official in the Modesto area. The six previous shootings involved Modesto police officers.

The most recent officer-involved shooting occurred Sept. 6 inside an east Modesto home when two police officers shot and killed a belligerent man who lunged at them carrying a spatula (which in the end was not a spatula or a knife but a wooden spoon according to family memebers).

The Modesto police officers had responded to reports that the man was carrying a large knife. That shooting is still under investigation.

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at 578-2394.

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/09/24/1353924/woman-dies-in-shooting-involving.html#ixzz10ZdIxoAV

Corrections to the Modesto Bee report by CV Coalition Crew

JUSTICE FOR FRANCISCO MORAN

2010-09-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Comrades,

This is a call for JUSTICE, our community is under attack by local police.

Recently a man of 45 yrs, Francisco Moran, was murdered by Modesto Police Department officers Joseph Lamantia, Robert Laxton.

The police was called to their home late Sunday night early Monday morning to resolve a family dispute, they claim the family warned them he had a knife.

When the police arrived they found a man on the ground, apparently hurt by Francisco Moran, when he pushed him to the ground. The Police say they tasered him, but failed and then fired after he launched at them with a metal object which now the media and the cops are reporting that it was a spatula.

The police accounts are not the same accounts the family knows. The police claim they shot him when it was clear that their lives were in danger after he launched at them with a metal object they claim to have been a spatula.

Francisco Moran was shot 6 times, once on the upper right side of the forehead, once in the throat, twice on the chest above/on the heart and twice on his left bicep that we know of so far.

The police proceeded to cuff him after the killer shots!

Francisco's family says he never moved his feet towards anybody, and the metal object was made up because it turns out to be a wooden spoon which he never pulled out of the waist of his pants, simply reached for it.

The Police interviewed Francisco's wife, who witnessed the murder, for several hours. She states that she was "released" after 10 am. Also present was the 16 yr old daughter. At the moment, Mrs. Moran does not want to talk to the press or press charges. The rest of the family is furious and ready to take action steps for justice.

Professionals have yet to offer any assistance, right now all the family knows is what the cops are telling them, that is as professional as it has gotten. Where is the NAACP, or the ACLU? Where are the local counselors, the legal advisors?

Modesto CopWatch, Modesto Anarcho, Sacramento Sol Collective, immigrant rights leaders, and non affiliated folks were protesting outside the police station on Saturday afternoon. 10 protesters were present, the media was invited, but they had no interest unless the family was going to be present.

Well guess what? The protestor’s effort’s to support the family was definitely effective. The family drove by the police station and saw the small crowd and decided to join us, 20 deep!! (That means there were 20 of them) There, is where we heard the true story of the murder of Francisco Moran.

Basically we have questions and we need professional help.

If you could please guide us to the right lawyer who is willing to fight for justice for Francisco, we need someone to help the 16 yr old and the others that witnessed the murder, we need answers!

Thank you, and please keep yourself posted! It's a war out here.......

Film Series in Modesto & Stockton Sept. 9th - 10th

2010-09-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Film series this weekend in Modesto & Stockton
(Friday & Saturday Sept. 9th & 10, 7pm).

Hosted & Presentation by JR from Oakland.

Family fight leads to Modesto police shooting, killing man with knife - Crime & Courts - Modbee.com

2010-09-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

Family fight leads to Modesto police shooting, killing man with knife - Crime & Courts - Modbee.com

Central Valley Coalition Against Police Violence and Justice for Oscar Grant in Sacto. Aug 11th @ Sol Collective

2010-08-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Wednesday August 11 -

In lieu of the current events with Oscar Grant, Sol Collective in Sacto. Ca, will be screening the Documentary "Operation Small Axe," a film that takes a daring look inside police terrorism in Oakland and around the world. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the Central Valley Coalition Against Police Violence and Justice for Oscar Grant.

Film screening starts at 7 p.m.

Donations welcome.

Stanislaus youth lockup design approved - Government - Modbee.com

2010-08-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

Stanislaus youth lockup design approved - Government - Modbee.com

WE ARE TREVEON JOHN AVILA!

2010-07-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

Police Continue to Murder Across the Valley ~ In Bakersfield, a police officer that has been in three shootings in the last two months, has killed a 15 year old boy. A witness stated, "They shot at the suspects for no reason. The people in the car really didn't have a chance to surrender." According to a local paper: In recent history, Sgt. Jon Scott had eight shootings -- including three fatal when he was among other officers shooting at suspects -- in a 13-year span that began in 1993, police reported. And in the 1980s, Bruce Adair had four shootings in his first four years on the force, two of them fatal. The murder of this young man mirrors the also recent murder of James Rivera in Stockton.

This has been the THIRD killing by Bakersfield pigs since may 2010. The shooting was the 2nd in 8 days for one of the pigs involved!

Witnesses offer new details in officer-involved shooting One of the officers who shot and killed a 15-year-old boy Friday night -- a shooting criticized as unnecessary by witnesses -- has now been involved in three fatal shootings in two months. Timothy Berchtold, 33, a two-year veteran of the police department with prior experience at the California Highway Patrol, fired at Traveon John Avila, who was in a stolen car that witnesses said stalled on a dirt slope at the end of the street and rolled back toward Berchtold as he was at the passenger door of his patrol car. The new account by two witnesses sheds light on why the car might have been rolling back toward the police car, an action which apparently led the officers to fire at the driver. Yet the witnesses also said the driver did not have a chance to surrender. The left rear bumper of the stolen car, a 2001 Acura, ran into the passenger door of the police car, police said. Witnesses said the Acura rolled back, but did not accelerate back. Police wouldn't comment on the witnesses' accounts, or on the assertion that the vehicle had stalled and hadn't been deliberately thrown into reverse. The shooting followed a short pursuit. The other officer, Noah Landers, 26, a nearly three-year veteran of the department, drove the patrol car in the pursuit of the Acura that began on Cottonwood Road and Bradshaw Street and ended in the 1400 block of Windsor Street, police said. He too shot at Avila, police said.

This was the first officer-involved shooting for Landers, police said. Bakersfield police said it's not unusual for officers to have multiple shootings in their careers. However, although it also isn't unusual for officers to have no shootings, it is unusual for an officer to have so many fatal shootings in such a short time, police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said. In recent history, Sgt. Jon Scott had eight shootings -- including three fatal when he was among other officers shooting at suspects -- in a 13-year span that began in 1993, police reported. And in the 1980s, Bruce Adair had four shootings in his first four years on the force, two of them fatal. All of those shootings were ruled justifiable though both Scott and Adair went against department policy each on one of their shootings, department records say. Berchtold and Landers are on routine administrative leave pending the police investigation of the shooting and a determination by a police shooting review board. While witnesses said the Avila shooting was unnecessary, police are withholding comment on many of the details until their investigation is complete, DeGeare said. The incident began about 9:20 p.m. when Landers and Berchtold attempted to stop the Acura, which was reported stolen on June 5, police said. The short pursuit went west on Reese Avenue and south on a half block of Windsor Street, which dead-ends into a dirt embankment. Police said Landers got out of the driver's side and Berchtold got out of the passenger side just as the right front passenger in the Acura took off running. At that time, the Acura began backing toward the officers, striking the passenger door of the police car where Berchtold was standing, DeGeare said. Both officers fired multiple times at Avila, incapacitating him. A third passenger, a 17-year-old male, emerged from the back seat and was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy, auto theft and participating in a street gang. Police said Avila was a gang member too and the crime qualified as one furthering the interest of a gang. The suspect who ran away, described as a black male, 25, 5-foot-9 to 6-foot-tall, wearing a white tank type T-shirt, escaped despite a wide search, police said. The shooting took place in front of three men standing in a front yard less than 40 feet away, and several teenage girls about 80 feet away.

Two of the men with the best view talked to police and The Californian. Both Julius Mosley, 26, and Theodis Wiley, 27, said the officers began firing before Avila had a chance to surrender. Wiley said that as the Acura was rolling backward, Avila had his hands up. The men said they didn't hear the officers or anyone in the car say anything before the shots rang out. It was after the shooting that the driver side officer (Landers) ordered "put your hands up," Mosley said. Mosley said the passenger side officer (Berchtold) fired first and then the driver's side officer fired next. Wiley said the passenger side officer fired second because he stumbled when the Acura hit the patrol car door and he had to back up a little bit before firing. Mosley said the driver of the Acura (Avila) "had no way to get out of the car." Wiley said of the officers, "They shot at the suspects for no reason. The people in the car really didn't have a chance to surrender." It is unknown how many shots were fired. Several witnesses said three, another said five and other reports were as many as eight. One of the girls just up the street from the shooting was Aaliya Williams, 15, who said she was scared and didn't actually see what happened. But she knew Avila, who she described as "a friend since I was little. He had a nice personality. We played jump rope." She said she feels sad about his death. A neighbor, Joann Sterling, 63,, whose yard the teen girls were playing in, said Avila was one of the kids in the neighborhood. "He used to come over here and play with my granddaughter" when they were in grade school, she said. She said he went to Curran Junior High School. Kern High School District spokesman John Teves said Avila was enrolled at South High School last year, but he didn't attend classes. A relative of Avila said the teen's mother was too distraught to talk.

Source: http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x1685665638/Witnesses-offer-new-details-in-officer-involved-shooting

Racist Online forum mentions story when searching for the 15 year old boy from Bakerfiled: http://www.chimpout.com/forum/showthread.php?p=559481

R.I.P. James Rivera

2010-07-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES RIVERA!! R.I.P.

2010-07-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

on Friday July 23, community people gather at the corner house where the police forced the van into the garage wall and murdered James Rivera. Today was James Rivera's 17th birthday, which he did not get to see.

People from Modesto and Stockton came to supportthe families involved. Over 50 people of different colors and sizes were there.

A community BBQ banner full of messages for James was located on the boarded up hole. Chicken, Ribs, hot dogs, and lots more was cooked while folks conversed about the tragedy and loss of James Rivera. Some did it over dominoes and some while getting a hair cut, others just chillin'.

a few women went house to house asking people to sign a petition that supports a peoples review committee that can get answers during situations like this one. The People are ready to hold the cops and other officials accountable for the murder of James River, Joey Pinasco and many other victims of police executions.

Donations were collected and are still being accepted. They have a Donation account with BofA acct.# 0155-615642 under James Rivera They will also have a car wash at the corner of 8th & Airport way on Saturday.

Many details were spoken of that did not agree with police statements, and a lot of disturbing stories.

A young women was arrested/or detained because she could not ID him when they wanted her to. She claims she was mentally exhausted and could not ID him. The insensitivity of the police is outrageous and intolerable.

Latex gloves lay all around the yard, broken plastic pieces and a boarded up wall. Apparently James hit two giant metal mail boxes as he was approaching the wall. The boy could have been injured and explains why he did not get out of the car when they called him out. Even if he wanted to get out for them he wouldn't have escaped the bullets that followed 2 seconds after the command.

A town hall meeting was held at 7:30 at the NOI Mosque in Stockton. Less people attended this meeting than the one on Wednesday, yet it was full enough to feel empowered. The Uncle of James spoke out and the family shared a bit about the story when the police came to their home in the early morning of Thursday. There are a lot of un answered questions and time is passing by.There is no time to waste.

They will be attending the city council meeting on Tuesday at 5 pm to demand a private investigation. They are not interested in what the police find out about how they murdered James Rivera. They want their own Investigation.

BE AT THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING ON TUESDAY AT 5 ! Bring signs and your questions and demands.

STOCKTON POLICE KILL AGAIN!

2010-07-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

On the morning of July 22 at around 11:30 16 year old James Rivera was killed in premedatated murder, since the family had been warned hours before he was killed.

According to James Rivera's mother and auntie police came to her house late at night/early morning before the murder and terrorized the family. Police held a gun at an eleven yr old while a ten year old was in the room and told them they were going to kill James when they found him and that they were all going to a funeral.

Later that morning, according to family and friends, he was pulled over then released and then chased. As he crashed into a fence and made a u turn , police rammed the back of the blue van which caused the van to go out of control. The van went onto a lawn of a corner house on Salters Dr. and Bancroft Way, finally crashed straight into the garage wall where the van seemed to be lodged into.

Officers exited their vehicles and asked James to exit the van twice but 2 seconds later they began to shoot. Over 30 rounds have been estimated to be found. Witnesses believe that police used 9mm handguns and fully automatic M-16 assault riffles.The police have now stated that M-16 were not used, contrary to witnesses statements and picttures that have yet to be published.

Witnesses say that the ambulance arrived with out their sirens and left without them, as if there was no urgency. The peple believe that he was dead at the scene. They saw officers pull him out and slap his face and then do nothing.

Reportors are saying that police stated the persuit began at 10:30 after finding the van that had been part of a carjacking with a shotgun. It has not been said if this was the van, and the police do not mention any previous encounters with James Rivera.
The media has yet to report the truth, i know we heard the people speak the truth and thats not what they are printing.

People came out in rage of what they had just witnessed. "NO JUSTICE NO PEACE" the poeple chanted until the officials Chaplin later came to them and asked them to be quiet.

in the Stockton Record Stockton Police Spokesperson Pete Smith agreed that the crowd was "upset and very vocal about their concerns" but was also recorded threatening the community "Let officers complete thier investigation and not unduly create any other situations that would need any kind of police investigation"

Although the people continued to chant after the Chaplin told a couple that it would do them no good, people realized the importance of speaking up for injustices like this one. There will be a bbq on friday July 23, to celebrate James Rivera's 17th birthday and to empower the community.

Later that night while people continued to observe and excercise thier freedom of speech the police harrased a young man for not having a light on his bike which he rode from literally across the street after insulting the officers behavior. Appearantly the cop who cited the young man was making jokes and laughing at James Rivera's mother and made her leave in tears.

Witnesses say he was doing it in retaliation for calling out names. The same cop threw a glass bottle at the street where several young children were standing in their yard. The glass broke and shattered very close to the childrens feet.

Prosecutors are looking into whether the shooting was justified...........

The Stockton police officers involved in the shooting were Officer Eric Azarvand, a 14-year department veteran; Officer Gregory Dunn, with the department eight years; and San Joaquin County sheriff's deputy John Thomas Nesbitt, with 11 years at the sheriff's department

MEET AT THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING ON TUES @ 5PM
Bring SIGNS AND DEMENDS! Instruments and other noise makers....

What I Saw and Experienced Last Night - Breaking News by Oakland resident Pamela Drake

2010-07-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

What follows is an account of what I saw and experienced last night (July 2nd 2010), and an account from my friend, Susan Harman, who experienced police brutality and arrest at the demonstration and afterwards. She was not released until late this morning.

First off, as many have documented, even in the mainstream media, the gathering was peaceful if not happy from 5:30 p.m. until much later in the evening. I saw and heard young person after young person get up on the podium and speak with their full hearts and minds. Some of them I knew, most I did not.

I saw council members Jean Quan, Rebecca Kaplan, Nancy Nadel, Desley Brooks, Larry Reid, and Jane Brunner and many local lawyers who were monitoring or protesting: Walter Riley (subsequently arrested), Dan Siegel and Anne Weills, and their son, Michael Siegel. The group from Bikes 4 Life put on the event and it was positive and hopeful — a real speak-out.

Most of the speakers, while angry, called for unity and a peaceful response to the daunting task of demanding justice yet again. Most were not satisfied with the verdict and recalled the types of penalties others have received for much lesser offenses than murder.

As soon as the official demonstration was over (although music and some speeches continued at the City Hall plaza amphitheatre), an incident occurred somewhere down Broadway a block or so away and the crowd broke into a run.

I headed down the street to see if any more trouble could be headed off and saw the council members still in the area. When I got up to the police phalanx, I could see that they were in riot gear. I turned onto 13th Street and attempted go down it away from the gathering crowd. Having lived through the Sixties, I'll admit I don't like getting cornered by police in riot gear. I always check my escape route, including from a stampeding crowd.

The police blocked my escape saying that I had to go up Broadway. The police at that point started announcing that this was an unlawful assembly and issuing instructions to move up Broadway. After purchasing a snack at DeLauer's, I rested for a minute in a bus stop enclosure where I met two teachers (another government teacher, don't know if she was laid off like me). I then sought an exit from the closing police ranks.

All of the streets were blocked. Finally, I located a small opening in the plaza and circumvented the box the police had been forming around the demonstration. I ended up behind police lines and remained in that area during the period when the looting of the Foot Locker was apparently taking place.

I began to see some small groups of onlookers, some of them excited by the impending violence converge on the area but by the next hour, most were gone. Since then, I've become aware that some professional looters did arrive with window smashing implements — sickening, but not really shocking.

By the time I reached 14th Street, a few minutes before 10 p.m., my friend, Susan Harman, a retired principal of an East Oakland charter school, called me to tell me that she was in an ambulance on her way to Highland Hospital, having been injured by the police.

Now, let me tell you, my friend, despite being 69 years old, a cancer survivor (quite small), and diabetic is very feisty. She had linked arms with some young people and Councilmembers Quan and Kaplan, in hopes of keeping the protestors separated from the police phalanx. She told me the young men linking arms with her were actually trembling as they stood in front of the police in riot gear but they held firm.

The police line was pushing slowly forward and she was conversing with the officer opposite her who said that he was trying to respect her age and move her slowly down the street. At that time (and at no time) did she see any bottles or rocks thrown but she was aware of the tension building on both sides.

When they reached the chess game that had been going on in the street since early in the evening, they insisted that she keep moving. She protested that she was not willing to walk on them.

There was a momentary pause in the action, and suddenly, the police line surged forward and she went down as she fell — or was shoved — into the chess game. She was hit on the head by a police baton and her hands were roughly yanked behind her as an officer clamped handcuffs on her wrists. She tried to tell them that she had an old shoulder injury but no one heard or no one cared.

They dragged her across the pavement — she has the bruises and scrapes to prove it — yanked her onto her feet and put her in an ambulance after Jumoke Hinton Hodge, the West Oakland School Board Director also under arrest, yelled, "Your head; you're bleeding."

She called me repeatedly from the hospital, saying she did not know whether she was under arrest. However, since her shoulder was causing her pain and her head had begun to hurt, she told me that she wished to be seen by a doctor. I offered to pick her up when she was through, but, once again, she did not know if she was under arrest. However, no one had been monitoring her as she sat in the ER waiting room so we assumed that she was free to go.

At some point she got concerned about her growing headache and got up to inquire at the desk about seeing the doctor. An officer (county sheriff) was there a heartbeat later and grabbed her wrist, twisting it as he shoved her into a seat. She asked him to stop hurting her and said, "I'm doing what you're asking." Other patients objected as they could see she was a gray-haired lady, but at that point police handcuffed her to the chair and left her there.

Susan told me that there were two other patients in the hospital with her from the demonstration. One was a young white man, who had been taking pictures, and a young black man. The black man had an open wound on his forehead but she never saw him get any treatment. He was also handcuffed to a chair and repeatedly asked for water but the officers only taunted him, Susan told me.

I had gone to wait at Highland as I was hoping that she would be released; but on the way, I got a call from Susan's cell which turned out to be from a deputy from the Sheriff's Office who told me not to come, that she was in custody, and I could not see her. I told him about some of her medical conditions and that I hoped she would be able to remain the hospital, but he hung up.

As a result of a call from Dr. Floyd Huen, the doctors at Highland were made aware of her medical status and provide care; but later at the city jail, she asked for her nightly insulin shot and was refused, she told me. They left her in a small holding tank for hours with twelve others, among then Hinton Hodge. Later they moved them to a larger cell that contained twenty prisoners and no beds.

Still sitting up in the crowded cell, she was released at 10 a.m. this morning, her blood sugar level dangerously high. At this writing, activists, lawyers, and council members are still trying to get Hinton Hodge released.

My question remains: Who was in charge last night? The city policy makers — the council — clearly was not. Was Mayor Dellums the commander-in-chief? If so, did he order the police to advance on the crowd? Was it necessary to force a confrontation? Were the troublemakers out-of-towners, crazed anarchists, angry youth, criminals out to grab some goodies, or did it really have to happen this way, really, folks?

I don't know the answers to those questions but we must ask all of them. We can't stop everyone from dangerous or irresponsible behavior but such behavior should not be perpetrated by those who are empowered to serve and protect.

Pamela Drake is a former Oakland teacher and longtime Oakland activist.

Source: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/92510/archives/2010/07/09/what-i-saw-and-experienced-last-night

COLORLINES - Fresno Cops Involved in Repeat Shootings Still on Duty

2010-07-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

COLORLINES - Fresno Cops Involved in Repeat Shootings Still on Duty

The Verdict....

2010-06-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

The Jury in the Oscar Grant/Killer Cop Johannes Mehserle trial goes into deliberation this Thursday! The Verdict will be coming soon, most likely Friday or next Tuesday... Keep an eye out!

-->For info on when the verdict will officially be announced & actions in response to verdict: text "TRIAL" to 213.973.3434

ACTIONS FOR DAY OF VERDICT:

1) IN MORNING, Before Verdict is going to be Announced:
Gather at Courthouse, 210 w Temple St, Downtown LA.

2) 5 PM: Everybody in LA will gather at Leimert Park, Crenshaw & Vernon.

3) Meet at 14th & Broadway downtown oakland day of verdict.

Spread the Word!!

How Would You React If Mehserle Is Found Not Guilty?

2010-06-27T02:18:00.000-07:00

Seattle Police Officer Caught on Tape Punching Woman

2010-06-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/16/police-punches-woman-on-t_n_613962.html

June 14th 2010 LA LOVE!

2010-06-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

Indy Media: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/06/240244.php

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/06/14/18650602.php

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/06/14/18650665.php

Mainstream Media: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/youth-radio-youth-media-international/protestors-gather-outside_b_612125.html

Mehserle trial day 2: Oscar Grant’s friend sobs on stand

2010-06-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

Mehserle trial day 2: Oscar Grant’s friend sobs on stand

Mehserle/Grant trial Tweet-Chat

2010-06-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

Guide to the Daily Mehserle/Grant Trial Tweet-Chat
Posted by Noah Nelson on June 9, 2010 at 03:20pm

We will be hosting a tweet-chat with reporters and observers of the Johannes Mehserle trial at 12:30 PM PDT every day that court is in session. To participate in the chat, refer to the F.A.Q. below.

For those who are familiar with Tweet-Chats, we will be using the hashtag #OGTrial (see below). Questions should be addressed to @youthradio, which can also be used to
F.A.Q.

What is a Tweet-Chat?
A Tweet-Chat is a real time discussion on Twitter organized around a subject as opposed to being organized around a specific twitter account. The chat participates tag their tweets with the hashtag chosen for the chat. In this case the hashtag is #OGTrial.

What is a hashtag?
Pleae read this F.A.Q. about hashtags.

How do I follow the chat?
Use your favorite twitter client, or Twitter.com's search function. Search for the hashtag (#OGTrial) and you will follow the discussion in real time.

I want to participate, but don't want all my followers to see. What should I do?
A Tweet-Chat can involve a lot of tweets. If you don't want to fill up your followers' feeds with YOUR tweets from the chat you can phrase your tweets as a response to the host. In this case the host is @youthradio. Remember that the "@youthradio" needs to go at the start of the tweet-- that way only those of your followers who are following @youthradio will see the tweet.

What if I WANT my followers to see?
Just make sure to use the chat hashtag, that way folks in the chat can see. Retweet the posts you like to your followers and invite them to participate.

How do I get a question in?
Just ask and make sure it's tagged. A Tweet-Chat is a lot less structured than some online chats.

If volume gets too high the on-the-ground reporters may stop following the hashtag and leave it for the host to filter questions. This is another reason to start your tweets with the host's name.

Why #OGTrial?
This tag was chosen purely for efficacy's sake. It is short (a tweet that contains both @youthradio and #OGTrial leaves 120 characters for communication) and less prone to misspellings than other options. #OscarGrant already has a large number of people using it, and the decision was made to not hijack that hashtag. #BARTtrial was deemed too easy to typo (#BARTrial, for instance). #TrialChat, while empty, is too vague. #MehserleTrial is already in use.

The Killer Cop Who Shot Oscar Grant Had a History of Violence on the Job...

2010-06-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

CARAVAN FOR JUSTICE 09

2010-06-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

Citizens from the Bay Area and the Central Valley Rally on the Steps of the State Capitol and bring justice to our neighborhoods

On New Year’s Day 2009 a young black man named Oscar Grant was pulled out of a Bay Area Rapid Transit car, beaten, and forced face-down on the cement by local police officers. Then the unthinkable happened. While Oscar was unarmed, not resisting, face-down and hand-cuffed a BART officer named Johannes Mehserle pulled out his gun and shot him in back, killing him. Although this incident was caught on many cell phone videos from several different angles, it took Alameda County DA Tom Orloff more than 2 weeks to take any kind of action against the officer. In fact, it was only after Bay Area residents took to the streets of downtown Oakland in protest and rebellion did the DA charge Mehserle with the murder of Oscar Grant III.

In response the Bay Area began organizing, starting with weekly townhall meetings to discuss plans of action to ensure justice for Oscar Grant and take a deeper look into how and why these tragedies happen in our communities. The result was a coalition of community, religious, and political leaders who decided to take these issues to the people who should be solving them: California Law Makers. With the slogan “All Roads Lead to Sacramento” the Caravan for Justice was born. The intent was to lobby members of the California government to take a look at police abuse in communities of color, unequal arrest rates, unfair prison sentences, the 3 strikes law, school underfunding, and prison overcrowding, gangs, drugs, and poverty.

The first caravan took place on Thursday, February 19th on the steps of the State Capitol building in Sacramento. Minister Christopher Muhammad of San Francisco welcomed the crowd as he enthusiastically exclaimed “We didn’t come here to play!” Mr. Muhammad and others went on to speak about the crisis that exists in poor communities of color. “If dogs, blue whales, or spotted owls were dying at the rate of young black and brown men, we would have congressional hearings going on!” stated Muhammad, “Why are our representatives silent? They’re silent because they haven’t heard from us, so we’re here to introduce ourselves.” Despite the heavy police presence (roof snipers, helicopters, dogs, and hundreds of officers on bike, horse, car, and foot) the Caravan has returned to Sacramento twice on Wednesday April 8th and Tuesday May 26th drawing a crowd of thousands. Caravan for Justice IV is in the making, check out caravanforjustice.com for the latest information.

Other speakers at the Caravans for Justice included California State Assemblymen Sandre Swanson and Joe Coto, prisoner rights advocate Barbara Becnel, the President of NAACP-Sacramento Betty Williams, San Francisco Archbishop Franzo King, Oakland Minister Keith Muhammad, the New Black Panthers, immigrant rights activist Renee Salcedo, rapper/producer J.T. the Bigga Figga, United Playaz of the Bay Area, Native American activists Valerie Tulier and Mike Ali, Stockton’s ESPINO (Escuelas Si, Pintos No), Modesto resident and original Black Panther Juanita Jackson, and members of Modesto CopWatch.

Three strikes law, racial and gang profiling are major in the Central Valley. There is no doubt in the Latino and Black communities that police take advantage of their position and abuse their power. More often than not we are the target and the rich white communities are those they really serve and protect.

In April 09 the NAACP hosted town hall meetings at the King Kennedy Center where over 100 community members came to tell their experience with surrounding police departments such as MPD, SPD, CPD, and TPD. The stories were serious accounts of police brutality. The sister of Richie Robles ,“sword man” as the Modesto bee and Modesto PD continue to address him, was present to tell the REAL story about how the police handled the situation.

It was obvious that local police departments are out of control and lack accountability to our communities. Modesto Copwatch and other community organizations like Aztlan Rising, Project Lazarus, Modesto Brown Berets, the NAACP Youth Council, Modesto Anarcho , Radical Mental Health, Grayson Neighborhood Council, and the Freedom Bound Center/ Sol collective along with local hip hop projects such as the Revolutionary Hip Hop Report Magazine, Juggernaut Records, K- Cizzl Productions, and Pen Point Entertainment, came together to further address these issues in a much more fun way. On Oct 11 they hosted a Hip Hop Festival that included hip hop performances from JT the Bigga Figga, Sherman Austin, Sacrifice, Cobalt, True to Life, Nikfuq, Los Punks and many more!Film screenings of Black and Gold, a film that addresses gang activity for the better, other films about immigration rallies from LA to the BAY, and other local projects like the Yolo County Community Copwatch addressed issues that are most important to us. A big hit was the graffiti wall and the jumper house and of course free food and Prizes are also part of the attraction.

Around 300 people from LA, the Bay, Sacramento, Stockton, Manteca, Merced, Los Banos, and of course Modesto attended the 7 hour long event without a single act of violence, drama, or set-trippin.’

This is our way of taking our community back to empower ourselves against the system that is obviously formatted to incarcerate and criminalize urban youth and people of color. Show your support and share your stories with us. Let’s change the Central Valley for the sake of our children’s future. Stop Police Brutality! End racist laws like the Three Strikes! Squash the beef!

An Artist Illustrates

2010-06-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

"The Burning City" Stockton Ca, By Meghan P. June 2010

We Are All Oscar Grant!

After 18 months since the murder of James Rivera Jr.-The Community Deman...

Friday January 6th-11am Stockton Courthouse-Community Demands Answers March/Rally

Tuesday, December 13th in Stockton Ca.

Saturday OCT 22- Caravan of Resistance- From Stockton to Manteca to Modesto- In Solidarity with National Day Against Police Brutality

Press Release & Demo at Justice for James Rivera July 22nd 2011, Stockton, Ca.

Ernest Duenez Jr killed by Manteca Police on July 8th 2010

Justice for James Rivera, Jr!!!

RALLY AND MARCH demanding JUSTICE FOR RITA ELIAS! STOP POLICE BRUTALITY AND CORRUPTION!

Off duty CHP officer murders escapee from 72 hour watch Ricky Miranda

Brian Reed shot & later died. Murderd by MPD.

Modesto Police YET shoot again - Man in Critical Condition!

Modesto CopWatch to Jeff Jardine’s “Modesto: A sleepy little burg — with anarchists?”

Masked Protesters Disrupt Police Accreditation Meeting ; People gather before entering into police station. ﻿﻿

Napa Pigs Murder Alternative Mental Health Advocate.

Oscar Grant’s Killer Johannes Mehserle Gets Two Years In Prison - COLORLINES

Ex-Modesto cop claims officers 'pummeled' suspects

Anger fueled protests get mad solidarity!

Protest Rally Thursday West Modesto, Justice for Rita Elias! Justice for Francisco Moran!

RIP Rita Elias: Off-Duty Sheriff Kills Woman in Modesto

Not even a month later (20 days from last killing), Stanislaus County Pigs (this time) kill a women supposedly with gun!

JUSTICE FOR FRANCISCO MORAN

Film Series in Modesto & Stockton Sept. 9th - 10th

Family fight leads to Modesto police shooting, killing man with knife - Crime & Courts - Modbee.com

Central Valley Coalition Against Police Violence and Justice for Oscar Grant in Sacto. Aug 11th @ Sol Collective

Stanislaus youth lockup design approved - Government - Modbee.com

WE ARE TREVEON JOHN AVILA!

R.I.P. James Rivera

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES RIVERA!! R.I.P.

STOCKTON POLICE KILL AGAIN!

What I Saw and Experienced Last Night - Breaking News by Oakland resident Pamela Drake

COLORLINES - Fresno Cops Involved in Repeat Shootings Still on Duty

The Verdict....

How Would You React If Mehserle Is Found Not Guilty?

Seattle Police Officer Caught on Tape Punching Woman

June 14th 2010 LA LOVE!

Mehserle trial day 2: Oscar Grant’s friend sobs on stand

Mehserle/Grant trial Tweet-Chat

The Killer Cop Who Shot Oscar Grant Had a History of Violence on the Job...

CARAVAN FOR JUSTICE 09

An Artist Illustrates

Masked Protesters Disrupt Police Accreditation Meeting ; People gather before entering into police station.