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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 13 April 4, 2016
(front page)
Calif. marchers denounce brutal cops in ‘deadliest county’ in US
Militant/Bill Arth
Relatives of numerous victims of police brutality led March 19 protest
in Bakersfield, California. More people were killed by cops in that
county last year than in New York City.
BY LAURA GARZA
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Family members carried banners and placards with
pictures of the many workers and youth killed by Bakersfield police and
Kern County Sheriff’s deputies at the 2nd Annual March for Justice here
March 19. One sign said, “No judge, no jury, but his life is over.”
More than 150 protesters chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” as they
marched to four different sites in East Bakersfield where people had
been shot or beaten by the cops. “This could happen to any of us. We are
all Mexican. We are all white. We are all Black. We are united,” said a
relative of Ronnie Ledesma Jr., when the march stopped at the corner
where Ledesma was beaten by police in 2013. He died in custody nine days
later.
According to a study by the Guardian newspaper, Kern County, which
includes Bakersfield, has the highest per capita deaths at the hands of
cops in the United States. Kern County has a population of just under
875,000. The cops killed 13 people here in 2015; in New York City with
almost 10 times the population, the cops killed nine people.
“I’m here to represent my son who was killed Nov. 13, 2014,” said
Leticia De La Rosa, mother of James De La Rosa, who was 22 years old
when he was gunned down by the Bakersfield police. An oil field worker,
he crashed his car during a police pursuit. Cops fatally shot De La Rosa
when he got out of the car. Some witnesses said he put his hands up, but
the police used the well-worn excuse that he was reaching for his
waistband. He was unarmed.
The family of day laborer David Silva also joined the march. “These
people will be held accountable,” said his mother Merri Silva, speaking
at the corner where he was beaten to death by cops on May 7, 2013. “If
I’m not vocal nothing is going to be solved.”
Silva had sought help at the Kern County Medical Center and fell asleep
on the ground nearby. An officer with a police dog woke him up. Seven
members of the Kern County Sheriff’s department and two California
Highway Patrol Officers joined in using batons to beat and hog-tie him.
Police dogs bit him 30 times. Videos taken by witnesses were confiscated
by the cops.
Donny Youngblood, who is both the sheriff and the coroner, ruled that
Silva’s death was an accident and that deputies acted appropriately,
alleging that Silva was resisting arrest. Youngblood is notorious for
his anti-immigrant stance.
Kern County is one of the top oil-producing counties in the U.S., as
well as a major agricultural center at the southern end of the San
Joaquin Valley, and has long been a center for farmworker organizers.
With the drop in oil prices and a drought, unemployment in the area was
officially at 10.9 percent in February, almost twice the rate in the
state as a whole.
At a barbecue after the march, other family members spoke, including the
mother and aunt of Jason Alderman. He was shot to death on Aug. 22,
2015, by cops who claimed they thought he was armed outside a shop they
said he had burglarized. After first saying there was no video, the cops
were forced to release one that shows Alderman was unarmed and was shot
while trying to exit the shop through a hole in the bottom of the door.
Marchers expressed appreciation for protesters who joined them from
southern California, including activists from the Young Survivors Legacy
Support Network, a group of family members and friends of victims of
police killings in Orange County and Los Angeles. Other speakers
included Genevieve Huizar, whose son Manuel Diaz was killed by an
Anaheim cop in July 2012; a representative of the American Civil
Liberties Union; members of the Brown Berets; and the Socialist Workers
Party.
Related articles:
UK fight wins limits on ‘guilt by association’ frame-ups
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