NEWS & LETTERS, October - November 2009
Victims of police killings
Inglewood, Cal.--On July 28, 75 people--mostly Black with some Latinos/as--attended a town hall meeting here to address the continuing killings and beatings of unarmed youths by Inglewood police. The police were invited but did not show up.
Participants spoke of police attitudes and shootings of Black youths, and problems of gang violence. They spoke of racial profiling and police seeing all Black and Brown youth as hardcore gang members. One person said the police use a South Gate Latino gang's racist attitude toward Black gangs, to have them fighting each other.
Suggested improvements included petitions for reform starting with "human rights" for youths, putting cameras on police cars, re-enacting every incident of police killing/brutality for the community at large, and "make noise." The meeting ended with an announcement of an organizing meeting for a demonstration.
Over 100 spirited people, mostly youths, marched with family members of seven recent victims of the Inglewood Police Department in August. Demonstrators included members of Community Call to Action; Youth Justice Coalition, a multi-racial group that opposes racial profiling and the criminalization and imprisonment of poor youths; and Cease Fire Committee, a community gang-intervention coalition founded after Stanley Tookie Williams was executed.
One speaker said the practice of lying on police reports must be stopped; another said the Inglewood Police Review Board has no power over the police department.
All slain youths were either Black or Brown and unarmed. Thirteen-year-old Devon Brown and 14-year-old Rafael Ramos are two examples. Demonstrators carried posters memorializing victims of various police departments, including the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department), Los Angeles County Sheriff, Torrance Police and Downey Police. In 2005, three-year-old Suzie Poro Lopez, held in her father's arms, was killed by a hail of bullets from the LAPD. Taisha Miller, a young Black girl, was similarly killed by Riverside Police while sitting in her car. These are all old cases where police are never punished, even when victims are unarmed and/or shot in the back.
--Basho
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