http://themilitant.com/2017/8114/811459.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 14 April 10, 2017
200 protest cop killings, brutality in Bakersfield
BY LAURA GARZA
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Some two hundred people joined the Third Annual
Walk for Justice here March 19 to protest police killings and brutality
by Bakersfield Police Department and Kern County Sheriff’s Department
officers. They marched to several sites where people were killed by
police, ending in a park where families had set up posters and banners
in honor of loved ones lost.
“I will never accept or forget the beat down and cowardly murder of my
son,” said Merri Silva speaking at the spot her son David was beaten on
May 7, 2013, by nine Bakersfield and Kern County cops. He was bitten by
police dogs, hogtied and eventually died as a result.
“At the beginning there were just a few of us, look at us now,” said
Chris Silva, David’s brother, gesturing to the crowd. He noted the
widespread publicity the protests and killings had received and that
family members were involved in suits against the cops. “Our loved ones
are getting killed and they’re giving us money to shut up. We’re not
going to shut up.”
A growing list of names of those killed by cops here since 1994 was
printed on the backs of T-shirts of the marchers.
The last name was Francisco Serna, a 73-year-old grandfather shot by
Bakersfield cops outside his home last December. Serna had early stages
of dementia and when he didn’t comply immediately when cops shouted
orders at him, one opened fire. As Serna lay dying, the cops refused to
allow his wife or daughter to come to his side. They threatened other
family members who arrived, saying they would be arrested or tasered if
they tried to reach him.
“They cuffed him and let dogs on him, they didn’t need to torture him,”
Laura Serna, who was there when her father was shot, told Dennis
Richter, recently announced Socialist Workers Party candidate for
congress in the 34th CD in Los Angeles.
“The police do this all over because they are not serving and protecting
us, instead they protect the system of wealthy capitalists, that’s who
they serve and they look at all of us as potential criminals,” Richter
said. “They can’t be reformed.”
“It will take revolutionary changes, where working people fight to take
power out of the hands of the ruling wealthy, to have a different
justice system built in our interests,” he said.
The march also stopped where James De La Rosa was shot in November 2014
and at the Walgreens where Ronnie Ledesma was beaten by cops and later
died.
The impact of the protests forced the California state attorney general
to open an investigation into the Bakersfield and Kern County cops in
December, shortly after the killing of Francisco Serna.
The county District Attorney decided to drop charges against Xavier
Hines and Timothy Grismore, Black students at Bakersfield College, who
were stopped by the cops as they went for pizza after studying one
night. One was beaten and both were arrested, framed up on charges of
jaywalking and resisting arrest. However, the NAACP released a video
interview with them about how they were treated and the case blew up.
Related articles:
New charges filed against Chicago cop who killed youth
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home