Anaheim Police, while on-duty, deny Freedom of Speech to the people within the "Hot-Zones" of dissent against the rule-of-law enforced by the Police. It's a vicious cycle of justification used for police militarization, similar to the process of fascism seen across Latin America.
"What you have is all these young men who graduated from high school, and there are no job opportunities, and they're drawn into the criminal life"- Gustavo Arellano, O.C. Resident
"Statewide March Against Police Brutality in Anaheim"
video and report from "Revolutionary Hip-Hop Report" [rhhr.org/2013/08/07/video-statewide-march-against-police-brutality-in-anaheim/]:
On Saturday July 21st around 1,000 people marched from Anaheim City Hall to the Anaheim Police Department to protest police brutality and shootings of unarmed citizens throughout California and also in solidarity with those seeking Justice for Trayvon Martin. Over 30 different families from all over the state, but mostly the Anaheim-LA area, spoke-out about the killing of their loved-ones by law enforcement officers. The protest was held one year after Anaheim police killed Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo, both unarmed, and sparked an uprising among community members that led Anaheim PD to shooting protesters with rubber bullets and unleashing a police dog on a peaceful group of men, women, and small children. Organizers plan to protest again on the National Day of Police Brutality Awareness, October 22nd, at the state capitol in Sacramento.
"San Fernando Valley Caravan to Statewide Police Brutality March"
Organized by Califas Brown Berets [www.facebook.com/cabrownberets] Sunday, July 21, 2013
11:00am
On July 21, 2012 Anaheim police murdered Manuel Diaz while he was surrendering and following police orders. He was shot in the head in front of his community. In response to the outrageous (and common) murder, community members began peaceful gathering outside their homes. The Anaheim police responded with extreme violence, unleashing attack dogs and shooting life-threatening munitions on babies, small children, elderly and everybody in range. The video of the cowardly attack was quickly seen by millions worldwide, sparking emergency protests at the Anaheim Police Headquarters.
On July 22, the Anaheim police murdered Joel Acevedo, further stoking the anger in the community. In the following days, thousands of people rose up against the scourge of police violence. Historic protests shook Anaheim for days. Though ultimately the city heavily militarized the police to repress the movement with violence and intimidation, it brought the struggle against police brutality to a national stage, and laid the foundations for future struggle.
Now, on the 1 year anniversary of the murder of Manuel Diaz (which set of this chain of events), scores of families of police brutality victims (including the mothers of Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo) are calling on people of conscious all over California to unite for a mass march in Anaheim. Only a people's movement can turn the tide against the epidemic of police brutality. we are organizing a caravan from the San Fernando Valley and are currently looking for people to participate, come together, and do their part to get involved and make this demonstration in Anaheim happen. We are looking for people to help us make signs, volunteer as drivers, etc.
"Guinida kids describe police desecration of Joel Acevedo memorial, Anaheim 5-19-2013",
upload 2013-05-20 by Vern Nelson [www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9skBhlPIug]:
Three little girls - and later a boy - describe what they saw in their Anaheim neighborhood of Guinida Lane on the night of May 18 2013 - the Anaheim police vandalism of, and theft from, the community memorial for Jose "Joey" Acevedo, who was killed by the same cops right here on July 22, 2012. Joey's mother Donna Acevedo has permission from the property owner to keep up this Memorial, known as the "Yogi Memorial" from another of Joey's nicknames. This is malicious vandalism and theft by Anaheim police officers. Video and interview by investigator and former LA cop Alex Salazar.
2013-05-21 message from "Police the Police (A Community Project)":
LAST NIGHT ANAHEIM PD IN AN OBVIOUS ATTEMPT TO INTIMIDATE AND HARASS DESECRATED THE MEMORIAL FOR JOEY ACE
VEDO - 3 CHILDREN WERE WITNESSES AND THEY ARE SPEAKING UP FOR JUSTICE!!!
WHAT WILL YOU DO??
CAN YOU SHARE FOR JUSTICE??
WILL YOU CALL THE ANAHEIM PD & SENATORS AND LET THEM KNOW THAT WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS??
* SERGEANT BOB DUNN, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER [714-765-1521
* SENATOR LOU CORREA [2323 N Broadway, Santa Ana] [714-558-4400]
* SENATOR BOB HUFF [1800 E Lambert Rd., Brea, California] [714-671-9474]
Literally .5 miles from the happiest place on earth where last night, these 3 young ladies observed the desecration of a neighborhood memorial dedicated to the memory of Joel "Joey" Acevedo. An officer in a caravan of six black and whites exited his vehicle, approached the shrine, and began to sweep with his feet the candles in an obvious attempt to vandalize and break them. Very audaciously and maliciously, he then grabbed an unknown amount of posters depicting the memory of Joel, and then departed from the location with the caravan. The singling out of Donna Castro and her becoming the fixation and target by the arrogant and brazen Anaheim Police Department shall no longer be tolerated! Our UNITY our Rise!!
Kelly Phillips, Anaheim cop who killed Joel Acevedo, steps up his harassment of Joel’s mother.
read more: [orangejuiceblog.com/2013/05/kelly-phillips-anaheim-cop-who-killed-joel-acevedo-steps-up-his-harassment-of-joels-mother/]
2013-05-20 "Kelly Phillips, Anaheim cop who killed Joel Acevedo, steps up his harassment of Joel’s mother"
by Vern Nelson [orangejuiceblog.com/2013/05/kelly-phillips-anaheim-cop-who-killed-joel-acevedo-steps-up-his-harassment-of-joels-mother/]:
One of the more reasonable ideas that’s been suggested – most recently by Renee Balenti at the last Anaheim Council meeting – regarding the various Anaheim police officers who have shot young Latino men in the back of their heads these past few years – if they’re indeed never going to be punished or fired – is to at least transfer them to a new beat, Anaheim Hills or something.
After all, the sight of these cops patrolling the same neighborhoods where they killed people is traumatic to the surviving relatives and friends, and at least two of these officers have routinely behaved in a taunting manner since their kills:
* Officer Dan Hurtado, since being absolved by the DA of wrongdoing in last March’s execution of Martin Hernandez, has been strutting around the same Ponderosa neighborhood, boasting that “I ONLY shoot gangbangers,” “I shot ‘Tripps’,” and (to another mother) “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot YOUR son in the head.” [blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/01/martin_angel_hernandez_anaheim_hurtado.php]
* Officer Kelly Phillips, known to be not only the shooter of Joel Acevedo last July but one of the five cops who pumped Caesar Cruz with bullets in 2009, continues to act like the cock of the walk in the Güinida neighborhood, taunting and harassing Joel’s grieving mother Donna [blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/theresa_smith_caesar_cruz.php].
* Officer Nick “Buckshot” Bennalack, who killed Manuel Diaz on Anna Drive the day before Acevedo’s death, as well as Bernie Villegas six months earlier – seems to have disappeared quietly [nydailynews.com/news/national/officers-put-leave-police-involved-shooting-leaves-dead-anaheim-article-1.1120125].
Well, this idea – that cops who have killed be at least moved out of the neighborhoods where they killed, hopefully far away to the Hills – may get some new traction, after the events of Saturday night, May 18, on Güinida Lane.
FIRST – around 8pm, as Donna drove her two teenage kids through their neighborhood in her well-known SUV sporting the words “FTP: Film the Police” on the back window, she was pulled over and ticketed by Kelly Phillips and his partner Officer Browning, for “impeding traffic.”
Witnesses in the neighborhood – a neighborhood preternaturally aware of police activity – saw Phillips, on spotting Donna, speed dangerously in reverse down a dusky alley to get into a position to get ahead of Donna on the street, endangering neighborhood children. Then, as she slowly drove past him, she looked out her car window asked “Why are you still here? Why aren’t you working somewhere else?” Phillips pulled a fast U-turn, flashed his lights and pulled her over, and his partner Browning stepped up to inform her that she was being ticketed for impeding traffic. Meanwhile Phillips called for backup to witness and assist with this terrible security threat, and soon seven police cars were clogging up Güinida Lane – talk about impeding traffic! Soon multiple neighbors filed out of their homes to “Film The Police” – something you’d think the cops would welcome but they seem to hate! (None of the videos look that good, or I’d share them, and they don’t show much misconduct – but then, that’s really the point of Filming The Police, isn’t it?)
Still, ticketing the police-filming, grieving mother wasn’t enough – the seven police cars then circled back through the alleys, passed by the memorial neighborhood kids had made for Joey, and the cops from one car pulled over to desecrate and vandalize it. Remember, Donna had permission from the building owner to keep this “Yogi Memorial” there. (“Yogi” was Joey’s nickname due to a baseball cap he used to wear.) According to the child witnesses below – some of the same children who witnessed Joey’s killing ten months ago – these cops kicked over and broke parts of the memorial, and took away several “posters” and pictures of Joey – that’s VANDALISM and THEFT, marked by added malicious cruelty. Here are the neighborhood girls (and later a boy) interviewed by investigator and ex-LA Ramparts cop Alex Salazar Sunday morning. (Yes, we have the parents’ permission.) Find them believable? I do….
I think Donna should go to court and fight this ticket, go with a lot of witnesses and media, and use this as a catalyst to at least get Officers Phillips and Hurtado assigned elsewhere.
You might be wondering what’s going on with the investigation of Joel’s murder, and Donna’s case against the City. Quick updates – she’s still waiting for the DA’s report, but given Tony Rackauckas’ record of believing cops’ stories no matter how farfetched, contradictory, or disputed by witnesses, and routinely granting the self-defense argument for the shooting of fleeing unarmed youths, she’s not really expecting much. On her civil suit, she’s still awaiting a response from the City of Anaheim. And the reason she’s filing a civil suit is not so much for the money as because that has to be done before she can file a criminal suit.
Many of us have come to especially admire Donna for her fearlessness, her indestructible sense of humor, and the fact that she’s come to see her family tragedy in a larger social and political framework. Here she is at the last Anaheim Council meeting, preparing to speak out against the $158 million Gardenwalk Giveaway – this is a couple months after being scolded by Councilwoman Gail Eastman that “YOU PEOPLE” just don’t understand that the City CAN’T AFFORD to provide the park spaces and community centers that Anaheim’s poor neighborhoods have been asking for for decades.
Within the next week or two, Donna will be organizing an Anaheim Copwatch in the Güinida neighborhood, with civil rights activists to inform people of their rights, and with our videographer Sinnah Back instructing people on the use of UStream – as long as you have a smart phone, the video you take goes straight to your account on the internet, and can’t be destroyed by your phone being confiscated! Keep your eyes on this blog…
Donna at last Tuesday’s Gardenwalk Giveaway, Anaheim Council meeting. Picture by Gabriel San Roman.
Kelly Phillips – these days, patrolling without a name tag.
Donna and Joey Acevedo in happier times.
by Gabriel San Roman [blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/01/martin_angel_hernandez_anaheim_hurtado.php]:
The Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) has concluded there is to be no "criminal culpability" in the fatal officer-involved shooting of 21-year-old Martin Angel Hernandez on March 6, 2012 in Anaheim, and that "there is substantial evidence" that the officer involved "acted reasonably under the circumstances when he shot and killed Martin Hernandez."
Martin Hernandez:
Wakefield Alley where the officer-involved shooting occurred:
A letter dated Monday and addressed to Anaheim Police Chief John Welter outlined the findings of the nine-page report released ten months after the killing occurred.
The controversial shooting set off a wave of protests in the Wakefield neighborhood near the Anaheim GardenWalk where it occurred, and was a precursor to the simmering unrest in the city that boiled over in July.
As the investigation recounts, officers responded to a 911 call on the night of March 6, claiming that five or six males--two armed--were standing outside a white car shouting their gang affiliations in the alleyway of an apartment complex off of East Wakefield Street.
Anaheim police officers Dan Hurtado, Ray Drabek and Mike Brannigan responded, and approached the alleyway on foot. Hurtado positioned himself at the west end armed with a Bushmaster AR 15 semi-automatic rifle; Drabek and Brannigan attempted to seal off the east end of the alley. As was mentioned before by Chief Welter at a tension-filled meeting held at the Ponderosa Elementary School Library weeks after the shooting, the police version holds that a male riding a bike and another, Hernandez, running beside him carrying a shotgun, were headed towards the west end.
As the bicyclist fled, Officer Hurtado left his cover, pointed his rifle and yelled a police command out for Hernandez to stop. The report says that Hernandez stopped and changed directions within 10 yards of the armed officer--but that's not when the shooting occurred. Strange...
Hurtado told OCDA investigators that Hernandez turned towards a blue Dumpster positioned near a wall topped with barbed wire fencing. The officer says that he initially thought that Hernandez was going to jump over the wall and flee into an adjacent mobile home park. Hurtado said he feared for his life when he claimed that Hernandez moved a shotgun so that it eventually pointed his way, but the report doesn't specify if Hernandez did this on purpose, or accidentally. Nevertheless, Hurtado fired three rifle shots; one struck Hernandez in the head. The shotgun was said to have been laying four to five feet to the side of Hernandez's body.
OCDA investigators interviewed nearly sixty witnesses by their own account, but the testimony of only two were included in the final report. A woman identified as Witness #1 was in the alley at the time of the confrontation. She noted that she caught a glimpse of the two men running by but didn't see anything in their hands. Aside from that, she corroborated that Hurtado issued commands to Hernandez.
The other interesting part of the report involves cameras. At the March meeting, angry residents demanded to know where they were and what they showed. "As far as the cameras go, the District Attorney, most likely, has those," Welter said at the time. "I'll be very interested to know what the cameras revealed." But Caroline Toneygay, the mother of Martin Hernandez, told the Weekly last July that an OCDA investigator gave her the run around saying there were no videos nor any surveillance footage of the shooting.
The final report says nothing of any cameras, opting instead to mention that a resident identified as Witness #2 captured cellphone footage in the aftermath purportedly showing Hernandez lying down, bleeding to death, with a shotgun a few feet away.
The justification is the second is as many months for Anaheim police after Officer Nick Bennallack, named in a $50 million civil rights lawsuit in the officer-involved killing of Manuel Diaz, was cleared in late December of any criminal culpability in the shooting death of Bernie Villegas.
A gathering at the Wakefield alley is already set to take place to mark the first anniversary of his death in March. You can read the DA's report in its entirety by clicking on the appropriate links on the "Investigative Letters" page of the DA's website.
"Anaheim Protests Locked Down"
2012-07-30 from "RT News":
"Anaheim Police Protest July 29 Names & Badges"
2012-07-30 upload by "sweet1leaf" [www.youtube.com/watch?v=liKohrmX3AA]:
This is a combination of multiple videos, so that we could get an acting inventory of the mounted police units. This way we can have accountability.
2013-07-26 "Anaheim Police Shooting Desmadre Theresa Smith, Mother of Caesar Cruz Shot by Anaheim Police in 2009, Speaks Out About Riots"
by Amber Stephens [http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/theresa_smith_caesar_cruz.php]:
Theresa Smith has been peacefully demonstrating outside of the Anaheim Police Department ever since her son, 35-year-old father of five Caesar Cruz, was shot by Anaheim Police on Dec. 11, 2009. Since the weekend, the city has seen protests and civil unrest as residents have taken to the streets after two fatal Anaheim officer-involved shootings in two days.
OC Weekly covered Smith's weekly protests last month as she was gaining more support from families affected by officer-involved shootings. Smith has also been active in organizing support for police accountability and transparency through her non-profit startup LEAN (Law Enforcement Accountability Network). With the recent uprising, she says she is staying away from the escalating demonstrations as they reflect a type of protest does not condone.
"I don't want to be a part of that, it is not and never has been my style," said Smith. "I am going to keep doing what I am doing. There has to be change, but not the way it's going down right now."
Smith has a support group where she invites families affected by officer-involved shootings on a weekly basis to her residence for guidance during the grieving process. With Smith's networking, she is able to reach out to families within days of fatal shootings.
With the weekend shootings, she didn't have to go far to get in touch with the families affected. As Lupe Diaz, the sister of Manuel Diaz who was shot dead by police on Saturday, spoke to reporters outside of the Anaheim Police Department demonstration on Sunday, Smith held her hand and gave her a comforting embrace as Diaz wept in her arms.
Donna Castro, the mother of Joel Acevedo who slain by police on Sunday, is a friend of one of Smith's family members. Smith has been in contact with her, along with Diaz's family, to offer support and guide them through the legal implications of their respective cases.
Smith says she is disheartened by the recent vandalism of protesters, along with other families who have lost loved ones to officer-involved shootings.
"All of us mothers feel the same way, we don't want the violence," she said. "I understand the aggravation and anger [with the recent protesters] because they are extremely upset about what's going on. But that's not the way to do it."
Despite the unfortunate circumstances, Smith now has the attention of local authorities she did not have before. During a July 25 meeting with community organizers, Mayor Tom Tait stepped in to speak with her.
Mayor Tait has called on the California Attorney General and the Fedeal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to do an investigation into the recent shootings. It was the first time Smith had the opportunity to speak with the mayor, who also wanted to meet with her personally in the coming days.
"I told him what families go through everytime this happens, how there is a lack of police accountability and transparency on top the grieving they are experiencing," said Smith. "He seemed very impressed with what I had to say."
Smith has received support from other local community leaders for a peaceful solution to end the senseless violence on both sides. She said she optimistic, but patient about the positive direction forward. Smith is also pushing for families to have an active role in the investigations the city has proposed.
"Change is not going to happen right away," she said. "Everyone wants a microwave-timed solution but that's not how it works. There has to be change within the entire department, from police harassment to how they handle gangs. It's a long process and everything takes time."
2012-07-23 "Two officers put on leave after police-involved shooting leaves one dead in Anaheim; The death of Manuel Angel Diaz prompted a near riot Saturday night and protests continued Sunday"
by Meena Hart Duerson from "New York Daily News" [nydailynews.com/news/national/officers-put-leave-police-involved-shooting-leaves-dead-anaheim-article-1.1120125]:
Two police officers in Anaheim, Calif., have been placed on paid leave after being involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man on Saturday that has sparked near-riots in Orange County.
The officers were given three days off “so they can just have time to power down,” a sergeant in the Anaheim Police Department told the Daily News, adding the move is “not any kind of discipline action, it’s just a normal procedure after anyone was involved in a shooting.”
Angry protests in the neighborhood began following the shooting on Saturday, which occurred after police officers spotted three men talking in an alley they believed to be acting “suspicious.”
When the officers tried to approach them, the men took off on foot, one throwing “unidentified objects onto rooftops as he ran,” police told the Orange County Register [ocregister.com/news/police-364905-dunn-anaheim.html].
The man, who was unarmed, was shot by police and died at 7 p.m. at a local hospital.
He has been identified by his family as 25-year-old Manuel Angel Diaz.
Police described Diaz as a "documented gang member" according to the Register, and said the men’s behavior was deemed “suspicious.”
Officers stayed in the area on Saturday after the shooting and were confronted by a crowd of roughly 100 protesters, according to CBS News, who circled them and began throwing things, according to police [cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57477700/more-protests-after-deadly-police-shooting-in-anaheim/].
The officers responded by firing rounds of rubber bullets, bean bags and pepper spray into the crowd.
Some of the chaos was caught on tape by KCAL-TV, including the moment a police dog escaped its handler and began chasing people, ultimately biting one man.
"We are extremely sorry for the people who were bit," Police Chief John Welter said in a press conference on Sunday. "The city will be responsible for all medical bills associated with the dog. The canine officer responsible for the dog is devastated by this."
The protests continued on Sunday night, during which a dumpster was repeatedly set on fire and pushed into the street. Five people were arrested.
Welter defended his officers’ actions in a press conference on Sunday, saying, "I don't have a problem with people exercising their First Amendment rights ... I do have a problem when people start throwing bottles and rocks at my officers."
"Officers in this situation can't retreat," he reportedly said. "If we would have abandoned the scene, we would not be doing our job."
The climate in the area was already tense between police and civilians, the Los Angeles Times reported [latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/07/anaheim-police-shooting.html], and families of victims killed in police-involved shootings have held weekly protests at the police department for the last two years. City officials said in June they were going to launch an independent review into these "major police incidents.”
On Sunday, Mayor Tom Tait vowed the city and the police department were working to find out exactly what had happened.
“As with many people, I viewed the events and was very, very concerned with what I saw,” he said, according to the Register. "I’m asking for a full investigation...Transparency is essential. Whatever the truth is, we will own it."
But that’s not enough for the victim’s sister Lupe Diaz, who maintains her brother did nothing wrong and was "just hanging out with friends” when police shot him.
"There is no explanation," she told the Register. "It's not fair.”
On Sunday night another man was killed in an officer-involved shooting in Anaheim when police shot a suspect in a stolen car chase.
---
Activist Marlena Carrillo shouts at police inside the Anaheim Police Department Sunday. (MINDY SCHAUER/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
"Containing a Rebellion: Leaked Anaheim PD Report Labels Working-Class Mexican Neighborhoods as "Hot Zones" [http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2012/08/containing-a-rebellion-leaked-anaheim-pd-report-labels-working-class-mexican-neighborhoods-as-hot-zones/]
Take these racists cops money away... If a recipient of federal assistance is found to have discriminated and voluntary compliance cannot be achieved, the federal agency providing the assistance should either initiate fund termination proceedings or refer the matter to the Department of Justice for appropriate legal action. Aggrieved individuals may file administrative complaints with the federal agency that provides funds to a recipient, or the individuals may file suit for appropriate relief in federal court. Title VI itself prohibits intentional discrimination. However, most funding agencies have regulations implementing Title VI that prohibit recipient practices that have the effect of discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
2012-07-21 "Near Riot Breaks Out After Officer-Involved Shooting In Anaheim" from "CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc."
[http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/07/21/officer-involved-shooting-reported-in-anaheim/]:
ANAHEIM (CBS/AP) — A police shooting that left a man dead led to a near riot Saturday as angry witnesses threw bottles at officers who responded with tear gas and beanbag rounds.
The man was shot around 4 p.m. in front of an apartment complex on the 600 block of North Anna Drive following a foot chase, Anaheim Sgt. Bob Dunn said. He died three hours later at a hospital.
The Orange County Register cited family members and neighbors who said the man shot was Manuel Diaz. Dunn said he could not confirm the man’s name early Sunday.
His niece, 16-year-old Daisy Gonzalez, said her uncle likely ran away from officers when they approached him because of his past experience with law enforcement. “He (doesn’t) like cops. He never liked them because all they do is harass and arrest anyone,” Gonzalez said.
Residents, protesting what they say is an increased police violence against them in the community, started the near riot after the shooting on nearby La Palma.
Crystal Ventura, a 17-year-old who witnessed the shooting, told the Register the man had his back to the officer. She said the man was shot in the buttocks area. The man then went down on his knees, and she said he was struck by another bullet in the head. Another officer handcuffed the man who by then was on the ground and not moving, Ventura said.
“They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in his head, and I saw blood on his face,” she said.
Dunn said he could not comment on these allegations because the shooting is under investigation.
Jay Jackson, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, said Saturday night’s scene was chaotic.
The residents blocked off a street and set fire to at least one dumpster.
Earlier in the day, police in riot gear, fired rubber bullets into the crowd. Several protesters lifted their shirts to show large red welts on their torsos and backs.
Residents told Jackson that police overreacted and created the disturbance.
One man said, “They just started shooting.”
Police also set a K-9 officer on one woman and a bystander they said were agitating the situation.
Said Susan Lopez, “I had my baby with me. My baby! The dog scratched me and then grabbed me.” She added, “They shot at me while I was holding a baby!” Another woman yelled, “They just shot at us, they shot at a little kid, too.”
According to police, two patrol officers observed three male suspects in an alley.
Police said the suspects tried to flee on foot when a chase ensued.
The shooting reportedly occurred after one of the officers encountered one of the suspects in a courtyard.
No officers were injured.
The other two suspects are at-large.
Dunn said, “What exactly led to the shooting, we don’t know. We’re still investigating. But a shooting did occur. And the male was taken to a hospital.”
Authorities said the circumstances regarding the shooting were under investigation by members of the gangs unit and Orange County District Attorney’s office.
Four people told Jackson that police offered to buy their cell phone video.
Video-still showing Anaheim Police attempting to intimidate the protesters by initially arriving as if prepared for a militarized engagement:
Video-still showing an Anaheim Police officer firing his shotgun at a crowd:
Video-still showing the people being shot at by Anaheim Police officer in the previous video-still:
Video-still showing Anaheim Police officer shooting his shotgun at people, and a single man standing up for himself and the People:
Video-still showing Anaheim Police officer pointing his shotgun at a woman:
Video-still showing Anaheim Police dog being used to terrorize and injure a protester:
Video-still showing Anaheim Police officer snatching a non-violent protester off the street:
Video-still showing the wounds on a victim of rubber-coated bullets fired at them by Anaheim Police:
Susan Lopez describes how Anaheim Police sent their dogs after her baby, and how the police shot a child:
Video-stills showing Anaheim Police and their dog attacking Susan Lopez and her baby:
Anaheim Police shoot children!
Photo of a rubber bullet wound by @MikePrysner
Filming Cops [http://www.facebook.com/FilmingCops]:
Riots have started in response. Cops tried to buy the video from filmers to cover up their rampage. The filmers released the video anyway: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MST4RhWdlMQ]. The communities of Anaheim are mobilizing
2012-07-22 "SHOCKING : CALIFORNIA COPS OPEN FIRE ON MEN - WOMEN - CHILDREN - BABIES" upload to "Youtube.com" by alielbaryeshua [youtube.com/user/alielbaryeshua]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MST4RhWdlMQ]:
Cops shot non-lethal rounds toward men, women and children and unleashed a dog who charged toward a stroller during a clash with mostly Latino residents in Anaheim following an officer-involved shooting there.
2012-07-22 "Anaheim police terrorize women and children" upload to "Youtube.com" by jubjubmh316 [youtube.com/user/jubjubmh316]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FULxRvGBgmc]:
SHARE THIS EVERYWHERE Cops murder man, then attack community members with rubber bullets, even sicking a dog on a women holding her baby
Protesters demonstrated outside of the Anaheim Police department after footage surfaced of Anaheim Police firing less-than-lethal weapons on residents who were demanding answers after an officer-involved shooting. Theresa Smith has been protesting outside of the department since her son Caesar Cruz was shot by Anaheim Police in 2009. Her protests did not gain momentum until demonstrators from the Justice for Kelly Thomas protests in Fullerton started to join her the past year. Read more about her protests here: [http://www.ocweekly.com/2012-06-21/news/caesar-cruz-anaheim-police-department/]
2012-07-22 "The Anaheim Anti-Police Riot, A Love Story" by "@RobtheIdealist" from "Orchestrated Pulse"
[http://www.orchestratedpulse.com/2012/07/anaaheim-riot-police-love/]:
Do we need to start a riot? Ordinarily we focus on the police after they kill someone, but I’m not going to do that. Fuck them. The central figures in this story are the friends, neighbors, and community members that came together and stood up against the latest act of murderous police aggression. This story is about community, specifically a neighborhood filled with people of color (Shout out to the Latino homies). They watched the police kill a man [http://www.ocregister.com/news/dunn-364896-officer-police.html], a member of the community, and their anger swelled as he lay motionless in a grass-covered yard.
Crystal Ventura, a 17-year-old who lives in the neighborhood, said she saw the shooting from about 20 feet away. She said the man had his back to the officer. She said the man was shot in the buttocks area. The man then went down on his knees, and she said he was struck by another bullet in the head. Another officer handcuffed the man who by then was on the ground and not moving, Ventura added. ”They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in his head, and I saw blood on his face,” she said.
Soon anger turned to action. EVERYONE came outside, disturbing the illusion of peace for a little afternoon insurrection.
Everyone in the community lived that day, if only for a few moments, as if they themselves had the power to stop the police from terrorizing their neighborhood. The key for liberation isn’t protest, but it’s acting as if we already live in the world we want to see. Kids were with their parents, neighbors joined neighbors, and the whole community found themselves in the street together. “If you want real insight into love, participate in a riot” [http://freelyassociating.org/what-is-a-life/], and love took the streets Saturday afternoon in Anaheim. Love pushed a dumpster and trash can into the street and set them on fire. Love threw rocks and bottles at the police to force them from the neighborhood they had just recklessly shot up. Love is a riot.
For those who believe this moment wasn’t for kids, the children were there when the police burst into the neighborhood while firing the shots that killed a man. I applaud their parents for bringing them out so that their voices could join their community in the struggle to stop the reckless and needless police violence. Children know pain, they know anger, and they know injustice; the insurrection is theirs as well.
Daisy Gonzalez, 16, identified her uncle as the man shot by police .She and others said his name was Manuel Diaz. She said he likely ran away from officers when they approached him because of his past experience with law enforcement. “He (doesn’t) like cops. He never liked them because all they do is harass and arrest anyone,” Gonzalez said after lighting a candle for her uncle. She cursed at the police who were nearby and a police helicopter that hovered above, flashing a spotlight on the neighborhood.
I began with an homage to the community instead of explaining the police misconduct that followed the uprising because the police don’t deserve to be the central figures in this story. This is a love story, and love stories are often tragedies. Upon taking the streets, the police would respond with attack dogs and “less than lethal” bullets. They maimed and wounded anyone in the vicinity, including using an attack dog against a mother holding her baby while standing next to her stroller.
Though their stand lasted less than an afternoon, and it ended with the sting of bites and bullets, their insurrection is not the end of the resistance. It is just the latest moment in a tidal wave of consciousness that threatens to expose the fraudulent underpinnings of this nation’s legal system. The police killing a person of color almost everyday [http://mxgm.org/report-on-the-extrajudicial-killings-of-110-black-people/] while waging an expensive and pointless “War on Drugs” didn’t save those people in that Colorado theater. Yet, they spend much of their time enforcing arcane, ineffective and racially biased drug laws. It should be abundantly clear that these reckless cowboys don’t keep us safe. In fact, it turns out that not all police departments in the world “protect” citizens by filling them with bullets. Police in Germany, as in the nation with over 81 million people, only fired 85 bullets directed at people in all of 2011 [http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/05/german-police-used-only-85-bullets-against-people-2011/52162/].
According to Germany’s Der Spiegel , German police shot only 85 bullets in all of 2011, a stark reminder that not every country is as gun-crazy as the U.S. of A. As Boing Boing translates , most of those shots weren’t even aimed anyone: “49 warning shots, 36 shots on suspects. 15 persons were injured, 6 were killed.”
However, this insurrection was not without warning; there have been weekly demonstrations at the police-station in honor of those killed by Anaheim police [http://www.ocweekly.com/2012-06-21/news/caesar-cruz-anaheim-police-department/].
Theresa Smith has organized weekly protests outside the police department on Harbor Boulevard with friends and family members, all of whom are demanding answers about what really happened that day. She has encouraged other families affected by officer-involved shootings in Anaheim to join her protest, but, she says, they’ve mostly refused because they fear police retaliation. But after the brutal July 5, 2011, beating death of Kelly Thomas at the hands of Fullerton police officers gave energy to critics of police brutality in Orange County, word has spread about Smith’s crusade.
For the past several weeks, from a dozen to 20 people can be found every Monday evening on the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Broadway Avenue, waving signs and chanting, “Shame on APD!” Corie Cline has been going to the protests for about three months; her brother Joe Whitehouse was killed by Anaheim police in 2007. She brings along her 5-year-old son, who cheerfully joins in the chants, shouting, “Shame on the Anaheim police!” and, echoing the popular Occupy chant, “Whose streets? Our streets!”
The Anaheim police are responsible for six shootings already this year. Justin Hertl, killed by Anaheim police in 2003, is one of the many deaths to catalyze the burgeoning anti-police violence movement.
Justin Hertl was walking his grandmother Barbara Kordiak to her car when he was shot by undercover Anaheim detectives on Nov. 14, 2003, after the police received information about a stolen car, possibly from Hertl’s girlfriend, with whom he had just been fighting. Kordiak alleges that police came up behind her and that one of them yelled, “Gun!” The next thing she knew, three shots had rung out and her grandson was lying on the ground bleeding. A fourth shot, she claims, killed him.
Justin Hertl’s mother and many other community members spoke out at a recent City Council meeting.
Jaclyn Conroy, aunt of Justin Hertl shot by Anaheim Police in 2003, listed off over a half dozen individuals shot by Anaheim Police, including the recent fatal shootings of Marcel Cejas, Roscoe Cambridge, David Rayas and Martin Hernandez. There have been six officer-involved shootings by Anaheim Police this year so far. “I have come to you people before begging you, please look into the corruption of the Anaheim Police Department and nothing was done,” she said. “How many bodies have to pile up before someone speaks up? If it were your child, I guarantee you’d be looking into this.”
So, the neighborhood at the corner of East La Palma Avenue and Anna Drive did not spontaneously erupt into violence. The people were living on top of a police-fueled powder keg. They had been demonstrating, they went to council meetings, and yet the killing continued. This wanton murder is not necessary and it’s not protecting us. So, they rose up in the name of not just the man shot on Saturday, but the numerous other victims of police brutality as well. When the young girl cursed at the police as she was retelling the story of her Uncle’s murder, it was love and not hate that fueled her indignation. Love is a force. Last week, Jasiri X released a song called “Do We Need to Start A Riot”, and the answer for this Anaheim community was yes.
In the words of KRS-One, Love Is Gonna Get You [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtrNj47u1D8].
UPDATE: This is the Facebook page for the next rally at the Anaheim police station, [http://www.facebook.com/events/344828062262298]
UPDATE 2: There was a demonstration today at the police station, here is an eyewitness account [http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2012/07/100-demonstrators-protest-anaheim-police-actions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=100-demonstrators-protest-anaheim-police-actions]
Update 3: Footage of Saturday’s riot, and Sunday’s demonstration at the police station: [http://laist.com/2012/07/22/anaheim_police_fire_rubber_bullets.php#photo-1]
2012-07-22 "100+ Demonstrators Protest Anaheim Police Actions" by Greg Diamond[http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2012/07/100-demonstrators-protest-anaheim-police-actions/]:
Demonstrators outside of Anaheim Police Department following Police Shootings (Photo courtesy of Occupy Phil.)
Every Sunday afternoon, from 12 until 2, a group of protesters picket outside of the Anaheim Police Department in protest against police brutality. Today, they had a lot of company. People marched, chanted, shouted, got interviewed, held signs, unfurled banners, chalked (without being arrested), and at one point went into the police station itself en masse and yelled at the cops. In the photo below, three or more cops would have been out to the right, from what I could tell blocking an entrance to a back room and looking very unsmiling. That’s not my thing; the people at the desk were not likely the ones who took the bad actions. Still, people gotta vent — and vent they did.
"We have a complaint about your service."
In the wake of the seven-layered atrocity (see below) of yesterday, lots of people showed up to express their displeasure. Libertarian impresario Tony Bushala was there, venturing a couple of miles south of Fullerton, along with Marlena, merijoe (in an Oath Keeper t-shirt), and various other FFFFsters. Jane Rands and Matt Leslie of the Green Party were there. Asmb. Chris Norby even came by briefly. The ANSWER coalition came down from LA, as did the Socialist Liberation Party. A good number of Occupy OC people attended — Phil and Jose, Diana, Amber (although in journalist mode for OC Weekly), me, and I think there were others. Channels 2, 4, and 7 were there. Fox News was, we believe, there in an unmarked van; a wise safety precaution on their part. Several police were sort of there, one watching from an unmarked car, several on the roof. One of the victims of the rubber bullet shooting, with her shirt lifted up to show the maroon tennis-ball-sized round bruise on her side, was there; I understand that the mother of the deceased man (now confirmed to be Manuel “Stomper” Diaz) was there. Some Latinos who didn’t seem to be affiliated with any group were there. Lots of people driving by were there in spirit, honking their support.
You know who, so far as I could tell, wasn’t there? Pretty much anyone from the mainstream of the Democratic or Republican parties. (The closest exception I could find was me, and I’m sure that many in the county Democratic Party don’t consider me an exception.) This was an outsiders’ activity — and I honestly found that incredible, having seen the video from KCAL News. This was the sort of thing that, like the Kelly Thomas video, tends to capture the attention and sympathy of those who watch it.
A few pedestrians and a few people in cars did stop briefly to chat, often just to get briefed on the basics of what happened. I went through the layers of wrongdoing for their benefit:
(1) As of the time of writing, there does not seem to have been cause to stop them in the first place. Maybe the police will come up with something, but as of the morning they had not.
(2) If the police stopped them and they ran, the police did not have to give chase. It’s reasonable for young men of minority status to fear the police.
(3) If police gave chase, they didn’t have to shoot the person to bring him down.
(4) Having shot him and brought him down, they didn’t have to shoot him in the head if he didn’t put his hands behind his back.
(5) They didn’t have to fire rubber bullets or beanbags from a rifle at mostly women and children to break up the protest against police brutality.
(6) They didn’t have to negligently (or “negligently”) allow a dog to escape and bite people.
(7) The didn’t have to try to buy up cell phone video taken of the events.
Oddly enough, the least violent of these — the last one — is the one that seems to have pushed a lot of people over the edge into the pit of pure contempt.. It’s not as bad as shooting the guy in the head or firing rubber bullets at kids, but it seems the least conceivably excusable. (It also brings into question many past actions by the APD — what video evidence of wrongdoing have they suppressed successfully by buying it from witnesses to prior shootings?)
The irony in the second photo about is, of course, the banner above the reception desk stating “Make Kindness Contagious.” I smiled when I saw that and said to myself “You first, Anaheim P.D.” My sense is that lots of others did the same.
Protests will continue next Sunday and at the next Anaheim Council meeting.
UPDATE, 1:15 a.m. 7/23: I can’t recommend highly enough the coverage in the OC Weekly of the events of Sunday, led by the world OJB’s own prodigal niece Amber Stephens. I have had my differences with G. Arellano and others Weeklings recently, but they are more than rising to this occasion — enough so that I feel less obliged to focus on news and more able to focus on analysis. They’re reporting tonight on a tip from Brandon Friedman that one or more dumpsters was back out on La Palma Avenue and on fire tonight, with a group of about 200 residents assembled there. If this is going away on its own, it won’t be soon; this has the feel of the Kelly Thomas killing redux. Shooting into the crowd crossed the line. (I hope that this sort of citizenry enraging police brutality event doesn’t become an annual “July in OC” ritual.)
I’m not going to repeat their reporting here — just click the link — but so far it looks like Lori Galloway and Tom Tait are in the lead for the Sharon Quirk-Silva and Bruce Whitaker roles in this City Council drama; we’ll see if the other councilmembers want to audition for the less savory roles.
2012-07-23 "Anaheim community attacked by police—the people fight back; People abandon fear, confront police" by Doug Kauffman from "Liberation" Newspaper
[http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/anaheim-police-attack.html]:
The writer was on the scene within fourteen hours of the incident interviewing victims, witnesses, and activists.
For a brief moment on the evening of July 21, the people of a small Latino community in Anaheim, California came together, abandoned their fear of the police and fought back in self-defense.
The bourgeois media has attempted to paint the incident as an “unruly riot” and the crowd as “gang members” but these characterizations could not be further from the truth. A video released by KCAL the night of the incident shows a crowd of working families, mostly women and children, being shot with rubber bullets and bean bags as a vicious dog is unleashed on them by dozens of police officers. Nearly two dozen people were injured and five were arrested during the assault from Anaheim Police.
Manuel Diaz, another victim of police terror -
The crowd of families, nearly 100 people, had come out to protest the murder of 24 year-old Manuel Diaz, an unarmed man, by Anaheim police just a few hours before.
Manuel Diaz had grown up in the neighborhood and was visiting his friends’ house to help move some furniture when the incident occurred. Police and media in the initial reports have claimed that Manuel was in an alleyway with two other ‘suspects’ when he fled on foot for over a block before being shot in the front courtyard of an apartment complex on the 700 block of North Anna Drive.
But witnesses have come forward to Liberation News and said that this entire story in the press is a fabrication. Crystal Ventura, whose partner was bit by the dog during the assault, was standing outside with her mother and her sister-in-law and witnessed the incident. Ventura told Liberation News, “Manuel was standing in front of an apartment complex. He hopped the fence to the next building and was shot in the buttocks. Then he fell on his knees and they shot him in the head.”
Another resident, Susan Lopez, said, “He was shot from about 10 feet away. He wasn’t being chased and he wasn’t in an alley, he was just standing here.”
A video released anonymously to the OC Weekly shows officers pushing witnesses back and setting up a perimeter as Diaz was still moving. Not one officer is seen attempting to save his life or provide any type of medical attention, even as neighbors shout “He’s still alive!” at the police. Instead, they handcuffed and searched his pockets as he bled to death from the wound to his head. In the final seconds of the video, officers flip him over. His head was covered in blood visible from over 50 feet away.
Memorial in front of courtyard where Manuel Diaz was killed, Anaheim, California. Photo: Doug Kauffman
Racism is police policy, tactics -
The police and media have been careful to repeat the word “suspect” ritualistically. But the fact is that there were not two other “suspects” who “got away” nor was Diaz a “suspect” in any logical sense of the word. This language is intentionally misleading because there was never any crime committed. What the police mean by this word is that Diaz was a young Latino man in a working class neighborhood. His ethnicity and environment made him a target for the harassment that is a daily occurrence in the neighborhood surrounding North Anna Drive in Anaheim. The police acted as judge, jury and executioner.
Another man from the area and a friend of the victim, Danny Arechiga, told Liberation News, “Police in Anaheim, around here, are always racially profiling us because we’re Hispanic. They pull Hispanic men over here all the time because of the way we look. I’ve nearly been shot multiple times by police in Anaheim and Fullerton.”
With young Black and Latino males a majority of those killed by police, and the disproportionate rates of sentencing, incarceration and capital punishment, the “justice” system in the United States should more aptly be named the “genocide” system. This systemic racism starts with the open policy or tacit tactic of racial profiling practiced by every police department in the U.S.
Racism is deeply rooted in the origins of policing in the United States as the first police departments were originally tasked with harassing slaves on plantations or capturing and returning “fugitive” slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act. Not much has changed as police are still heavily concentrated in the poorest communities to prevent open rebellion through constant intimidation.
Susan Lopez told Liberation News she was harassed by Anaheim police after the shooting as she attempted to walk home around the police cordon when a white male officer said to her in a hostile tone, “Hola.” She responded by saying that she could speak English perfectly and the cop simply laughed at her.
And when the system of harassment and intimidation breaks down due to unafraid workers and bereaved loved ones fighting back the cops frequently respond with increased intimidation tactics. One victim who has been very vocal, Yesenia Rojas, told Liberation News, “I know cops are going to come after us. I feel like we need to move because the cops will come back.”
Anaheim fights back -
Residents who were tired of constant harassment and outraged at the injustice of Diaz's brutal murder on their block poured into the streets demanding answers from police. Community members were peacefully demonstrating in their front lawns when the police without warning opened fire into the crowd with beanbag shotguns, rubber bullets and pepper-spray bullets.
Junior Lagunas, the young man shown being bitten on the arm by the police dog in the original KCAL footage, described to Liberation News the moments leading up to the confrontation: “One man was walking with his son, a toddler, and was suddenly grabbed from behind by multiple officers. They slammed him against a light pole and then slammed him on the ground and started kicking him. I went to help his son and a few seconds later they started shooting at us without warning and telling us to get down. I had my two year-old son with me and tipped over his stroller and covered him up on the ground. Right after I handed him off to my wife to get him out of there I looked up and had to raise my arm to stop the dog from biting me in the face.” Yesenia Rojas, Lagunas's mother, witnessed the violence, ran toward her son and was shot twice with “less-than-lethal” rounds in her arm and abdomen.
Elizabeth Aguilar, 19, was shot in the arm at close range when she lunged forward to strike the dog that had initially charged toward Susan Lopez’s baby inside a stroller just before latching on to Lagunas's forearm. Aguilar's father was shot three times and had to go to the hospital.
In all, more than 15 people were shot, some multiple times, and many people were hurt from inhaling the pepper spray used on the crowd. Lopez told Liberation News, “About five to six victims were children ranging in age from about 4 to about 13 years old.”
The original footage shows a boy around 12 years old who was carried away by neighbors because he was unable to walk due to a wound to his leg. A young girl under the age of 10 was shot in the face and is believed to have suffered damage to her eye.
Residents at some point responded militantly by lighting a dumpster on fire and throwing an assortment of debris. It is important to understand this response in context however and not to paint what happened as a “riot”. These actions were in self-defense as the community was assaulted by Anaheim police who have had a history of harassing the neighborhood.
It was a momentary glimpse into the inevitable future outcome of the ongoing police brutality epidemic—rebellion. This very same light flickered when Oscar Grant and Manuel Jamines were murdered as well as the recent response from L.A. residents to repression of the Chalk Walk demonstration.
When the naked injustice and brute force of the state becomes obvious during these incidents, the system itself is exposed and the credibility of its enforcers is undermined to such a degree that people abandon their fear and fight back. History has proven this in southern California alone in Watts, Silverlake, and South Central in 1965, 1967, and 1992, respectively.
Elizabeth Aguilar lunged to save a baby by hitting the police dog and was shot point blank. Here she shows her injury, Anaheim,July 22. Photo: Doug Kauffman
Attempted cover-up -
In order to quell the increasingly inevitable rebellion the police in departments around the country resort to attempted cover-ups and Anaheim is no exception despite the fact that they are arguably the least effective department in recent history.
The Anaheim police bribed residents with money for cell phone footage of the incident in an obvious attempt to prevent the facts from coming to light. Community members refused to hand over the footage and over the next few days we can anticipate finding more videos released that tell the truth.
Anaheim police also visited victims in the hospital. Junior Lagunas told Liberation News, “One of the cops came and tried to tell me that the dog had been let loose on accident but other people from the neighborhood saw them let the dog out of the car.”
All the while, Sgt. Bob Dunn and Chief John Welter of APD have consistently downplayed the facts of the story and recently handed off responsibility for public relations to the District Attorney. This move illustrates clearly that the Anaheim police fear any further self-incrimination.
Getting organized
Members of an ad-hoc coalition of families of those murdered by APD and concerned residents who have held weekly demonstrations in Anaheim were on the scene the night of the incident and invited the community for their regular Sunday demonstration at noon. The ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation mobilized for this demonstration along with members of Kelly’s Army (Kelly Thomas, killed by Fullerton Police Department), Nidas Rydas (Mike Nida, killed by Downey Police Department), Occupy Santa Ana, and other organizations from throughout southern California.
At the July 22 protest, a woman who had been shot with rubber bullets by Anaheim police the day before, and the young sisters of a boy mauled by a police dog, led the demonstration of about 50 people into the police headquarters. With the victims and family members bravely facing off against a line of police, protesters chanted “Cowards, shame on you!” They militantly took over the police station for over an hour.
Protesters took over Anaheim police station for over an hour, July 22. Photo: Doug Kauffma
Another killing follows -
In a tragic turn of events, yet another resident was killed by Anaheim police at night on July 22. Witnesses say the victim was already detained when he was shot. The community again responded in protest, with about 200 people rallying until about 4 AM.
More protests are planned in Anaheim in the coming days.
2012-07-22-1420 photograph by Michael Prysner posted to "Facebook.com":
Update: About 50 of us, led by families and children attacked by cops, entered Anaheim police station and protested for a hour, chanting " COWARDS, SHAME ON YOU"
2012-07-22 "Anaheim Police Fire Rubber Bullets at Crowd After Officer-Involved Shooting [UPDATED: POLICE ADMIT VICTIM UNARMED, OVER 200 PROTESTING SECOND NIGHT] " by Amber Stephens from "OC Weekly" blogs
[http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/anaheim_police_fires_rubber_bullets.php]:
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 21, 10:08 P.M. A chaotic scene erupted in an Anaheim neighborhood on Saturday night when police fired rubber bullets on residents who were gathering near Anna Drive and La Palma Avenue demanding answers after an officer-involved shooting in the neighborhood.
CBS-KCAL reported Anaheim police fired rubber bullets into the crowd of terrified residents, including children, after a gathering of about a hundred angry residents formed.
Video from CBS News shows police unleashing a K-9 dog in front of a group of children and police firing rubber bullets -- seemingly at no one in particular.
Here's the Channel 2 report:
The Orange County Register reported the crowd was throwing rocks and bottles at police. However, several residents told CBS the police created the disturbance by overreacting to the gathering and shooting at residents, including women holding their children in front of their homes. The CBS video shows an officer shooting toward the direction of two children. A dumpster was reportedly moved into the intersection by residents where its contents were burned later in the night.
According to the Register, two patrol officers driving down an alley in the 600 block of North Anna Drive saw three men standing near a vehicle at about 4 p.m. The three men ran away when the officers tried to make contact with them and an officer-involved shooting occured, Sgt. Bob Dunn told the Register. The man has been reported to be dead, and bystanders identified him as Manuel "Stomper" Diaz.
Tensions have been rising in Anaheim over the increase of officer-involved shootings in the city.
A group of protesters have been demonstrating outside of the Anaheim Police Department on a weekly basis against the use excessive deadly force by the department [http://www.ocweekly.com/2012-06-21/news/caesar-cruz-anaheim-police-department/].
Last month, Anaheim City Manager Bob Wingenroth recommended the City Council conduct an independent review into major police incidents, including officer-involved shootings [http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/06/families_demand_action_f.php].
UPDATE, July 22, 8:47 A.M. Gustavo here. We're going to put up user-submitted video as we get it. The following two are taken from the evening, after the already infamous storming of the barrio. This first one is from the corner of Habor Boulevard and La Palma Avenue, about a mile away from the neighborhood where Diaz was killed:
And another, this one on La Palma Avenue just next to St. Anthony Claret Catholic Church, just down the street from the police attack:
UPDATE, 10:47 A.M.: A protest is scheduled for noon today outside the Anaheim police department headquarters off Harbor Boulevard and Broadway. Stay tuned for a dispatch.
Some of the other cases this year involving the Anaheim police killing someone:
*Martin Angel Hernandez, 21-year-old shot in an Anaheim alley.
*Roscoe Cambridge, shot at an Anaheim police department parking lot.
*Bernie Cervantes, killed after walking around with a BB gun
UPDATE, 3:49 P.M.: Here's video of about 50 protestors storming the Anaheim police station. A dispatch is forthcoming...
UPDATE, 9 P.M.: A group of about 60 protesters stormed the Anaheim Police Department lobby a day after cops fired rubber bullets at citizens who'd gathered to protest Saturday's fatal police shooting of a 24-year-old man.
The crowd formed and wanted answers why police killed Manuel Diaz. Two officers are reportedly on leave since the shooting.
Protesters confronting Anaheim Police over officer-involved shootings and police abuse:
Although media reports have quoted the police saying they were responding to bottle throwing, sources have told OC Weekly the riot police came out of nowhere and started to shoot indiscriminately at residents standing outside of their homes.
The weekly protests outside of the department usually only sees a few families affected by officer-involved shootings demonstrating. In a scene reminiscent of the Kelly Thomas protests last year, local Occupy Orange County and Justice for Kelly Thomas activists joined in on the protest as well as groups from Los Angeles, including Occupy LA, ANSWER LA (Act Now to Stop War and Racism Los Angeles) and Struggles United. Demonstrators also chalked protest messages outside of the police department.
Protesters outside of the Anaheim Police Department:
Yesenia Rojas, who was shot by officers with a beanbag gun and frequently showed the bloody bruise that proved it, led the crowd into the headquarters as she chanted "No justice, no peace!" Five police officers blocked the entrance to the back offices as protesters angrily chanted "Police say get back, we say fight back!" and "Justice for Manuel, jail killer cops!"
Rojas can be seen in a CBS video running towards her son, 19-year-old Junior Lagunas, as he was mauled by a K-9 attack dog that got loose [http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/video/7530254-near-riot-follows-anaheim-officer-involved-shooting/]. As she was running to help her son, she was shot by police on her lower stomach. Lagunas was also present at the protest, with a cast on his left arm.
Anaheim City Councilmember Lorri Galloway apologized to a group of demonstrators for not publicly stating what the City Council plans to do about the increase in officer-involved shootings.
"I apologize for myself, I have not come forward enough," she said.
In March, over 100 Ponderosa residents lashed out at police at a community meeting over officer-involved shootings and police harrassment with Galloway, Councilmember Gail Eastman and Mayor Tom Tait in attendance [http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/03/martin_angel_hernandez_police.php].
After the community meeting, Galloway claims private meetings were held and there was an agreement to aggressively seek independent investigations. Three months later, City Manager Bob Wingenroth recommended the City Council get an independent investigator to look into major police incidents.
She said Tait is calling on the California Attorney General to investigate local officer-involved shootings. When asked about a civilian oversight committee, such as proposed in Fullerton, she said the community would have to go to the City Council with a proposal.
Protesters in the neighborhood where police shot and killed Manuel Diaz, and fired less-than-lethal weapons on residents :
Protests continued late Sunday afternoon in the neighborhood where the police riot occurred. Elizabeth Aguilar was shot in her mouth and right arm by less-than-lethal rounds. Her father, Jose Aguilar, was arrested after he was shot with tear bullets.
"He was protecting a lady upstairs and he was shot, three in the back and twice on the arm, then they arrested him." she said.
Sources told OC Weekly that a 16-year-old who was shot and carried by residents in the CBS Video has also been arrested. Five children in the neighborhood were either shot or grazed by less-than-lethal weapons.
Police grabbed Rafael Brito while walking in the street holding a sign earlier this afternoon. He said he was driven by police around the corner and cited for jaywalking.
"They asked me, 'Why are you doing that?'" Brito recalled. "I asked them, 'Why do you keep shooting us?'"
His cousin, Juan Brito, said the neighborhood is disenchanted with the pro-police media distortion of events.
"They are saying everywhere he was a gang member and that he deserved it," Brito said. "If he was, does that give the police the right to kill him? Cops are supposed to lead by example. How are we supposed to look up to them if they keep killing people?"
UPDATE, 9:12 P.M. From Gustavo: Weekly reporter Brandon Ferguson is on the scene and says that more than 200 residents are protesting again near the site of yesterday's melee.
Photograph by Brandon Ferguson/OC Weekly: Dumpster burning near La Palma and Anna streets:
A Dumpster is back on the street and now on fire, and two more were in the streets. Protestors threw glass bottles at officers and also at firefighters on the scene who were there to put out the fire.
Eeriest part: the crowd was chanting most of the night, but when the Dumpster fire started, the chanting crowd became quiet and watched as the city burned.
2012-07-22 "Anaheim Police Department Protested After Killing Unarmed Man" by Amber Stephen from "OC Weekly" [http://www.ocweekly.com/slideshow/anaheim-police-department-protested-after-killing-unarmed-man-37368745]:
Protesters gathered in Anaheim at the Police Department and city streets to demonstrate outrage at the officer-involved killing of an unarmed man yesterday and the subsequent rubber bullet and K9 attack on protesters. All images by Amber Stephens.
2012-07-22 "Anaheim shooting: 2 cops on leave, 1 dead, 5 arrested" By Sonya Quick, Scott Martindale, Fermin Leal, Eric Carpenter and Cindy Carmaco from "Orange County Register"
[http://www.ocregister.com/news/police-364905-dunn-anaheim.html]:
ANAHEIM – Two police officers have been placed on paid leave after one of them fatally shot an unarmed man as he attempted to flee on foot in a residential alleyway, police Chief John Welter said Sunday.
The shooting victim, 25-year-old Manuel Angel Diaz of Santa Ana, was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 7 p.m. Saturday after being shot in the alley a few blocks northeast of downtown Anaheim.
Police described Diaz as a "documented gang member," and said he was shot after the officers saw three men near a car in the 600 block of Anna Drive, near La Palma Avenue and State College Boulevard. Believing the activity to be suspicious, the officers approached the vehicle, and all three men fled on foot.
The officers chased Diaz and observed him throwing unidentified objects onto rooftops as he ran, Welter said. What led one of the officers to shoot Diaz remained under investigation Sunday, Welter said.
Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait said he would be asking California's attorney general to assist in the investigation.
"I'm asking for a full investigation," Tait said at a Sunday news conference. "Transparency is essential. Whatever the truth is, we will own it."
The dead man's sister, Lupe Diaz, said Sunday that her brother was "just hanging out with friends" before the shooting.
"There is no explanation," Diaz said. "It's not fair."
The Orange County District Attorney's Office already has launched its own investigation independent of Anaheim police's, said spokeswoman Susan Schroeder, which is standard protocol for officer-involved shootings that lead to injury or death. At the conclusion of its investigation, the D.A. will either file criminal charges or explain why no charges were filed, she said.
"We don't release any comment until we're done investigating and release that full report," Schroeder said.
As Anaheim city officials held the news conference Sunday afternoon, demonstrators coalesced in the lobby of the Anaheim Police Department headquarters on Harbor Boulevard, chanting messages such as "No justice, no peace," "Justice for Manuel" and "Cops, pigs, murderers" in front of a row of five police officers.
Anaheim police "are not judge, jury and executioner. Nobody is given their due process," said demonstrator Theresa Smith, a community organizer whose son, Caesar Ray Cruz, was fatally shot by Anaheim police in 2010.
"My heart is breaking right now for the mother who lost her son last night," she said. "I'm really hoping we can resolve this in a civil manner."
Sunday's news conference came a day after near-rioting by Anaheim residents protesting what they characterized as a series of senseless, unnecessary officer-involved shooting deaths in Anaheim in recent years.
On Saturday, as demonstrators gathered at the scene of the shooting, Anaheim officers fired bean bags and pepper spray into a crowd of protestors. Welter said Sunday the move was in response to "some known gang members" who had begun throwing bottles and rocks at officers.
Also, Welter said a K-9 police dog accidentally escaped from an officer's vehicle and rushed into the crowd, biting demonstrators in an attack caught on video.
At least one person received medical treatment; it was unclear if anyone else was injured, the chief said Sunday.
"Officers in this situation can't retreat," Welter said, defending the officers' decision to fire at the demonstrators. "If we would have abandoned the scene, we would not be doing our job."
Welter said some in the crowd seemed to be inciting the violence. Five people were arrested – two unidentified minors from Anaheim and Placentia, plus:
•Gabriel Calderon, 20, of Brea, described by police as a "documented gang member" and arrested on suspicion of public consumption of alcohol and later booked on suspicion of murder and street terrorism stemming from a May 2012 gang-related homicide in Anaheim.
•Jose Armando Herrera, 26, of San Bernardino, arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest and described as a "documented gang member."
•Jose Jaime Aguilar Lopez, 46, of Anaheim, arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault and the forceful taking of an individual from the custody of an officer.
"I don't have a problem with people exercising their First Amendment rights," Welter said. "I do have a problem when people start throwing bottles and rocks at my officers."
But Welter apologized Sunday for the K-9 dog that escaped.
"We are extremely sorry for the people who were bit," Welter said. "The city will be responsible for all medical bills associated with the dog. The canine officer responsible for the dog is devastated by this."
Also on Saturday night, a trash bin was lit on fire at least three times and rolled into the middle of the street, blocking traffic. Officers removed the bin each time.
On Sunday, city leaders appealed to the community for calm while they continued to look into what happened.
"We will do everything we can to find the truth about what truly happened out there," Anaheim Councilwoman Lorri Galloway said.
Added the mayor: "As with many people, I viewed the events and was very, very concerned with what I saw."
SATURDAY'S SHOOTING
Anaheim's police chief confirmed Sunday the shooting victim on Anna Drive was unarmed. There were no weapons recovered at the scene that could have belonged to Diaz, Welter said.
Welter said he could not immediately confirm how many shots were fired or precisely where Diaz was shot, other than it was in the 700 block of Anna Drive.
The neighborhood surrounding Anna Drive has experienced escalating gang activity, which is why police have been regularly patrolling the area, he said.
Although just one of the two officers shot at Diaz, both were put on paid administrative leave, Welter said. Their identities were not released.
Diaz was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and died at 7 p.m., Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said. The two other men got away, and the car they were standing next to when the officers approached them was impounded, he said.
A 17-year-old who lives in the neighborhood said she saw the shooting from about 20 feet away. She said Diaz had his back to the officer and was shot in the buttocks area. Diaz went down on his knees, and she said he was struck by another bullet in the head. The other officer handcuffed Diaz, who by then was on the ground and not moving, she added.
"They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in his head, and I saw blood on his face," she said.
(The Register is withholding the girl's name at her family's request, because she is a minor and they are concerned for her safety.)
Police reportedly tried to buy any video taken by witnesses on their cellphones, residents said.
Dunn said he didn't know whether the allegations were true. He said it was unclear whether it's against Anaheim Police Department policy to do so, but said that the agency would investigate.
In the past, Dunn said, officers have asked for cellphone video as evidence, but he said he didn't know of instances where officers would pay for it.
Daisy Gonzalez, 16, who identified herself as Diaz's niece, said her uncle likely ran away from officers when they approached him because of his past experience with law enforcement.
"He (doesn't) like cops. He never liked them because all they do is harass and arrest anyone," Gonzalez said Saturday after lighting a candle for her uncle at the scene of the shooting.
SATURDAY'S MELEE
At the scene of the shooting on Saturday, where about 100 demonstrators had gathered to protest, officers shot bean bags and pepper balls into the crowd after some began throwing rocks and bottles at police.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the officers gave any warning, Dunn said.
Yesenia Rojas, 34, who lives in the neighborhood and knew the man as a "good person," said she was hit by a bean bag, pointing to a red and purple welt on the side of her stomach.
"Why kill this man?" she said.
Rojas said a stroller with her 1-year-old grandson was toppled over and the baby was nearly attacked when the K-9 police dog escaped from its handler.
Throughout the night, police in multiple marked and unmarked squad cars attempted to control the unruly crowd gathered near the shooting scene. Officers cordoned the intersection at East La Palma Avenue and Anna Drive with the same yellow crime-scene tape used by police where the shooting happened.
About 9:30 p.m., an Anaheim police helicopter was observed hovering above the crowd while police on the ground brandished batons and other weapons at the crowd, attempting to keep order.
Some in the crowd reported they had inhaled some of the pepper spray fired by police. Demonstrator Joel Hunt, 21, of Fullerton, who was in the area visiting a friend when the shooting happened, said Saturday night his throat was still burning from the effects of being sprayed.
On Sunday, Elizabeth Aguilar, 19, displayed a welt on her upper right arm where she said she was hit by a bean bag fired by a police officer at close range.
Aguilar said that when the K-9 dog was released on demonstrators, she was struck by a bean bag after trying to hit the dog as it lunged toward a stroller with a baby inside.
Her father was struck three times by bean bags and had to seek treatment at a hospital, she said.
"I thought (the police) are supposed to warn us if they are about to do something like that to clear the crowd," Aguilar said. "But they just started shooting at us.
"I used to look up to the police when I was a kid," she added. "But now I have no respect."
SUNDAY'S PROTEST
On Sunday, about 50 community members and activists staged a march from the scene of the shooting to the Anaheim Police Department's headquarters about two miles away.
Carrying signs that read "Stop the killings" and "You may be next," they entered the front lobby of the police station and chanted through bull horns: "No justice, no peace" and "Shame, shame."
Protesters also created a chalk drawing on the sidewalk outside police headquarters, writing messages such as "Shame on Anaheim P.D."
"I think when you see a community act up like that and lose their fear of police, it's a clear sign that they are angry over an injustice," said demonstrator Doug Kauffman, 24, a Long Beach resident and organizer with the Campaign to Stop Police Violence. "A man was murdered by police on their street. Of course they are angry and are going to protest."
A line of five police officers stood stoically at a doorway that led to the briefing room where Sunday's news conference took place.
Just as the meeting was about to begin, Diaz's family was escorted into the room along with reporters and photographers.
Lupe Diaz, 29, the man's sister, said her brother was unemployed, but had worked in offices and as a general laborer.
"He was a bright soul. Fun. Caring. He'd never hurt a soul," she said. "He had such a big heart."
HISTORY OF COMMUNITY TENSION
Saturday's shooting was the latest by the Anaheim Police Department, which is under scrutiny for several recent officer-involved shootings.
For nearly two years, families of others who have been fatally shot by Anaheim police in recent years have been holding protests at Anaheim police headquarters each Sunday.
Those protests led city officials last month to order an independent investigation of "major police incidents," several of which resulted in suspects being killed.
Galloway said Sunday that city officials were still working to find "a truly independent investigator that can find the truth."
Galloway, who has been on the council for eight years, headed a community initiative that worked to improve conditions in the neighborhood where Saturday's shooting took place.
She said her heart ached when she saw television footage of a police dog overturning a stroller and bean bags being fired at community members.
"I take this very personally because I know many of the people out there and there are a lot of good people in that neighborhood," Galloway said. "And I've also heard their cries about the rampant crime and the need to clean it up.
"I don't know the context of what happened out there yet, and that's why we need to find the truth."
Anaheim police officers arrive at 9:10pm Sunday to deal with a burning dumpster pushed into the middle of La Palma Avenue by protesters. Some residents were still voicing their anger Sunday after a police-involved shooting resulted in the death of Manuel Diaz Saturday.
ANA VENEGAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
2012-07-22 "Protesters storm Anaheim police station in wake of fatal shooting" from "LA Times" blogs
[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/07/protesters-storm-anaheim-police-station.html]:
A group of protesters stormed the lobby of the Anaheim police station Sunday, about half an hour before Police Chief John Welter was scheduled to reveal more details about a fatal officer-involved shooting the night before that sparked a confrontation between an angry crowd and investigators.
Chanting "No justice, no peace" and holding signs that read "Justice for Manuel," a group gathered outside the department at noon, the Orange County Register reported. About an hour later, they were in the lobby.
The group was outside again by about 1:40 p.m., the newspaper reported. It was not immediately clear if the chief's media-only news conference -- originally scheduled for 1:30 -- would still take place.
Tensions were high after Saturday's shooting, which resulted in the death of a man identified by family as Manuel Diaz, the newspaper reported. Authorities have not confirmed the victim's identity.
Anaheim Police Sgt. Bob Dunn told The Times the incident began Saturday when two patrol officers tried to approach three men in an alley in the 600 block of North Anna Drive about 4 p.m.
It was unclear why the officers first approached the men, but Dunn said they gave chase and one of the officers followed one of the men to the front of an apartment complex in the 700 block of North Anna, where the shooting occurred about 4 p.m.
The man was taken to a hospital, where he died about 7 p.m., authorities said.
Police remained at the scene to investigate the shooting, Dunn said, and were encircled by a group of people who began throwing things, including bottles and possibly rocks, at the officers. At one point, the crowd also pushed a dumpster holding burning trash toward police, reports said.
Officers used non-lethal rounds and pepper balls to control the crowd, Dunn said. A police dog also got free from an officer's car and charged at several people before it was pulled back, he added.
Dunn said more details about the incident — including a tally of those detained or injured — would be available at the Sunday news conference.
Last month, city officials announced that an independent review would be conducted into what were described as "major police incidents," the Register reported. The inquiry came on the heels of weekly protests outside the police station, led by relatives of those killed in officer-involved shootings.
Before Saturday's incident, the most two recent fatal shootings involving Anaheim police were in January, the newspaper said.
The Anaheim police "are not judge, jury and executioner," Theresa Smith, whose son was fatally shot by Anaheim police in 2009, told the newspaper before Sunday's protest. "Nobody is given their due process, and it just seems like everything has gotten out of hand."
2012-07-23 "Anaheim Police Department Kill Another Man After Day of Protests [UPDATE: PHOTO OF BODY WITH GUN]" by Amber Stephens from "OC Weekly"
[http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/another_man_possibly_shot_by_a.php]:
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 23, 12:32 A.M.: A source is telling OC Weekly five shots were heard as another man was shot by police and believed to be dead. A resident of the neighborhood off of Guinida neighborhood said the shooting happened off of Guinida Lane and Palm Drive. About 200 protesters are on the scene.
Witnesses have told the source the man was handcuffed, then shot by police. No one is being allowed to take photos, according to the source. When a group tried to take photos from an upstairs apartment, police shined a bright light onto the residents to block the view.
More details to follow; story developing.
UPDATED, 1:15 A.M.: Gustavo here. City News Service is reporting that Anaheim police shot and killed a suspected car thief late last night in the 400 block of West Guinida Lane. The family is on the scene sobbing.
Guinida is the same neighborhood where Anaheim police shot and killed David Raya back in 2011--in fact, tonight's shooting happened just three blocks away. And, of course, all this follows a weekend where police shot an unarmed man to death and went crazy on angry citizens, who responded in kind with burning trash cans.
UPDATE, 2:08 A.M.: Family friends tell the Weekly that the man shot and killed by Anaheim police late Sunday night is Joel Acevedo of Anaheim.
I found out about this via Facebook, as the mother of Acevedo is a friend of mine. After posting about the earlier melees, the mother (whose name I won't mention) wrote, "I was out and about earlier downtown getting dinner and my car washed. It was eerie. The streets seemed a lil too quiet and sad. My heart seemed to race the few times I heard an ambulance and a firetruck zoom by."
Little did she know that they'd be racing toward her son later that night.
The mother is telling me that police won't let her see her dead son. Details to come...
UPDATED, 3:35 A.M.: This is Amber reporting back from the Guinida neighborhood. The scene is calm with only about 20 authorities on the scene and a handful of residents still reeling from the days' events. A source told OC Weekly that Acevedo's family tried to cross police lines to see his body earlier tonight and they were not allowed.
Sgt. Bob Dunn from the Anaheim Police Department said a handgun was found in the silver SUV driven by Acevedo, which was reportedly stolen. Three other occupants were also in the car. Dunn said after police officers engaged in a car pursuit, an occupant of the car shot at police, which led to police to shoot back.
A female resident who lives in the apartments right above where the shooting took place told OC Weekly she heard five consecutive shots, with no apparent gun exchange. Another resident who lives a few blocks down said she heard a loud crash then sirens blaring of at least 20 police cars, which she says drowned out the noise of the apparent gunshots.
UPDATED, 11:00 A.M.: A photo has been released of Acevedo's body with a handgun sitting between his legs. Photo by Scene TV:
2012-07-24 "Police violence in Anaheim, CA: Countersinurgency in Occupied Mexico" from "Uhuru Solidarity Movement"
[http://uhurusolidarity.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/police-violence-in-anaheim-ca-countersinurgency-in-occupied-mexico/]:
The Uhuru Solidarity Movement expresses our deepest outrage at the recent brutal attacks by police against the Mexican community of Anaheim, California.
On July 20th, 2012, Anaheim police shot Manuel Diaz in the head and handcuffed him while he bled to death. When the Mexican community gathered to protest this vicious murder, the police opened fire on women and children and unleashed a police dog on a mother holding her baby.
The horrifying video footage shows children and women screaming as the police fire at them: [video shown elsewhere on this Northbay Uprising webpage]
In an act of courageous resistance, members of the community shut down the street before they were dispresed by the occupying police forces.
On the next day, the Anaheim police shot and murdered yet another Mexican man, Joel Acevedo. Eyewitnesses said that the police handcuffed him and then shot him dead.
Counterinsurgency against the Indigenous people of Occupied Mexico -
USM recognizes that these are not isolated incidents. These acts of police terror represent the continuation of the colonial war against the Indigenous people of Occupied Mexico that has been waged by US imperialism for over a century.
Mexico once encompassed the geographic space currently occupied by the states of Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada, until the land was stolen at gunpoint by the US government in 1850. The Indigenous people refer to this land as Aztlan.
Mexican people are an oppressed nation who suffer the brunt of US colonial white power.
It is the same system of white power that was built on the enslavement of African people and is today sustained by the colonial oppression of the African nation.
It is the same system that killed Oscar Grant, Kenneth Harding, Tyron Lewis, Trayvon Martin, Aiyana Jones and so many others
It is the same system that Lovelle Mixon heroically resisted on March 21, 2009, when he fought back against the colonial police occupation of the African community.
It is the same system that has brought tremendous amounts of wealth to the white community at the expense of the enslavement of Africans and the theft of the land of the Indigenous people, including the Mexicans.
Anaheim is located in Orange County which has a majority white population. You would never see the police shooting at women and children in the white neighborhoods of Orange County. The police are meant to protect the parasitic relationship that exists between white people and oppressed peoples.
Solidarity with African and Mexican Liberation!
The Uhuru Movement has always recognized that Africans and Mexicans are natural allies in the struggle against their common enemy, US imperialism.
The African People’s Socialist Party, which leads the Uhuru Movement, has had a fraternal relationship with the Mexican liberation organization Unión del Barrio for over 25 years.
As one concrete example of the solidarity between the African and Mexican liberation struggles, Unión del Barrio [http://uniondelbarrio.org/laverdad/] will be participating in the Uhuru Freedom Summer Project in Oakland, CA. The OFSP is building programs to further the struggle of African and Mexican people for political power over their own communities, which is the only thing that will truly put an end to colonial attacks by the state.
One of the projects of the Oakland Freedom Summer Project is the Biko Lumumba Free Lunch program which “has already been drawing many children and parents from the impoverished African and Mexican community of East Oakland, coming together for healthy meals, engaging children’s activities and political education for the parents. The program is off to a successful start, reintroducing many families to political life in the Uhuru House,” as reported on Uhuru News [http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=oakland-freedom-summer-project-continues-through-fourth-day].
In solidarity with the struggles of the African and Mexican nations for self-determination and national liberation, USM calls on white people to join the Oakland Freedom Summer Project and take the pledge of solidarity with African people!
Uhuru!
JOIN the Uhuru Solidarity Movement! [http://apscuhuru.org/usm/joinusm.xhtml]
Stop the war on the Mexican and African communities!
Solidarity with the Indigenous people of Occupied Mexico!
Victory to the Mexican people!
Anaheim, CA 7/24
2012-07-24 "Anaheim police try to shoo away protesters; Mom of one weekend victim files $50 million lawsuit" by DOUG IRVING, ERIC CARPENTER, SEAN EMERY and MICHAEL MELLO / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
[http://www.ocregister.com/news/police-365157-shootings-officer.html]:
ANAHEIM About 20 minutes before Tuesday's 5 p.m. City Council meeting, a 200-strong crowd tried to get inside packed City Hall.
They were rebuffed by police officers, who citing fire standards, would not let anyone else into the crowded Council Chambers, where the council held its regular meeting and talked about what the crowd was upset about: two police shootings over the weekend.
A half-dozen officers blocked City Hall's entrance, while the crowd gathered around and hurled obscenities. As the crowd pressed closer, two dozen officers with helmets and batons came out the front door and pushed the protesters back, angering them.
After several minutes, some protesters called for everyone to hit the street.
For the next four-hours-plus, the tug-of-war between protesters and police persisted.
The crowd marched along Anaheim Boulevard to Lincoln Avenue, going into the street and blocking traffic.
Some pounded traffic signs and pulled trash cans into the street, while others pulled back the cans. One man, with a bullhorn, shouted how the protest was to be peaceful. A boy spray-painted a utility box. Some protesters grabbed sand from flower beds, and a traffic cone, and threw then at officers, who showed restraint.
Anaheim P.D. was assisted by officers from Garden Grove, Tustin, Brea, Fullerton and other agencies.
At 7:40, police lined across Broadway, and in front of City Hall, in riot gear. The crowd, now 500 strong and peaceful, stood about. Women will strollers came out to take a look. A church handed out fliers, "Jesus loves you. Come to our church."
At 8 p.m., police, from a helicopter's speaker, told the crowd to leave the Broadway/Anaheim Boulevard intersection or face arrest. Few, if any, budged.
Authorities announced a dispersal order at Anaheim and Broadway shortly before 9 p.m. then released pepper balls at the feet of the protestors, prompting the crowd to move rapidly away.
At press time, most of the crowd seemed to have dispersed. For the latest, go to ocregister.com.
Police took at least two people into custody, one for resisting arrest, said Sgt. Bob Dunn. A fight between demonstrators left one person "significantly injured," but they the victim was expected to survive.
Rocks were thrown at police throughout the protests.
Earlier in the day, the Anaheim Police Association said that the Anaheim officer who fired a fatal shot at an unarmed man this weekend saw some kind of object in the man's waistband and feared it was a weapon.
The association's account, and a $50 million lawsuit filed by the man's mother, offered new details about the shooting that killed 25-year-old Manuel Angel Diaz. An attorney for Diaz's mother said he was shot in the back, then fell to his knees and was shot again in the head.
Police have described Diaz as a known gang member and said he fled on foot down a residential alleyway when officers approached him on Saturday afternoon. They have declined to speak in any more detail about what led to the shooting.
The next day, an Anaheim gang officer shot and killed another man, Joel Mathew Acevedo, 21, in an unrelated incident. Police also described Acevedo as a known gang member and said he opened fire on officers during a foot chase.
The back-to-back shootings have sparked several demonstrations.
"The community is scared and angry," said Joanne Sosa, who helped organize Tuesday's protest. "We don't want violence, we just want those people (in City Hall) to know things need to change."
Diaz was talking with friends when police rolled up and confronted them, according to an attorney representing his mother in her lawsuit against the city. All three ran, and two officers chased Diaz, attorney Dana Douglas said in a statement.
One of the officers had recognized Diaz as a known gang member and saw him holding a "concealed object" in his waistband with both hands, according to the police association. He ignored their orders to stop running, then pulled the object from his waistband and turned toward the officers, the association said.
"Feeling that Diaz was drawing a weapon, the officer opened fire on Diaz to stop the threat," the association said in its statement. Anaheim police said after the shooting that Diaz was not armed; the association declined to say what the object that the officer reported seeing was.
The attorney for Diaz's mother called that account of the shooting an "absolute fabrication." She said Diaz was shot in the back and the back of the head, so it would have been "physically impossible" for him to have turned toward the officers. She also said no witnesses she interviewed had seen Diaz turn.
A city spokeswoman did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Douglas said she also filed a formal claim for damages against the city, a precursor to a lawsuit in state court.
The day after Diaz was killed, a gang investigator patrolling a nearby neighborhood saw a stolen vehicle and tried to pull it over, according to the police association. The driver instead led officers on a short pursuit and crashed; three people got out and ran.
One of them, Acevedo, turned during the chase and fired a handgun at an officer, the police association said. The officer returned fire, killing him. A handgun was recovered next to his body.
Court records show that Acevedo pleaded guilty in 2010 to resisting a peace officer and in 2009 to street terrorism and receiving stolen property. Diaz pleaded guilty in 2011 to drug charges and in 2008 to having a firearm on school grounds, with a street-gang enhancement, records show.
The two shootings in two days brought to six the number of officer-involved shootings in Anaheim so far this year; five were fatal.
Officers fired bean-bag rounds and pepper spray into a group of protesters that had gathered near the scene of the Diaz shooting on Saturday. A police dog also escaped its handler and charged into the crowd.
"It's wrong what the police are doing. It's like it's 'shoot to kill' now," said Pauline Miltimore, who joined Tuesday's protest outside City Hall and said she was Acevedo's cousin. "Even if it doesn't make a difference, I have to (protest). It broke my heart when I found out."
The FBI is reviewing whether a civil-rights investigation is warranted after the two shootings, spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. City leaders have also invited the state Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate.
The District Attorney's Office is investigating both shootings, which is standard protocol for officer-involved shootings.
2012-07-25 "Anaheim Police Use Rubber Bullets During Unrest" from "Associated Press" newswire
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wuTKtsrdXA]:
Amidst raucous protests in Anaheim, California, police deployed rubber bullets and pepper balls to quell a fourth day of unrest overnight Tuesday. (July 25)
Comment from the video's Youtube page:
by Kriswixx: "i guess when you start firing projectiles on a street with glass windows all around, some will hit the windows. Did you see the helicopter channel 2 cut the feed when filming officers picking up spent casings inside the Starbucks? Were you watching the life US streams of the journalists on the street? if not, tune into those next time. I saw a guy unlocking a bicycle get shot point blank in the chest with a shotgun, then get dragged away 3 feet from filmer."
by MartianStories: "Why do you assume that it was the protesters breaking the windows at the coffee shop? Do rubber bullets not break windows? Oh, I know; it doesn't hurt, doesn't make bruises, and doesn't break windows. The protesters are just "pussies" if it hurts when they get shot, right?"
by trex0770: "Great job Anaheim PD and good riddance to another gang banging mother f%$er! Most of these protesting idiots are agitators and only there to clash with police...oh yeah and to loot. These assholes need to be arrested AND deported!"
2012-07-25 "Several Arrested After Anaheim Police Protest Swells Into Streets; Police continued to take demonstrators into custody late Tuesday night" by Samantha Tata and Vikki Vargas from "NBC Los Angeles"
[http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Skirmish-Lines-Attempt-to-Contain-Anaheim-Protests-Police-Shooting-163638466.html]:
Protesters rallied in the streets of Anaheim for several hours Tuesday night in the latest and most confrontational demonstration against recent fatal officer-involved shootings in the southern California city.
A disperal order was issued at about 9 p.m. to hundreds of demonstrators that began gathering outside Anaheim City Hall around 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, police said. Within minutes, a group of protesters could be seen fleeing from the intersection of Anaheim Boulevard and Broadway after officers reportedly shot pepper balls at their feet, police said.
The majority of the crowd had dispersed by 11 p.m., but a small contingent remained in the street. Anaheim Boulevard was reopened with a heavy police presence.
Several fires broke out near the scene of the protest -- one in a trash bin, another near a bus bench, according to aerial footage. It was not immediately clear how the fires started.
At least one person was transported to the hospital after being shot in the head with a pepperball, said Sgt. Bob Dunn with Anaheim police. No officers were injured.
At least five people were confirmed arrested in the skirmish, including one man who was booked for resisting arrest after officers received a call that he may have a gun in his waistband, Dunn said. No weapons were found.
Police continued to take demonstrators into custody as of 11:30 p.m., according to aerial footage.
Tensions escalated for hours throughout the city where several bank and coffee shop windows were smashed with rocks.
Law enforcement was on high alert as the protest turned violent, with demonstrators throwing rocks, bricks and traffic cones at officers and squad cars, Dunn said, adding that a print reporter appeared to be injured in the melee, possibly struck with a rock.
Tuesday's demonstration was the latest sparked by a recent spate of fatal police shootings. Crowds started gathering near City Hall around 4 p.m. to urge councilmembers to investigate those shootings and reform the city's police force, which residents have accused of racial profiling.
The council chamber reached capacity and police in riot gear blocked access to the meeting.
The demonstration swelled into the streets at about 6:30 p.m. While the protest escalated outside, the Anaheim City Council continued to meet.
Law enforcement from several surrounding cities descended on the area to provide mutual aid, police said.
Skirmish lines established by officers in riot gear attempted to corral demonstrators near the 200 block of South Anaheim Boulveard.
Within an hour, much of the police presence had dissipated from the area immediately around City Hall and the crowd moved -- some on foot, others on bicycles -- down Anaheim Boulevard waving flags, carrying signs and speaking into passing cars.
As of 8:30 p.m., a crowd continued to mill about around City Hall and a separate group appeared to gather near the scene of one of the deadly shootings, setting up a candlelight vigil, according to aerial footage.
By 9 p.m., officers in riot gear again stepped up patrols near Broadway and Anaheim Boulevard in what appeared to be preparation for their dispersal order.
Officials say there have been eight officer-involved shootings in the city this year, including two fatal incidents during the weekend.
Manuel Angel Diaz, 25, was shot and killed Saturday after a foot pursuit through an alley in the 700 block of North Anna Drive -- an area where police say they've noticed an increase in gang and narcotics crimes.
That shooting sparked protests during the weekend, including one on Saturday in which a trash bin was set on fire and a small group of people threw rocks and bottles at police. Three people were detained, officials said.
On Sunday night, Anaheim officers shot and a killed a man following a pursuit that ended near West Guinida Lane and Iris Street when two men and woman fled from a sport utility vehicle. Police said one of the men pulled out a gun and officers opened fire.
Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait called for a state and federal probe of the fatal shootings during a news conference Sunday, at which some 70 protesters stormed the lobby.
"Transparency is essential," Tait said Sunday. "The investigation will seek the truth. And whatever the truth is, we will own it."
At least four agencies are involved in or are expected to join the investigation, including the U.S. Attorney's office, the State Attorney General, the Anaheim Police Department's Officer of Internal Affairs and -- as is usual for officer-involved shootings -- the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
Officials said the Anaheim Police Department stepped up patrols in advance of Tuesday's demonstration -- the latest in a city that has been dotted with protests for days.
Anaheim was among six California cities with a population over 100,000 that saw the biggest spikes in violent crime in 2011, according to an analysis of FBI crime data released last month.
View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.
2012-07-25 "ANSWER Los Angeles office ransacked and
robbed; Attack comes hours after office is deluged with racist hate
calls over Anaheim police protests"
[http://www.answercoalition.org/national/news/answer-los-angeles-office.html]:On Monday, July 23, the ANSWER Coalition was highlighted in the mass media for our role supporting the protests in response to the outrageous police attack in Anaheim. ANSWER placards and signs were highly visible in media photos and video. ANSWER volunteers were interviewed by mainstream media outlets.
That night, the ANSWER office in Los Angeles was broken into, ransacked and robbed. All of our computers, ten total, were stolen, in addition to all of our sound equipment and our bullhorns — the things essential to organizing and conducting protest actions. We had many other losses too and our files were ransacked.
At this point, we cannot say with certainty the nature of this attack—but we believe the events leading up to it are noteworthy. After being in the national spotlight the ANSWER Coalition office was deluged with racist hate calls supporting the Anaheim police, who killed two unarmed men in 24 hours and inflicted so much brutality against the community. At the same time, right-wing websites began an internet-based attack campaign against the ANSWER Coalition labeling us “outside agitators.” Hours later the office was broken into and ransacked.
And we know that the United States—and southern California in particular—has a long history of police attacks on the offices progressive organizations, with the intent of disrupting or sabotaging their organizing efforts during key political crises.
Despite this attack, we are not deterred. We still managed to mobilize for the mass action at the Anaheim City Council meeting, and will be marching in Downey this Saturday against the police murder of Mike Nida.
However, our work has been severely disrupted. We are asking for your help to so that we can replace our equipment and rebuild our office. Please help us so that we can continue mobilizing actions against police brutality, the war in Afghanistan, budget cuts, and as we work to build a movement for justice and equality. Please click here to make an urgently-needed donation.
Your solidarity and support through this attack is critical to continuing our work, and is very much appreciated. Please make as generous a donation as you can. Standing together we can make a difference.
In struggle,
Peta Lindsay Mike Prysner
Coordinators, ANSWER Los Angeles
Door to ANSWER LA office.
ANSWER file cabinets searched.
Attackers trashed storage room looking for all sound equipment and bullhorns.
[http://www.blackredmedia.com/637/]:
A lot of people dont know the history of Anaheim, but it started off as a German colony in the early (1900s ??). FYI, not all Germans are Nazis or racist. Though the community did get a lot more 'tribal' after WW2…..As the community grew and some members wanted to 'preserve their culture', a lot of neo-nazi groups involved themselves with the Phoenix Club which was founded in Anaheim by and for German speakers…..Walt Disney himself was antisemitic, and the presence of these hate groups may have influenced his decision to build Disneyland there in what used to be an oasis of natural beauty until it was paved over.
Today you will find that the Hispanic population has recently become a majority, but it is a very segregated society with the white people on the hill and the poor non-white people down below. Not ALL white people who live on the hill are racists, but there is a significant number of neo-nazi groups. There is also tension between the upper class white supremacists who may be involved with the Phoenix club (and Disney), and some of the 'lower class' racist skinhead groups who may advocate national socialism.
The white population is only 23%, but they are 100% of the local government and there is a history of racist Sheriffs and police who basically use violence and intimidation to chase back the Latino population. I can cite a number of examples, but the Brown Berets do a number of articles on it. Also look for elections for Sheriffs hosted by the Phoenix club.
Another thing I should mention…..Disneyland Security is no joke. The people they employ are not ex-cops, they are elite special forces and similar. The cops are just common thugs by comparison.
We have a very unique situation where a lot of street gangs have called truces with each other….This is both for political and economic reasons. Not all of it (Mexican and Columbian Mafia) is for the right reasons, as they are simply struggling with the movement of product, but there have been a number of people who have called for political alliances and class unity….Some of this started in Occupy with the Bloods and Crips, and some of it started in central and south America with calls for class unity. The poor and oppressed should not be killing each other.
The Anaheim 'Anti-Gang unit', much like Rampart's similar unit, is given free license to act as a death squad with no regard for due process or a fair trail. They simply assassinate their targets, often without reporting it. Sometimes they kill the wrong people, and there is never any punishment.
So hopefully this gives you a little background in what is going on in Anaheim, which also happens to be part of the larger Los Angeles metropolitan area. It is about more than just one cop shooting one innocent person, then using attack dogs on women and children, with one child seriously injured and carried off. This is about class war.
The ACLU talks about how the Latino population is shut out of the electoral process. http://www.aclu-sc.org/latinos-shut-anaheim-electoral-process/
Former Orange County Sheriff who patrols Anaheim is caught using hate speech and is revealed as yet another Neo-Nazi law enforcement agent. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039853/posts
2012-07-26 "Anaheim Police Shooting Desmadre: Anonymous Publishes Home Address of Anaheim Police Chief John Welter in Preparation for 'Operation Anaheim'" by Gustavo Arellano from "OC Weekly"
[http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/operation_anaheim_anonymous_anaheim.php]:
Tomorrow, protests are being planned across the country in solidarity with the protests against police brutality and city council incompetence that has plagued Anaheim for a good decade. On Sunday, there are at least THREE scheduled protests: one organized loosely by the Occupy movement, another the regular Sunday protests organized by the Anaheim Cruzaders for almost three years, and a third one called We Are Anaheim--Somos Anaheim that seeks to strike a middle road.
And having the biggest lulz of them all, of course, is Anonymous, which kicked off their "Operation Anaheim" tonight by publishing online the home address of Anaheim Police Chief John Welter.
We're not going to post the home address or the other personal information about Chief Welter that Anonymous posted, ESPECIALLY the chief's MySpace page, since that's probably the most embarrassing part of this sordid episode. But they did put out this press release this afternoon:
[begin message]
Greetings City of Anaheim - Greetings Citizens of the United States of America - Greetings People of the World: We are Anonymous --
In Anaheim, California police shot protesters and bystanders including kids who did nothing wrong. We, Anonymous - are calling yet again to the citizens of the United States of America and the world to rise up in unison and defeat a government which does not value its citizens lives nor their freedoms. The safety of your families, your homes, and your future generations is in danger. The fate of the USA is in your hands. Do you wish to be oppressed further, or do you wish to obtain freedom and peace? The choice is yours.
To the police force in Anaheim, CA - we have witnessed your brutality and aggressive methods at stifling freedom of speech. We know about how you executed an unarmed man, shooting him in the back of the head while he was on his knees. We have witnessed you putting innocent women and children in danger, these actions are unforgivable. From the killing of an unarmed man, to the brutality you have instituted upon the peaceful protesters and journalists; you now have the full attention of Anonymous. We will attack and deface your web sites, raid your data, blow up your phone lines with black faxes, bomb your E-Mail inboxes, dox your officers - and destroy anything else of yours on the internet we can find. We will also E-Mail this press release and attached video to no less than 10 million people in at least 50 countries around the world asking them to boycott Anaheim, California until all these brutal police are arrested, tried - and convicted of their various crimes against the people.
To the citizens of the world, we call upon you to show solidarity with the oppressed citizens of Anaheim, California - USA. Do NOT travel there or spend your tourist dollars in Anaheim, CA. Send copies of this press release to everyone in your address book. And join us online at irc.anonops.com #OpAnaheim and help us defeat this evil and illegitimate police force.
To the citizens of Anaheim, we are with you. Stand up to the police and do not accept their brutality any longer. Keep taking to the streets. Anonymous will do everything in our power to help and protect you, the innocent from being brutalised under the repressive Anaheim police force.
Operation Anaheim, engaged.
We Are Anonymous
We Are Legion
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
EXPECT US
[end of message]
If you want to follow the lulz, follow Operation Anaheim on Twitter at #opanaheim. Let's see what they dig up!
[http://www.peoplesliberationfront.net/anonpaste/?aea591b7e70567cd#cVldJyRFhLh60jIV6pQNCu7nOlioGEdMeBDDigdfpRs=]
TARGET:Anaheim Mayor and Police contact Data
REASON: so the people may peacefully voice their grievances about police brutality
METHOD: The data analysis and procurement of legal and public information
NOTE: Shame Shame shame
xoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxxoxoxxoxoxxoxoxoxxoxoxoxxoxoxoxxoxoxxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
TOP DOGS
####################
Mayor Tom Tait
CONTACT INFO:
City Hall 7th Floor
200 South Anaheim Boulevard, Anaheim, CA 92805
TEL 714-765-5247
FAX 714-765-5164
photo:http://www.taitformayor.com/img/185x231portrait.jpg
FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tom-Tait-for-Mayor-of-Anaheim/133585323336098
CHIEF OF POLICE:
photo:http://www.anaheim.net/police/images/johnwelter.jpg
John Welter (714)765.1986
DEPUTY CHIEF
photo:http://www.anaheim.net/images/articles/1570/craighunter.jpg
Craig Hunter (714) 765-1600
OTHER
####################
INVESTIGATIONS DIVISION Captain Bob Conklin (714) 765-1401
OPERATIONS SUPPORT DIVISION Captain Raul Quezada (714) 765-1923
OPERATIONS DIVISION Captain Jarrett Young (714) 765-1892
Patrol - Watch Commander 714.765.1991
Patrol - Desk Sergeant 714.765.1989
SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION
########################
Captain Belinda Brewer (714) 765-1901
East / Central / South / West Anaheim Commander 714.765.3801
MAIN CONTACT INFO:
#########################
ADDRESS:
Main Station
425 S. Harbor Blvd. Anaheim, CA 92805
PHONE:(714) 765-1900
West Anaheim Police Station (714)765.7950
STATIONS
#################################
HEADQUARTERS:
425 S. Harbor Blvd. Anaheim, CA 92805
(714) 765-1900
EAST STATION
8201 E. Santa Ana Canyon Rd, Anaheim CA 92808
(714) 765-3800
WEST STATION: 320 S. Beach Blvd, Anaheim CA
WEBSITE:http://www.anaheim.net
###################################
Sharing this from my friend regarding an agent provocateur at the Anaheim protests: "Our friend Shelly exposing her as a cop in front of national cameras, she was inciting a group of Anaheim protesters by throwing a water bottle and chanting aggressive orders pretending to be a protester. Had others followed her lead, and had Marlena and Shelly not called her out and kept the peace, 20 cops in riot gear would have been unleashed on the crowd. She had her badge # Tattooed on her wrist.."
2012-07-27 "Was There a Police Plant at the Anaheim Protests Who Threw Bottles at Officers to Incite a Riot? by Gustavo Arellano from "OC Weekly"
[http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/anaheim_police_riots_plant.php]:
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 27, 10:26 A.M.: Facebook is currently abuzz with members of Kelly's Army who were at the Anaheim protest on Tuesday alleging that they caught a police plant.
According to onlookers, a blonde woman was shouting pro-police slogans in front of City Hall, at one point flashing her wrist and showing off a tattoo that seemed to be a badge number. But an hour later, they claim the same woman was seen yelling anti-police slogans and throwing water bottles at the police.
Witnesses tell the Weekly she was parading in front of the police line outside of City Hall, saying "These are good cops. You don't know the hard work they do. They're getting rid of gangsters."
Afterward, though, onlookers claim she began throwing bottles later that night. Multiple people saw her, and there's apparently video of the same woman playing the part of anarchist.
No one at the scene knew who this woman was.
"Prior to our friend...exposing her as a cop in front of national cameras, she was inciting a group of Anaheim protesters by throwing a water bottle and chanting aggressive orders pretending to be a protester," someone wrote on Facebook. "Had others followed her lead, and had [members of Kelly's Army] not called her out and kept the peace, 20 cops in riot gear would have been unleashed on the crowd. She had her badge # tattooed on her wrist.. Not only is she a provocateur she has really shitty taste in tats."
HA!
If true, this wouldn't be the first time police were caught as plants trying to incite a riot. In 2006, a Garden Grove police officer admitted under oath during a deposition to masquerading as a protestor during a protest of Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist in Garden Grove.
If anyone has video of this woman, email me at garellano at ocweekly dot com. Thank you!
UPDATE, 11:49 A.M.: Brandon spoke to Marlena Carrillo of Kelly's Army. She says that the blonde woman told them that they didn't understand what the cops went through, and that they were so great.
"She was really obnoxious," Carrillo says, "so we told her to can it."
Eventually, the woman got into an argument with an older woman protesting against the police in the crowd and pushed her, "and the cops didn't move."
The crowd began chanting the woman away, and she left. Later, Kelly's Army left and were at a friend's house watching Livestream video of the protest, when they saw the same woman. "She was screaming at the police about how much she hates them and took a bottle of water and threw it into the police lines."
Carrillo says she called the police immediately after seeing this; so far, they haven't returned her calls.
UPDATE, 2:30 P.M.. We found video, of the woman both in her pro-cop and anti-cop phase!
Here's her pro-cop position:
And here is a screen grab of the woman yelling at the police.
Around 3:30, you start hearing a woman shouting "Who shot the women and children?" again and again. At 5:28, she starts getting more animated: "How sick it is. How sick it is! How dare you guys!"
Here's the video link [http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/24228634], and the video itself. Start around the 4 minute mark...no shot of her throwing a water bottle, though, but the woman obviously loved playing the Occupy part.
Who is the mystery woman?
If you have further information email us at:
rscottmoxley at ocweekly dot com
bferguson at ocweekly dot com
garellano at oc weekly dot com
2012-07-26 "Activists mobilize nationwide to protest Anaheim police shootings" from "L.A. Now" news blog of the "Los Angeles Times" newspaper
[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/07/solidarity-protests-anaheim-police-shootings.html]:
Activists nationwide are mobilizing online to organize marches and demonstrations in solidarity with Anaheim protesters in the wake of two deadly officer-involved shootings that have rocked the city.
The killings of two Latino men sparked several days of heated protests, including one Tuesday night that exploded into violence after police and hundreds of protesters clashed by City Hall and in adjacent neighborhoods.
The shootings of Manuel Angel Diaz, 25, and Joel Acevedo, 21, have laid bare the economic divide between the city's pockets of glitz and affluence and the less-prosperous Latino neighborhoods, where residents have voiced outrage over police conduct.
That anger has struck a chord from from Oakland to New York, where solidarity protests are planned for Friday and into the weekend. The events are being organized on Facebook and Twitter. Activists are sharing posters for the actions and information on topics including defending against tear gas.
In Los Angeles, activists plan to march Friday evening from 6th Street and Union Avenue in the Westlake neighborhood to the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart station.
On Sunday, a noontime demonstration is scheduled to take place in front of the Anaheim Police Department headquarters at 425 S. Harbor Blvd.
---
Photo: An Anaheim resident on Wednesday walks past a memorial for Manuel Angel Diaz, 25, who was shot to death by police. Credit: Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press
2012-07-27 "Oakland in Solidarity with Anaheim stop Police terror Rally and March"
Friday, 5:30pm
on July 21 Anaheim Police Chased and shot Manuel Angel Diaz in the back of his head Killing him. Diaz was Unarmed. The Latino Community that the Killing had happened in had already been the victim of several other shootings in the Past done by Anaheim Police. confronted the police in Protest of Diaz killing. and were viciously attacked by Police the Extreamly Cruel repression that the Anaheim police unleashed on the community was horrible. you see the Police shot Rubber Bullets into the crowd including Woman and Children you even see a Police dog attack a woman with a Stroller with her Baby inside. it was just another reminder of the sick Capitalist Police state that we live under.
we here in the City of Oakland particularly the Black and Brown Community but also the Radical community as well like Occupy Oakland can relate to this police terror in our own city. so LETS ORGANIZE A rally and March on Friday July 27 at Oscar Grant Plaza at 5:30 pm and stand in solidarity with our Brothers and sisters who were brutally attacked on Saturday July 21. we here in Oakland stand in solidarity with them to end Police terror from Oakland to Anaheim and beyond.
2012-07-28 "Activists mobilize nationwide to protest Anaheim police shootings" message from "Oscar Grant Committee" [www.oscargrantcommittee.weebly.com]:
Over a hundred people marched in Oakland on Friday evening in solidarity with the people of Anaheim after two members of the Anaheim community were shot to death by police officers last weekend. A rally was held at Oscar Grant Plaza (14th & Broadway) with speakers from the black and brown community, white allies and other comrades. A march to the Oakland Police Dept. followed where protestors chanted "From Oakland to Anaheim, fuck the police!"
On Saturday July 21st, Anaheim police shot and killed 25-year-old Manuel Diaz, who was reportedly unarmed. Hours after the shooting, women and children gathered to protest, and police opened fire on protestors with beanbags and pepper spray, and also released a dog which attacked demonstrators. On Sunday, Anaheim Police shot and killed Joel Acevedo. Protests in Anaheim escalated until Tuesday night, when crowds of over 600 demonstrators marched through the city, breaking windows and lobbing rocks at cops. Police arrested 24 people in Anaheim that evening.
This Sunday there is a convergence in Anaheim at 12 at the City Hall. One of our street medics is going down there & will be training folks on dealing with seizures, gunshot/bleeding trauma, blunt force trauma, tear gas and pepper spray alternatives.
2012-07-27 "Justice For Manuel Diaz - Solidarity FTP March In Harlem"
Public Event by "FThe Nypd"
Friday, 8:00pm in EDT
Corner of 99th and 3rd avenue 10029
This march will be in solidarity with those in Anaheim who were protesting the fatal police shooting on Saturday.
Cops shot non-lethal rounds toward men, women and children and unleashed a dog who charged toward a stroller during a clash with mostly Latino residents.
Video: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8RTYFhhJ94] (Updated)
Article: [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/07/after-anaheim-shooting-and-melee-da-seeks-videos-photos.html]
FTP marches are autonomous. There will be no one group giving directions or making rules. We will discuss and make decisions through consensus.
Bring banners, bandana's and protest shields if you like. We respect a persons decision to protest how they see fit but we ask you not to destroy any property that belongs to residents and the working class. Wear black.
To those who are interested in organizing, meet in the park at 7:30pm.
"ANAHEIM PD IS CORRUPT. WE WILL NOT BE SILENT"
[https://www.facebook.com/events/344828062262298/]:
Sunday, July 29, 2012
12:00pm until 2:00pm
every Sunday we gather at the Anaheim police Department 12 noon -2pm , to bring awareness to the community in Anaheim and the surrounding cities of Orange County. Anaheim Police Department has gotten away with their lies, brutality, excessive force, racial profiling, misconduct and MURDER for far too long..Their corruption and blatant disregard for our HUMAN/civil rights will NO LONGER BE TOLERATED!! join us .. stand up and let them here your voice... we want JUSTICE_CHANGE_ACCOUNTABILITY_AND TRANSPARENCY. recently the city manager of Anaheim has vocalized his intent to authorize a investigation into the excessive officer involved shootings.. This is a step in the right direction! We will remind the city manager every city council meeting about his solution..expecting the entire process be made fully public ! a press release and media coverage would be good! The (PEOPLE) deserve to know whats been going on their city!!The tourists deserve to know that Anaheim isnt as safe as they assume when they bring their entire families on vacation at the (happiest place on earth) Disneyland...
2012-07-30 "Unrest in Anaheim Continues: Riot Police Arrest Protesters Outside of Disneyland" by Common Dreams"
[http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/30-4]:
Protesters continued to express outrage in Anaheim, Calif. on Sunday in the ninth consecutive day of protests following two fatal police shootings last week. Police once again exhibited a heavy handed response to the protests, arriving in paramilitary riot gear and blocking protesters outside the gates of Anaheim's Disneyland Resort, leading to nine arrests.
Unrest in Orange County's largest city erupted last week following the killing of unarmed Manuel Diaz, 25, on July 21, and the killing of Joel Acevedo, 21, the following night, both by Anaheim police.
On Sunday, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Anaheim police department, taking over a parking lot and chanting slogans condemning the police. Some drew outlines of bodies on the pavement. The crowd then marched from downtown Anaheim to within a half-mile of the Disneyland Resort on the Harbor chanting, "Whose streets? Our streets!"
"What's going on here in Orange County is symbolic of a problem with the system," demonstrator Eduardo Perez, 21, told the Orange County Register. "This wouldn't happen to white people. This is racism – simple as that."
The crowd was blocked by a line of police officers in riot gear displaying a heavy show of fire power and two dozen officers on horseback, preventing the group from approaching Disneyland. The blockade forced the closure of one of the main traffic intersections for visitors entering the resort. Police then clashed with protesters and arrested several at the scene.
A separate silent march was lead from Anaheim City Hall. Protesters there dressed in white and remained silent as part of a call for peace. The protesters walked shoulder to shoulder and carried signs reading "We are Anaheim" and "Peace begins with us."
The demonstrations took place before an evening memorial service for Diaz; however, protesters were not allowed to attend the service.
The Orange County district attorney's office, the U.S. attorney's office, and the FBI are investigating the police shootings.
2012-07-30 "Justice for Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo: Curb police violence with elected civilian review boards", a Durham-López campaign statement
Los Angeles campaign office [323-732-6416] [fspla@earthlink.net] [VoteSocialism@gmail.com]:
The weekend of July 21 saw another chapter in the long history of racist police violence in Southern California, with Anaheim police shooting to death two young Latino men. The Freedom Socialist Party campaign of Stephen Durham for president and Christina López for vice president condemns the extreme abuses of police power that ended the lives of Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo.
The brutal abuse continued with police reaction to protests of the killings, starting immediately after the shooting of the unarmed Diaz. Cops fired rubber bullets and unleashed a police dog against a concerned and outraged crowd of neighbors, including infants and children, who gathered at the site.
Protests have swelled to a thousand or more. Over 400 people tried to attend a City Council meeting but were forced back into the street, where they were attacked by cops. The mayor and City Council add insult to injury by blaming demonstrators rather than police for the uproar the city is going through and by vilifying the murder victims as "known gang affiliates." Suspiciously, after increasing media and official hysteria against "violence" by protesters, the Los Angeles offices of ANSWER, an anti-war group that participated in the rallies, were broken into, ransacked, and robbed.
The Durham-López campaign demands that city officials immediately rein in the cops and that prosecutors file criminal charges against the officers involved in the deaths. The campaign stands for the country-wide establishment of local elected civilian review boards over the cops. These boards should be administratively and financially independent of the police and have the authority to make policy, to conduct investigations and subpoena witnesses, and to discipline and fire police officers who abuse and kill. And they should have the services of an independent special prosecutor at their disposal.
Elected civilian review boards will not end police violence. To achieve that will take a changeover to a new system that does not rely on police to protect the wealthy and their interests against workers and the poor. But these boards would reduce police abuse, making life better for its main targets: strikers, political activists, the homeless, and people of color - especially those who are young and male.
"Police attack protesters in Anaheim" by Alex Gallardo from "Reuters"
2012-08-02 "Dispatches From Anaheimistan: A week after shootings that roiled the city, Anaheim still looks like a warzone" by BRANDON FERGUSON and AMBER STEPHENS and YASMIN NOUH from "OC Weekly"
[http://www.ocweekly.com/2012-08-02/news/anaheim-riots-police-department-city-hall/]:
Mickey Mouse policing (photograph by Matt Oliver)
By the time July 29's protest at the Anaheim Police Department headquarters began at noon, everyone was ready. The television news vans—at least half a dozen of them—were lined up, their satellite dishes extended to the sky. Rows of uniformed officers sat atop horses, each one equipped with a clear-plastic riot visor. Behind the police station, in a parking lot, was a laager of law-enforcement vehicles: armored cars, SUVs, pickups, paddy wagons and tactical-assault vehicles, all painted black.
In front of the station, a crowd of hundreds had gathered: members of Occupy Oakland, Los Angeles and Orange County; various anarchists wearing ski masks and scarves and carrying the famous Wobbly-era flag of a black cat arched to strike; as well as family members of people shot by Anaheim police. They shouted slogans designed to inflame the tempers of stone-faced officers standing behind barricades and clutching batons and shotguns.
"Oink oink, bang, bang, every day, the same old thang," one group shouted.
As cops on horses trotted past the crowd, others chanted, "Get those animals off those horses!"
A few particularly incensed protesters trailed after a cop whose mount had just taken a dump in the street. "Are you going to clean up after your horse?" demanded one.
"I don't even let my dog shit in the street," remarked another.
The cop didn't answer, and despite the massive display of military force, the officers kept their tempers under control. At about 2 p.m., hundreds of people marched south on Harbor Boulevard in an attempt to make their presence felt at the gates of the Magic Kingdom. As the group left, a trio of cops in floppy, Special Forces-style hats who were peering down from the roof of the police station pointed what resembled cameras with telephoto lenses at them.
As the protesters snaked along Ball Road, they were tracked by vehicles with runner boards laden with officers. When they reached the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Ball Road, about a block north of Disneyland, cops in full battle regalia made a valiant stand for the Mouse and diverted the throng east through nearby neighborhoods.
One demonstrator told an officer he wanted to go to Disneyland. "It's closed" was the reply.
"I have a ticket," the marcher insisted, before heading east, away from the Happiest Place On Earth. (BF)
* * *
As protesters moved south from police headquarters, the cops followed, some in black vans, which passed by with SWAT officers in body armor hanging onto the sides of the vehicles, ready to deploy, as helicopters hovered ahead. The closest the two groups came to clashing happened about 15 minutes into the march, near Ball Road, when some 20 horse-mounted Orange County Sheriff's deputies and Santa Ana police officers chased demonstrators off the street and onto the sidewalk.
As they scattered, the protesters hurled curses and insults at police. "Save a life," shouted one. "Kill yourself!"
As the police corralled protesters, one officer, evidently impatient with the stragglers, seemed to be seething with rage. He nearly lost control of his horse, which, for a few terrifying seconds, tilted toward the demonstrators on the sidewalk, dangerously close to toppling over.
Two blocks farther south, protesters reached the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Ball Road, where police horses and the Anaheim SWAT team formed a half-circle, their weapons drawn. Unlike at previous protests, there were no projectiles thrown at the cops. Instead, many demonstrators looked visibly scared. "Are they going to shoot us?" one person asked.
Police issued no orders to disperse, instead repeating their demand that protesters stick to the sidewalk. But more than 100 of them sprinted down a side street; they were followed by officers, who quickly surrounded them.
Atef Nadal, an Anaheim resident who ran with the group, said that Latino residents started to come out of their homes, offering water and support, even hosing down some of the sweat-drenched protesters. "They were throwing their fists in the air and showing they were sympathetic with what we were protesting against, which is police brutality and harassment in Anaheim neighborhoods," he said.
As police moved in on the demonstrators, prepared to make arrests, residents screamed at the police, "Leave them alone!" and, "Go home!" Within moments, officers put away their batons, apparently acting in response to an order from superiors to back up and mount up. No arrests were made, and protesters, who swiftly moved onto the sidewalks, passed around the police blockade without incident. (AS)
* * *
Meanwhile, in front of Anaheim City Hall, a separate group called We Are Anaheim, or Somos Anaheim, held a march to protest not only the recent, back-to-back officer-involved shootings, but also the subsequent violence of demonstrators, who so far have thrown bottles, broken store windows and engaged in scattered acts of looting. Between 100 and 200 demonstrators wore white shirts and held signs supporting neither side of the police-brutality issue: "Respect Our Neighborhood," "No More Violence" and "We Walk for Peace."
Despite the large number of people, an eerie quiet held sway. In fact, the lack of noise was deliberate. According to protest co-organizer Veronica Rodarte, of Anaheim, her group chose to march in complete silence.
"We support their cause for justice," Rodarte explained. "We just had a different method."
The protest brought out union workers, religious groups, students and families, as well as Jose Moreno, who sits on Anaheim City School District's board of trustees. He said he's fed up with a City Hall that continually places deep-pocketed special interests over the needs of the community. "There are too many neighborhoods in Anaheim that have felt the indifference of a decade-and-a-half-long developing effort of only one part of our city," he said.
Other protesters say a flawed city election process caused tensions to burst. Currently, City Council races are city-wide, rather than district by district; not one Latino has ever won an election, despite the fact that cultural group makes up more than half of the population. "In my opinion, all of this is a result of a lack of representation," said Martin Lopez, recording secretary of UNITE HERE, which represents hundreds of union workers at the Disneyland resort and nearby hotels. "We need more district council members to provide representation of our communities."
But other protesters seemed more concerned with the recent violence than questions of representation. One marcher, Todd Spitzer, former assemblyman and current Orange County supervisor, represents affluent Anaheim Hills. "I've seen too many communities destroyed," he said, referring to how, as a child, he witnessed the destruction of his family business in East LA and, later, played a role in the 1992 Rodney King riots as a Los Angeles police officer. When asked whether he stood in solidarity with the protesters he was marching with, Spitzer responded, "That's a loaded term. I'm here to show that I'm supportive of the goals exemplified by this group—nonviolent social change."
As the protest came to a close, Rodarte said she felt the group's modest goal was accomplished. "Our goal was to bring all sides together in unity and peace. Step two is to set up small community forums where we can voice those opinions in an appropriate manner." (YN)
Brandon Ferguson from "OC Weekly": Protests in the city, July 24
Amber Stephens from "OC Weekly": Inside agitators
Meranda Carter from "OC Weekly": Why you trippin'?
Matt Oliver from "OC Weekly": Protests in the city, July 24
2012-08-12 "ANAHEIM PD IS CORRUPT! WE WiLL NOT BE SILENT!"
Sunday, 12:00pm until 2:00pm
Anaheim Police Department
every Sunday we gather at the Anaheim police Department 12 noon -2pm , to bring awareness to the community in Anaheim and the surrounding cities of Orange County. Anaheim Police Department has gotten away with their lies, brutality, excessive force, racial profiling, misconduct and MURDER for far too long..Their corruption and blatant disregard for our HUMAN/civil rights will NO LONGER BE TOLERATED!! join us .. stand up and let them here your voice... we want JUSTICE_CHANGE_ACCOUNTABILITY_AND TRANSPARENCY. recently the city manager of Anaheim has vocalized his intent to authorize a investigation into the excessive officer involved shootings.. This is a step in the right direction! We will remind the city manager every city council meeting about his solution..expecting the entire process be made fully public ! a press release and media coverage would be good! The (PEOPLE) deserve to know whats been going on their city!!The tourists deserve to know that Anaheim isnt as safe as they assume when they bring their entire families on vacation at the (happiest place on earth) Disneyland...
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CITIZEN SAFTEY ALERT/RESPONSE -
Downey Police Officer Steve Gilley murdered Michael Nida. He is back on the streets. Officer Chris Kurtz and Detective Jason Klevos murdered Steven Bours and are back on the streets.
Please help us get justice for the families and friends of these senseless victims of Downey Police Department. Make calls, send letters, speak at council, share the stories. Let them know we will stand by those who need our voice.
* Downey Police Department [10911 Brookshire Avenue Downey, CA 90241] [562-861-0771] [http://www.downeypd.org]
* City of Downey Council [11111 Brookshire Avenue Downey, CA 90241] [562-904-7274][http://www.downeyca.org/gov/council/default.asp] The Downey City Council meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber of Downey City Hall. Council members are elected to a four-year term. Elections are held in November on the same date and time as the statewide general election. However, due to the enactment of a term limit provision, approved as a charter amendment in November 1993, council members are limited to two four-year terms of office.
The mayor position rotates annually in December.
Anything you can do to help the families fight these bullies who turn killer cops back out to the streets would be greatly appreciated. Something must be done before anyone else is wrongfully killed.
Google Michael Nida or Steven Bours for more info.
Or contact us at inLeague Press on facebook, youtube, etc
Expect us..... inLeague Press [www.downeypd.org]
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2012-08-10: Breaking news - Anaheim police department is dressed up like the military doing 'gang' sweeps calling it operation halo.. They are hitting different neighborhoods... Live new press conference today at the police station.. Damn they are trying to take the attn. Off of them selves now.. Hopefully they don't shoot no one in the back
2012-08-15 "Open Invitation to All Greens Everywhere: Come to Orange County!"California and National Greens,
I thank all Greens for demonstrations of interest into Anaheim. Foremost is longtime Anaheim resident, Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Duane Roberts' entry into Anaheim City Council race, with eight other candidates for two seats! Contact Duane at duaneroberts92804@yahoo.com
Greens have brought forward many important issues. Most significant deal with concerns about violence, un-sustainability, social injustice, as seen in ongoing police actions against Latino residents. For too long, Council members in --the Hills-- an elite, upper-income enclave, have ruled with impunity over --the Flats-- where Anaheim's Latino majority live. Council decisions have reinforced cultural stereotypes, and catered to Disney Resort needs, to exclusion of affordable housing, safe communities, affirmative education, job-training, healthcare and civil rights.
Many issues have been promoted--including Mike Feinstein's rabid enthusiasm for Ranked Choice Voting--but I ask Greens today to cast their vote, show their commitment, and join me in support of Duane Roberts! Only 538 registered Greens live in Anaheim, but thousands in California, throughout U.S. can show we believe in both local representation and police non-violence to assure public safety.
Candidate Duane Roberts, and Fullerton Council contender Jane Rands, will be on hand to discuss their campaigns, Sunday September 2, 2pm, Irvine Ranch Water District Community Building in Irvine, for monthly Orange County Green Party General and Council meetings. All are cordially invited to attend.
As ever, S.S. (Orange County Green Party)
Joey Acevedo Benefit Memorial Fund:
In response to officer-involved shootings and savage attack upon unarmed residents, California League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) has called for a full federal inquiry for civil rights violations by Anaheim Police Department.
LULAC California State Director Benny Diaz is among many who have called for U.S. Dept. of Justice investigation into shooting deaths of Manuel Diaz and Joel M. Acevedo, and into subsequent harsh measures by police against largely peaceful protests in Anaheim.
Said Diaz, There appear to be grave mistrust between residents and police department. Diaz urged Anaheim residents to remain patient and exercise non-violence while results of this investigation are being gathered.
You are urged to donate to Joey Acevedo Benefit Memorial Fund. The family has agreed that funds collected beyond those to defray funeral expenses will be used to establish an educational trust, with LULAC assistance, in Joel M. Acevedo's name.
Much public outcry has focused on Manuel Diaz, who ran from and was shot at close range by an Anaheim police officer. But Acevedo's killing, possibly connected to criminal activity and alleged use of a gun against police, raises troubling civil rights issues which concern Latinos, all Greens, and every American family.
Donna Acevedo spoke to Anaheim City Council of her son's killing two days before. While this Anaheim native had never before been to Council chambers, events of the last several days compelled her to speak out.
On Monday July 23rd, a day after her son's shooting, two police cars arrived at central Anaheim home where Ms. Acevedo and her family have lived for the past seven years, a quiet, tree-lined street of single-family residences. A shocked, grieving family was aggressively interrogated and intimidated. Explaining location of Joey's shooting and her home were miles apart, Ms. Acevedo pleaded to have her family left in peace, only to have harsh police questioning escalate.
Asked to identify himself, only reply given by an officer was--I'm Officer Killer.
In times of tragedy, everyone deserves the same dignity to quietly mourn loss of a loved one. This guarantee of privacy to grieve is a deeply held core value, which cuts to the very heart of our belief in civil liberties, eqaulity and humanity.
Donation to family of Joey Acevedo is your way to say, Unprovoked police action against grieving families is unacceptable, and must stop. Whatever he did in his life cannot justify efforts to cheapen Joey's death, or disturb his family's sacred privacy. If these words connect with your sense of conscience, morality and freedom from racial persecution, I ask you put this out to all Americans, and to those throughout the world who also love their families.
Donations to Joey Acevedo Benefit Memorial Fund can be made to any Wells Fargo Bank branch, or online, to Account #7709-2505-47.
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