Author
queer-j brad
The Sagon Penn Chapter of CopWatch Conference, focusing on Police Brutality, was held on October 22 at the Hot Monkey Love Cafe in San Diego. Audio and transcribed excerpts from the first panel, "Profiling the Poor and People of Color."
Profiling the Poor and People of Color
Facilitator: Modest Brown
Panelists: Rocky Neptun, Gloria Verdieu, Mario Moreno, Tina Jillings and Sylvia Ramos
Audio Duration: 51 min 11 sec
Modest Brown (0:00)
"The reason why racial profiling happens is because this country's foundation was built on racism... As long as we have a US society that's race based, we're going to have racial profiling. What we can do is we can demand that police departments institute policies that help to curb this dehumanizing process."
Rocky Neptun (5:30)
"As the world's resources shrink, those in power seek to get all of their bathtub rubber duckys in a row to create forever through a legal system backed by military force a new empire. The dominance of private property over community needs, the selfish interests of speculators and developers over solidarity in our neighborhoods and the supremacy of the greed-driven slavery of the corporate-owned market system over the future of our children. Those who benefit from a corporate-owned world know full well that that paradigm can only be built and protected in a majority world of working-class folks and the poor by force. "
Gloria Verdieu (18:20)
"Rapper Kayne West put it lightly when he said that Bush does not care about black people. Katrina showed that this government and corporate amerika does not care about poor and working class people... To show you exactly what we are dealing with, in the year 2000, 63% of all companies in the u.s. reported that they paid no corporate income tax 1996-2000 on revenues totaling 2.5 TRILLION dollars. And we are to believe that this government cannot afford to build affordable housing, universal medical care, education, jobs for the survivors of Katrina and Rita and all working and poor people in this nation... We will have unity brothers and sisters, when millions of people, like you and i, come out and demonstrate against racism, against poverty, against war. We will have unity when millions of people stand side by side with the survivors of Katrina. Unity is very difficult, but it is something that we need."
Mario Moreno (31:29)
"From the beginning of this year to today there have been a total of five deaths at the hands of the San Diego sheriffs working in Vista. These have all been young Latino males in their 20s."
[March 7, Jose Antonio Mendoza; May 15, Roman Torres; July 28, Sergio Garcia Vasquez; July 29, Jorge Ramirez; August 2, Jesus Eduardo Manzo.]
"These last three incidents raised a lot of red flags because they did not happen in separate cities, they happened all in one city; and within a time frame of five days, July 28, July 29, August 2nd. It's unfortunate that most of the community does not see this as something unusual. They trust police as the good guys and thy're here to protect and they're here to take out the bad guys... As long as the majority of society has this blind trust in police and government and law enforcement agents, these kind of atrocities will continue to happen. As long as there is one of us speaking out against this, we are succeeding in our struggle because we are not staying quiet and letting this happen without a response."
Tina Jillings (39:46)
"I think I lived in a box before and I never really saw it, because it didn't affect me. But three men, three latino men were shot down in the streets of Vista by the san diego sheriff's deputies, without a reason or cause... We are not going to allow the police to abuse the young people in our community, or the old people - anyone who is is being abused by the police department, who were hired to protect and to serve, that is not going to continue, at least not in Vista. We are not going to idly stand by and allow the abuses to continue... It's time for people to stand up... So many people in Vista, they are poor, they are [migrants], they are afraid of the police, they walk in fear. We want to quell their fears."
Sylvia Ramos, transl. Mario Moreno (46:27) (Her son was shot by sheriffs 15 times in 2003)
"I'm here to represent all the mothers that have lost their sons to the sheriffs... The neighbor called 911. The police, instead of coming to help him [her son], instead of coming to his aid, because he was already hurt, they came with blazing guns and shot him down. The sad thing about it is that we could'nt do anything about it because nobody wanted to come forward. They were afraid to testify against the police.... We are asking everybody to unite with the cause and to help each other out, to help us with the struggle... We need to continue to move forward and not let them step on our community."
Coalition for Peace, Justice and Dignity (organizing in Vista)
760-468-4519 ricardo@mudp.org
760-419-1098 morenowino@yahoo.com
619-233-4114 afscinfo@afsc.org
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