Mission Protest of Cop Killing in SF

San Francisco-March 7-People gathered at 16th and Mission tonight and marched through SF’s Mission District tonight to protest the police killing of Amilcar Perez-Lopez there at the end of February.

Amilcar, 21, was from Guatemala, and did not speak English. He came to San Francisco to work and support his family in Guatemala.

As the march was about to start a Latino man said, “We are a handful of people who can set a spark that can start a fire to bring peace and justice.” Shortly thereafter those gathered moved onto Mission Street.

A banner in front of the march read, “It’s Always Justice When Police Kill.”

Right away the chant went up, Queremos justicius. Quando? Ahora! What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now!”

The first stop along the way was 630 Valencia Street, the nearby Mission Police Station. Marchers called out, “Honor the dead, Fight For the Living,” and “How do you spell murder? SFPD!”

The man who had spoken of starting a spark earlier remarked, “This place is full of murderers who protect private property. They killed this young man.

“We stop here to say we need worker’s justice, farmer’s justice. We need to make our own defense force to protect ourselves. The first step of revolutionaries is to lose fear.”

The procession proceeded up Valencia. At first the police presence had been light, even at the cop shop. But from then on cop foot squads were on either side of the march, so close that the marchers were virtually surrounded.

But that didn’t keep the marchers from making their presence known. “Who killed Amilcar? SFPD!” rang out “Who killed Alex? SFPD!”

Alex Nieto, also a Latino youth, but a native San Franciscan, was killed by the SFPD in SF last year. No cops have been charged.

As the march went up 18th Street and then back onto the Mission, heading up to 24th Street, the police, some by now almost nose to nose with the protesters, continued to get an earful.

The old chestnut, “No justice, no peace, fuck the police,” got an amplified airing. Newer expressions like. “Hands up, don’t shoot,” Oink oink, bang, bang, every day the same old thing,” and “They can’t shoot us all,” kept coming at the police escorters with plenty of decibels.

Finally the march arrived at the plaza at 24th and Mission Streets. The cops thought this was the end, and many of them adjourned to the nearby Mickey Dees to attend to various bodily needs.

But the march soon reassembled and started up 24th Street, forcing the police to hastily get back in formation.

It didn’t take long to reach Folsom Street, only a block from where SFPD undercover agents, who did not speak Spanish, committed a capital crime by firing multiple bullets into Amilcar Perez-Lopez’s body and ended his young life far from home and family.