The "Presente" Tradition of October 22nd

The "Presente" Tradition of October 22nd

One of the traditions of the October 22nd National Day of Protest to Stop
Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation marches and
rallies is that the marchers call out the names of people killed by law
enforcement, and everyone responds, "Presente" ("present" in Spanish). In this
way, we remember the people whose lives have been stolen from us. Very often,
people are familiar with the cases from their own local area, but don't know
the names or stories of people from other areas.
We are sending out this very small sampling of names and cases from different
areas, so that people can become a little more familiar with the national
scope of this epidemic. Some of these cases are documented in the 1999 Stolen
Lives:Killed by Law Enforcement book (available on Amazon.com and from local
October 22nd areas), which lists 2000 cases nationally during the decade of the
1990's. Some of these names were on the 2002 poster, "Police Brutality Did
not Die on Sept. ll, 2001", which is available from the National Office of
October 22nd. We are still in the process of documenting and publicizing cases.
The rate of killing has escalated since Sept. ll, 2001. This list is not
intended to be a comprehensive listing for any area or the nation. Its purpose
is to assist people in local areas in remembering and recalling cases from
other areas that they may not be as familiar with, so that our "Presente"
tradition reflects the national epidemic of police brutality and murder.

Bay Area/ SF/ San Jose

A small sampling of names, past and current, from Bay Area/San Jose for the
"Presente" tradition:

Mark Garcia
Rudy Cardenas
Richard Rosenberg
Idriss Stelley
Julio Ayala
Jerrold Hall
Gus Rugley


Cau Thi Bich Tran, 25 year-old Vietnamese mother of two, shot and killed
by Chad Marshall of the San Jose Police while she was standing in her
kitchen holding a vegetable peeler, 07/13/03. After her death, community
activists demanded that police use non-lethal weapons such as tasers.
They later retracted these demands when they realized that tasers do kill
people.

Eric Kleemeyer, a 22 year-old white man, shot and killed by Santa Clara
Police on January 4th, 2005. He allegedly did not pull over as he was
driving to his mother's house. He was unarmed and feared for his life, due
to a previous beating that had gone unreported. The family later learned
of a third car that had pinned Eric in when he was shot. His family
believes that after the shooting, the cars were moved to make the scene
look like Eric had rammed a police car. 1/4/05

Samuel Martinez, 34 year old Latino man. Martinez was tasered and then
shot and killed by a San Jose police officer after police were called
during a domestic dispute, 5/27/05

Cleveland:

A small sampling of names, past and current, from Cleveland for the
"Presente" tradition:

Joseph Pearly Finley, Jr.
Ricardo Mason
Michael Pipkins
Brandon McCloud Sept. 1, 2005 l5 years old
Laray Renshaw Sept. 30, 2005 unarmed 36 year old

Between August and end of September 5 people have been killed by the
Cleveland police, three by the police chasing at high speeds other cars and
ending up hitting other cars and killing people. Of course, the authorities
charge the drivers being chased.
. Then in the early morning of September 1st, before the sun came up, on
a quiet, well kept street in Cleveland's east side, a lynching without rope
took place at 5:15 am before 15 year old Brandon McCloud got up to go to
school. The whole police murder smelled like fascism as the police told his
grandmother, Dorothy Chappell, to go no where, stay by her car as she was
leaving for work. At gun point they held her. And three pigs at the front of
the house, forced Brandon's uncle out in his underclothes and held there at
gun points as two cops barged into the house without a signed search
warrant. Suddenly, in moments the harsh silence was broken. Repeated shots
were heard inside the house. Brandon, a 15 year old, was shot 10 times, 4 to
the head. The pigs came out, got on their cell phones laughing, as Brandon's
uncle and grandmother are horrified and crying.
Within 24 hours of the killing, the head of the police union called the
police doing their job because the youth was nothing more than a "street
thug" who held up a pizza delivery man and the cops said he was lunging at
them with a knife. The knife they showed came from the kitchen it was proven
later. As Dorothy told me, "Brandon was assassinated, the only knife he
might have was a bread knife because he ate in his room."
This killing outraged and horrified thousands here and then came
Katrina which let everyone see what the Bush regime is all about, what this
regime means for Black people, the neglect and mass murder of Black people.
The racist, genocidal policies of the Bush Regime are coming through
Cleveland like a hurricane of terror. In the past few months there were 3
people killed by police chases, 3 shot and 2 killed in September. People
have rallied, calling these killings murders and assassinations by the
police, have shown the anger of a people who are outraged that the very
conditions of life in the ghetto here, the very fact of being Black in this
society, makes people feel like justice through the system just seems so out
of sight, just not there. The Black people who are killed are deemed
criminal elements that somehow had it coming to them, and many feel they
could be next especially when the cops are called "heroes" for killing by
the media.
Then on September 30, in the afternoon, the police chased down Laray
Renshaw, a 36 year old unarmed Black man and gunned him down as Laray
crouched in a hallway was trying to hide from these killers. Of course, the
police say he was grabbing for the gun, of course the police bring up his
record, of course the police say they stopped him and his friend because of
a supposed drug deal going on. As his uncle said, "He was mostly seen as the
Marathon station pumping gas and asking people for donations."
There have been many ralliies in September protesting these killings,
one drew 175 people who then blocked the street off for a time. People are
angry and are looking to October 22nd for furthering the struggle against
police brutality, repression and the criminalization of a generation.

Los Angeles:
A small sampling of names, past and current, from the Los Angeles area, for
the "Presente" tradition:

Tyisha Miller
Darryl Hood
DeAndre Harrison
Devin brown (13 years old)
Bassim Chmait (20 years old)
Suzy Pena (18 month old)
Gonzalo Martinez, killed Feb. 2002: After a police car chase, Gonzalo got
out of his car, unarmed, and was shot 34 times.

New York:
A Stolen Lives flyer documenting 133 deaths in the New York/NJ area at the
hands on law enforcement can be viewed on their website, http://www.october22-ny.org.

A small sampling of names, past and current, from the New York area, for
the "Presente" tradition:

Amadou Diallo
Anthony Baez
Nicholas Heyward, Jr.
Malcolm Ferguson
Annibal Carrasquillo

Malcolm Ferguson was a 23-year-old Black man, who participated in a large
neighborhood protest against the Diallo acquittal, was himself murdered by police
in the Soundview section of the Bronx just two blocks away from where Amadou
Diallo was killed a year earlier. Malcolm was shot in the back of the head as
he lay face-down, unarmed, on a second-floor landing after he fled from
officers who attempted to stop him. Undercover cop Louis Rivera claimed he shot
because he felt his life was in danger, but there is no explaining away the fact
that Malcolm was shot point blank in the head. No charges were brought against
the cop who murdered Malcolm despite contradictory and conflicting accounts
put out by Rivera himself.
In reality, Ferguson was only arrested and convicted once. However this
didn't stop Mayor Guiliani to immediately demonize Ferguson's character in order to
justify the shooting by calling him a repeated drug offender. Over 100 person
responded to this police killing coming so closely after the Diallo acquittal
verdict. Ferguson's mother, Juanita Young, quickly responded by contesting
the shooting and the premise by which the police justified it, and also began to
wage a determined struggle to uncover the truth. Consequently, Juanita Young
herself, and her family, has been targeted by the police for harassment and
retaliation for her outspoken-ness in questioning the shooting.


North Carolina:
A list of North Carolina cases from can be viewed on their website,
http://www.ncoct22.org

A small sampling of the names, past and current, from North Carolina for the
"Presente" tradition:

Daryl Howerton
Kenneth Fennell
David Baker
Patrick Howell
Rigoberto Olvera

Gilbert Alexander Barber
High Point, North Carolina, May 2001


On May 18, 2001 a Guilford County Deputy shot and killed Gilbert during an
alleged struggle for the deputy's gun. Near 4:00 am, Gilbert was naked and
yelling at passing cars, and someone called 911. He was bleeding from various cuts
and abrasions over a large part of his body. He had a baseball sized,
raised bruise protruding from the center of his forehead, clearly visible. Clearly
this young man needed medical help, not to be pepper-sprayed, arrested nor
shot.
The deputy, who had less than 1 year patrolling experience, arrived and
chose to make an arrest. The deputy said he approached Gilbert and ordered him to
the ground, but he admitted that Gilbert didn't seem to understand what he
was saying. Then, from the deputy's own testimony, he ordered Gilbert to "get
the fuck on the ground, get the fuck on the ground". To make the arrest, the
deputy pepper-sprayed Gilbert's open wounds. Then the deputy alleges that a
struggle occurred over the deputy's gun. Several shots were fired, the gun
jammed, the deputy cleared the jam, located another clip, loaded it and fired
several more shots, three of them striking Gilbert and killing him. From the
time the deputy arrived until he called and said that he was shot took 113
seconds.

There were two witnesses to the incident. The first said that Gil never
touched the deputy, nor had his hands on the deputy's gun. According to this
witness, the deputy stumbled and fell, with the gun firing, shooting him in the
leg. The other witness statement were almost exact word for word as the
deputy's statement, which wasn't taken until 5 days later, after all of the witnesses
were questioned..

The sheriff referred to Gilbert as "A Raging Bull", never as a human. He also
made the statement to the media that he must be on drugs or alcohol to act
like this. The autopsy report revealed that he wasn't under the influence of any
substance. The Sheriff was so convinced that all young black men use drugs
that he had the medical examiners office run toxicology tests three different
times. Each time the results came back negative. The Sheriff's remarks to the
media about this young man were designed to influence the public, and to portray
this man as a horrible, vicious criminal that deserved to be slain under any
circumstances.

It was found that Gilbert had a fractured skull, and this may have been part
of the reason he was naked and acting strangely. Gilbert was accused of
breaking into a nearby church, but he didn't steal anything. He was supposed to have
bitten into a collection plate and pulled 5 teeth out by the root in this
church. Their so-called investigation proved that it was impossible to pull out
the teeth. The dentist said that they were knocked out and that Gilbert
couldn't do it himself. That put some one else there that the Sheriff and the DA
aren't interested in. The DA and the Sheriff said they weren't interested in what
happened before the killer arrived. Their only interest is clearing the
deputy.

Seattle:

A small sampling of names, past and current, from the Seattle area, for
the "Presente" tradition:

Michael Randall Ealy
Richard "Bear" McCartor, Jr.
Shawn Maxwell
Robert Lee Thomas, Sr.
Joshua Morgan
Mylo Harvey
Aaron Roberts
David Walker
Robert Wayne Guy, Jr.
Eddie Anderson
Rosa Hammer
Antonio Dunsmoor
Samson Bounthisane, an 18-year-old Laotian
shot and killed on September 13, 2004:
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Samson Bounthisane stepped outside his home and stabbed his neighbor.
He fled to a friend's house where he drove away in a car. King County
Sheriff's Deputies searched for him in south Seattle, unincorporated
King County. King County Deputy Mullen received information that Samson
was in a Seattle neighborhood nearby the stabbing scene. Deputy Mullen
called his brother, who was also a King County Deputy, however he was
off-duty. The Deputies rammed their vehicle into the driver's side of
the car Samson was driving near South Othello and Martin Luther King,
Jr. Way. They immediately demanded he get out of the car with his hands
up, and when he emerged from the passenger door he was immediately shot
in the neck. Samson was shot eight times in the front of his body and
when he fell to the ground he was shot in the back. The Deputies
handcuffed him bloodied and dead. He was shot first by the off-duty
Deputy on City of Seattle jurisdiction. Samson was a young youth at
risk, the King County Deputies did not try intervention nor did they
take the time to positively identify him before they shot him. The
neighbor who was stabbed stated, when interviewed by the major networks'
local affiliates, that he felt worse for the family of Samson than for
himself since he survived the incident.
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