The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.3           January 25, 1999 
 
 
California Protests Against Cop Brutality Continue  

BY MARK FRIEDMAN AND OLLIE BIVINS
RIVERSIDE, California - The Black community here is continuing to press its fight for justice for Tyisha Miller, 19, who was killed by Riverside cops December 28 while in her car awaiting a tow truck and medical assistance. She was unconscious at the time. Relatives were at the scene attempting to assist her. The cops broke her window and fired 24 bullets into the car, 12 of which hit Miller. They claim they believed she was reaching for a gun.

The killing has touched a nerve among Black workers and youth here. At a January 4 rally at City Hall, Nadine Blackburn told the Militant, "My brother was being beaten by three cops. When I tried to intervene they threw me on the ground and kneed me, and I was pregnant. I went into early labor. I used to think of the police as peace officers -but they consider themselves judge and jury." In 1996 two Riverside County sheriffs were found guilty of beating immigrant workers with batons, following an 80-mile chase of their pickup truck.

Five hundred people, predominantly residents of Riverside's Black community, attended a Justice for Tyisha Miller rally at the Life Church of God in Christ here January 7. Amidst widespread press reportage, Reverends Dewayne and Bernell Butler, cousins of Miller, demanded the cops be prosecuted.

Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade in Los Angeles, said, "If a savage beast, like a mountain lion, was running around in the Black community, the cops would be more humane to it than they are to us." He and others demanded that the cops involved be taken off "paid vacation," put on trial, and sent to jail.

A statement representing 45 Black churches was read demanding release of the tapes of the 911 emergency call Miller's cousins made requesting help, as well as the names and records of the cops involved.

Seven members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 2785 who work at Northwest Airlines in Los Angeles carpooled to the protest. They presented a statement of support to the family, which also called for the indictment and prosecution of the cops. They were filmed by Channel 7, and the next morning received cheers from their co- workers. Later they gave reports to ramp workers assembled in the breakroom.

The Los Angeles Times, Riverside Press-Enterprise, and Riverside cops and city officials have launched a countercampaign to undercut support for prosecuting the cops. They claim that Miller had alcohol and marijuana in her blood, and a gun in the car.

The FBI has opened an inquiry into the shooting that it says will determine whether a fuller investigation by the Justice department is warranted.

The funeral, attended by 800 people at the New Joy Baptist Church, became another protest against the police killing.

A nondenominational meeting and prayer vigil was held at the Park Avenue Baptist Church January 11. Nearly 500 Riverside residents, Black, white, and Latino, attended. Among those attending were student government leaders and the director of the African Student Program from the University of California at Riverside. They are organizing a campus teach-in against police brutality.

Riverside ministers and community organizations announced that the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade will be a march for justice for Tyisha Miller.

Mark Friedman is a member of IAM Local 2785. Ollie Bivins is a member of United Auto Workers Local 148.

 
 
 
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