BY LEA SHERMAN
HOUSTON - A grand jury here refused to indict the six
Houston police involved in the killing of 22-year-old Pedro
Oregón Navarro on any felony charges. Only one cop was
indicted for misdemeanor criminal trespassing in the October 19
ruling. All the cops have been suspended with pay since July
12, when the Mexican worker was shot to death in his apartment.
This ruling has sparked widespread condemnation and outrage in the city, as many of the facts of the case have been widely publicized. The police entered Oregón's apartment with no search or arrest warrants, supposedly acting on an informer's tip about drugs. They fired more than 30 shots at Oregón, hitting him 12 times. Nine bullets entered his back, and once in the head. The shots were all fired from above and behind, according to a coroner's sketch. No drugs were found in the apartment or in his system during the autopsy.
A little more than an hour after the grand jury verdict, a protest and news conference was held in front of the courthouse with all the major television stations reporting from the protest for the 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. news. The action was called by the Justice for Pedro Oregón Coalition.
In the steady rain, more than two dozen protesters chanted in English and Spanish, "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"; "Jail, jail, jail the killer cops"; and "The jury wants the facts? Twelve shots in the back!" Some joined the anti-police brutality action as they came out of the courthouse. Two students from Houston Community College who saw the protest on the 5:00 p.m. news joined the action, outraged by the court's decision.
Pedro Oregón's mother, Claudia Navarro, and his sister Susana Oregón, who have led this fight for justice, joined the news conference for a short time with their attorney, Paul Nugent. In addition to a civil suit, the family is demanding federal civil rights investigation.
In a statement to the press, the coalition condemned the grand jury's refusal to indict the six cops who killed Pedro Oregón on murder charges, and called for a march and rally October 25 in the neighborhood where Oregón was killed.
Harris County officials had no intention of pressing charges against the cops. Five days after the shooting, District Attorney John Holmes made this clear. "I don't know of any authority at this point that gave them the right to be in that residence," Holmes told the July 17 Houston Chronicle. "But that doesn't make the shooting a crime."
At the end of August Holmes turned the case over to the grand jury with no charges. Since grand jury proceedings are secret, none of the evidence presented, nor questions asked of the cops who testified, have been available to the public.
In the face of overwhelming condemnation of the decision by working people throughout the city, many local politicians have felt compelled to call for some type of federal action in the case. This includes Houston mayor Lee Brown, three city council members, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
City officials raised the specter of a violent reaction to the ruling, which was played up in the press in the weeks leading up to the decision. This aided a campaign to discourage people from taking part in public displays of outrage, such as protest actions. Leaders of various Latino groups and politicians have encouraged people to be patient and "wait for the system to work."
In the week before the grand jury decision, the Justice for Pedro Oregon Coalition held a widely covered press conference to announce that a demonstration would be held in the wake of whatever decision came down and to note that all the actions so far have been peaceful and legal. The only violence has come from the cops involved in the killing of Oregón, the coalition statement noted.
Laura Garza, Socialist Workers candidate for governor, strongly condemned the travesty of justice carried out by the grand jury and called on all those outraged by the decision to join the October 25 protest at 2:00 p.m. at Bellaire and Hillcroft in southwest Houston. "Only a determined public campaign of meetings, speak outs, and protest marches can force officials to do what they have shown by their actions they do not want to do - that is, to bring charges against the cops who killed Oregón, present all the devastating evidence, and sentence the guilty cops to jail," she declared. "The treatment given to working people like Oregón, especially Blacks, Latinos, youth, and immigrant workers shows the so- called justice system is really a system that serves the ruling rich - the factory owners, landlords, and bankers."
Lea Sherman is a member of the International Association of Machinists and the Socialist Workers candidate for Congress in the 29th C.D.