Molina was a co-founder of Families of the Wrongfully Convicted and was well known in Chicago for her activity against cop violence and abuse. For the past 10 years she had fought for the freedom of her son, Salvador Ortiz, who was framed up by the cops and sentenced to 47 years behind bars.

On May 24 the cops raided Molina’s apartment. Claiming to have found packets of heroin, they arrested her and another son, Michael Ortiz. Molina was wheelchair bound, had high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and a thyroid condition. Despite her health problems, the cops jailed Molina without her wheelchair and any of her medicine. Two days later she died.

During Molina's detention the police refused repeated attempts by family members to deliver medicine to the ill woman. The cops also denied the request of Molina’s attorney that she be taken to the hospital. “The police were notified that she needed medicine,” said Molina’s lawyer Jerry Bischoff. “The family told the police. It was obvious that she was ill, but the police refused.”

The cops released Michael Ortiz from jail June 16 after a judge declared that the samples seized from his apartment were not illegal drugs. The substance taken were crystals used to make candles.

During Ortiz's 23 days of imprisonment, the cops refused to allow him medicine for his enlarged heart. He was unable to pay the $125,000 bail, so the cops kept him in jail, refusing to allow him to attend his mother’s funeral.

At a press conference the day after being released Ortiz spoke about his anger and his commitment to win justice for his mother. “I have to carry out my mom's legacy because there are many corrupt cops,” he said.

“I hope no other human being goes through what I went through. Being unable to say the last goodbye to my mom,” Ortiz stated at the vigil on June 26.

“It is outrageous that they denied May Molina medical care and her medicine,” Andy Thayer, a member of the Anti-Gay-Bashing Network said at the event. “I hold the police department and the mayor of Chicago responsible for her death.”

Present at the vigil were Michael Ortiz, who had been released from jail one week earlier; other relatives; members of Families of the Wrongfully Convicted; the group Comite Exigimos Justicia (We Demand Justice Committee); and the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists.

SWP candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois Maurice Williams, who joined the vigil, stated, “My campaign supports the fight for justice for May Molina and call for jailing the cops responsible for her death.”

Mary Johnson, a longtime community activist and opponent of the death penalty told Militant reporters, “The cops harassment of May Molina has been going on for some time. Their policy of not giving people their medicine is absurd.”

Johnson is a co-founder with Molina of Families of the Wrongfully Convicted and is fighting to win freedom for her son who was railroaded to prison. Referring to the acknowledgment by the cops that they found no drugs in the arrest of Molina and her son, Johnson asked, “How do they compensate people who have been disrespected and dragged from their homes? What can they do for the humiliation, pain, and suffering people have to endure?”

“May Molina was always being harassed by the police but she kept fighting for her son,” said Anabel Perez. “The police raided her house last year but no formal charges were filed.”

Perez, who is fighting the frame-up conviction of her son Jaime Hauad, has taken on more leadership responsibilities in Families of the Wrongfully Convicted after Molina’s death. She said the group plans to hold a vigil on the 26th of each month to commemorate Molina’s commitment to the struggle against police brutality.

“This is not just May’s cause,” Perez added. “This happens to a whole lot more people. Many families are brutalized by the police but they don't let others know. If families let their neighbors and others know about what the cops did we can unite and stop them.”

In a related development, for the first time since the 1980s, a Chicago cop was formally charged June 3 with official misconduct and battery. The police officer, Bryan Vander Mey, was videotaped along with several other cops punching and kicking people they had dragged from a van April 17, 2003. Vander Mey was indicted one week before he was formally charged and has been fired, pending a police board hearing.  
 
 
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