Another week, another victim of apparent police murder. Below is a link to a video, along with some commentary/reporting, of one of the latest of these murders – the apparent police murder of Oscar Perez-Giron in Seattle, WA. The testimony in this video completely contradicts the official story, as does some surrounding circumstantial evidence.
- This took place on the platform of the light rail transport system in Seattle, where there are numerous video cameras. No video of this event has been released. Why?
- Oscar’s body has not been released to the family. If the witness’s testimony is true, then Oscar would have been shot at point-blank range and the wounds would prove this. That would tend to contradict the official story.
What are they hiding?
All socialists worthy of the name must speak up without hesitation on this issue!
Watch video here: Oscar Perez-Giron and the Fight for Justice.
(Note: We have contacted socialist City Council member Sawant for a statement on this. Unfortunately, they have not discussed it, but they said they will get back to us. We look forward to publishing their comments.)
Categories: racism, United States
Since this article was written, a security camera video has been released of this shooting. The video does appear to confirm the police account. Several issues remain, however:
First of all is the obvious one that public transit should be free, paid for by tax money. If it had been free, this event would never have occurred.
Second is the issue of why Oscar would have (apparently) pulled a gun in the first place over such a minor issue as not paying his fare. According to the Seattle “Stranger” newspaper, Oscar was not only an undocumented immigrant, but he also hardly spoke Spanish. One can imagine what must have been going through his head. And as the video shows, he sat there peacefully for several minutes, talking (or arguing) with the transit officer before the (armed) sheriff deputy arrived. If armed resistance had been the first thing on his mind, he would have pulled his gun at that time.
We have received several comments not only justifying his killing but almost celebrating it. Normall we are happy to publish different opinions, but these are offensive, and anyway, such right wing types have all sorts of other avenues to air their views. This includes Fox “News”. There are two points here:
First, although it seems the police were giving an accurate account of what happened here, there have been all too many cases of police punching, kicking, clubbing and shooting helpless victims… and then lying about what really happened. The inclination of these right wingers to immediately support the police shows a tendency towards racism and towards siding with the police and similar forces.
Just as important, no matter what kind of person Oscar may or may not have been, he was still a victim of this system. Born into poverty just south of the border, forced to leave his home due to the disastrous situation down there, living his life in constant fear of being deported, having to survive on low wage jobs with no real programs to help him integrate himself into society… If we want to complain about gang violence and crime, let’s start at the top — with the drone bombings of innocent families around the world, with the state of fear that the bosses impose on almost every work place….
The workers movement will never move forward as long as we continue to blame the victims, as long as we show no sympathy for the most downtrodden in society. We will never build a better world that way.
A final point: We spoke with the office of socialist City Council member Kshama Sawant several days ago, asking for her comment on this affair. They said they had been too busy to discuss it. They asked me to send them my questions and they would respond. This was done, but we have not received any response. Kshama Sawant should play a major role in opposing police violence. We hope she speaks out unequivocally on this issue. She should have done so sooner, but it is not too late.
The gun Perez-Giron had was stolen.
He was in the USA illegally.
Perez-Giron’s actions alone led to this incident.
This is NOT police violence…it is about police self-defense.
This NOT about racism…it is about police self-defense.
This is NOT about free trains…it is about police self-defense.
This is NOT about social injustice…it is about pointing a gun at a police officer’s head.
In the first place, MG contradicts him (or her) self:
First they talk about Perez-Giron being in the USA “illegally.” Then they turn right around and claim that the sole issue is “about police self-defense.” But if that’s the issue, then whether Perez-Giron was documented or not is irrelevant.
So why does MG even raise the issue?
We have seen enough of this immigrant bashing to know what stands behind it: At one time, the largest undocumented immigrant group in the USA was Irish immigrants. Nobody raised a stink about that, though. Why do you think that was? Could the fact of Latin American immigrants having in general darker skins and more of a different culture have anything to do with it? Of course it is. And when you scratch beneath the surface, you see the racism involved. Witness, for instance, those protesters against the Latino children right now and the fact that some of them are carrying the racist Confederate flag. True, not all of them are carrying that flag, but you don’t see any of their fellow protesters objecting to it.
Whenever the cops shoot a black or Latino youth, these right-wing racists desperately search of some justification – “he was carrying marijuana” or worse yet, “he had been smoking marijuana” or “he had had run-ins with the cops in the past.” All of that is irrelevant. And let the cops attack whites (which occasionally happen) and you hear a very different song. Waco, Texas or Ruby Ridge? Oh, these are crimes against humanity. But these same people forget all about the police attack on the Move house in Philadelphia.
Back to Oscar Perez-Giron: Yes, assuming the video wasn’t doctored (which probably is possible) it does seem that he pulled a gun. But why? Doesn’t the fact that he was undocumented, on parole, and probably terrified of being sent back to prison and possibly to Mexico have anything to do with it?
Sorry, but but we do have to consider the background. In fact, even MG does, although he or she then turns around and tells us not to consider that. It’s just a matter of what background we consider and how.