DENVER, COLORADO- Not one Denver cop is going to jail for emptying their sidearm into a carload of teenagers, mostly girls, January 2015, killing just-turned-17 Jessie Hernandez, ON VIDEO, which officers confiscated from a witness. DPD was found to be lying about the joyride suspect aiming her car at officers, wounding one. She did not and the cop was not. The car only veered AFTER officers pumped 18 bullet into the driver as the four other teens screamed. DPD pulled Jessie's expiring body from the vehicle like a sack of potatos and handcuffed it. Now the City of Denver is settling the matter with Jessie's family for under a million dollars according to the local press, who've played no small role in covering up the missing video and blaming the victim by painting Jessie Hernandez as a petty-criminal, even though the "stolen car" belonged to a relative. As if auto theft calls for the death penalty. Because there's some question about immigration status in Jessie's Spanish-speaking family, lawyers and community leaders have quashed public outcry in the interest of working with Denver authorities, to exhonorate the police and minimize a wrongful death settlement.
Tag: Jessie Hernandez
PHOTOS: Activists calling for Justice for Jessica Hernandez in 2015 Denver Pride Parade, blocked police joining in.
DENVER, COLORADO- A #JusticeForJessie action led by Branching Seedz of Resistance jumped into the Denver Pride Parade to block a police contingent from joining the procession. Activists held off the DPD for 10 minutes while leaders spoke against the January 26 murder of queer Latina teen Jessica Hernandez by DPD. After the disruptive standoff, BSEEDZ stood aside and was cheered by passing paraders until tucking themselves back into the parade under cover of allied group. Despite the #Black Lives Matter theme of the MLK Marade earlier this year, no opposition was shown to marching side by side with Denver police. At PRIDE, community youth leaders were having none of that. Just after the start of the parade, BSEEDZ wove through the crowd until they were ahead of the DPD cycles. Then with cries of JUSTICE FOR JESSIE and DISARM THE DPD they stopped the show.
Videos of police behavior will only change things if the public sees them
Many people who watch the Sandusky traffic stop video will claim it's only an isolated incident and is not representative of their local law enforcement. They are very naive and believe the propaganda their police departments have subjected them to for years. Incidents like the one in this video are happening all across America, thousands of times daily. It has been with the growing popularity of the cell phone camera that the citizen are beginning to see and be exposed to the true conditions of their local law enforcement. These conditions are very similar to that of the Gestapo in Germany prior to the second world war. I personally, and a group here in Denver, have witness hundreds of theses very same incidents in actions with the Denver Police Department. There is a growing number of citizen calling for all police to be equipped with body cameras. To put it simply; the camera needs to be in the hands of the citizens, not the police. If you go back and watch the video again and still believe those cops would allow that video to see the light of day, then you are living in an "Alice in Wonderland" world. That is akin to believing that a bank robber would turn over to the prosecutor a video of his crime. I will cite only two of many incidents here in Denver of the police crimes; One Caryn Sodaro was arrested in April for filming Denver police officers physically tormenting a citizen. She is now set for trial in late July, her only crime was in filming the police criminal behavior. Two, Jessica Hernandez, a 17 year old young woman was murdered by the Denver Police Department. The crime of murder by the Denver Police was captured on video by a citizen, to this day the video has remained hidden by the police and the main stream media. Denver DA Mitch Morissey recently gave the Denver police a big thumbs up for their crime. Below the Free Thought Project Video, I read the comments, there was a great deal of anger and frustration with the crimes the police are committing under the banner of "Protect and Serve". I understand that anger, but anger alone will not solve the problem. We must turn that anger into action. Seek out local groups who are in the streets taking action, contact local media by phone, email, put pressure on local judges who are allowing this practice of "Protecting The Police". Continue to make comments, but couple your comments with action. To do anything less would be un-American. You can make a difference, believe in your power as an individual and change will follow.
Heads rolled because the McKinney TX pool party had a video. Where is video of DPD murder of Jessica Hernandez?
The COPS-GONE-WILD video of 14-year-old Dajerria Becton getting manhandled by McKinney Texas police officer Eric Casebolt got him in trouble. It's even meant trouble for the racist woman who started the fight, for the racist who called the cops, for a school principal who defended the officer and for another teacher who defended the racism. I'd love to see repercussions too for the crackers pictured in the video waddling about with impunity as the black teens are being picked out. All that, not because some racist shit went down in McKinney TX, but because someone videotaped it and it went viral. NOW IMAGINE if the cop had pumped four bullets into the teenager, killing her! Imagine if he'd fired a total of eighteen bullets and he kept pulling the trigger even after he'd emptied his magazine! How upsetting would that be to see? If you could imagine that girl a Latina, in a car full of Latina teens, one January morning in Denver, you'd be picturing the police murder of Jessica Hernandez on January 26, 2015. Jessica was unarmed, parked in a vehicle purported to be stolen, with four friends. If you imagined there might be a video of that too, you wouldn't be imagining things. Someone did make a video, in defiance of police ordering everyone to put down their phones. By a twist of unhappy fate, the Denver police took that video into evidence. They assure us it shows nothing remarkable. I imagine that might be what authorities in McKinney TX would say about their pool party video if it wasn't in the public's possession.
Protect and Serve …Who?
When the police show up at your door dressed like this, I assumed the 'Protect" means for them not you. They have done a great job of selling America the "Protect and Serve" but do you really need it? In February 1955, the Los Angeles Police Department, through the pages of the internally produced BEAT magazine, conducted a contest for a motto for the police academy. The winning entry was the motto, "To Protect and to Serve" submitted by Officer Joseph S. Dorobek. In my seventy six years of life, I can count on one finger the times I've had to call the "Serve and Protect" guys. And that was only at the insistence of my Insurance agent who had refused to pay the claim until the police were notified. It did not escape my attention, as I explained to my Insurance agent "Why call the police now? the burglars are already gone, along with my stuff. I'm sure most people fail to notice that the police only show up after a crime; Not before, so where then does the "Protect" come into the equation. It should also be noted; to this day, that the police have never caught the burglar or returned any of my stuff. When I was ten years old, I and some of my friends went to the East-town theater, I saw my first Frankenstein move. That night when my mother told me to go upstairs and go to bed, I refused as I was sure Frankenstein was waiting up there under my bed to get me. I was so scared, I almost shit my pants. In my feverish state of mind, I even thought my mother was conspiring with Frankie so that he could get me. It took me a few years of growing up to figure out, Hollywood was about making movies and money, if they had to scare the shit out of a ten year boy, so be it. The "Protest and Serve" police join a long list of groups and people who use the fear factors to promote their own agenda for their own benefit. And of course the police can protect you from most of them. You might recall some of them; The black man is coming to rob you and take your white women, the brown man is coming to take your jobs, the government is coming to take your guns, the IRS is coming to get your money, the devil is coming to get you for sinning, but then of course you can purchase absolution from guess who? And who among us could ever forget; "Reefer Madness" the propaganda film that was sure to send you out into the streets beginning a career of robbing and raping and those were only two of the milder things that could happen after just one puff. I'm sure the big pharmaceutical companies had much to do with this as they also had their fears of losing their addicted customers. And of course the police
Occupy rally for DPD teen victim Jessie Hernandez rained out, Denver cops deploy anyway. #justiceforjessie
DENVER, COLORADO- Rain kept numbers down at the event yesterday calling for Denver officials to investigate the brutal police murder of Latina teen Jessica Hernandez. Even as the crowd influx never surged beyond steady, over the course of two hours the police force arrayed against Occupy Denver and their allies never wavered from the usual: disproportionate and overwhelming. The DPD is obviously taking no chances with the potential firestorm the teen's killing could ignite in the Denver community. Excellent. Humbled as we may feel that it takes so few activists to threaten the system, we feed off that fear. Individual police officers can denigrate protesters all they want, obviously the protests have their respect.
The police murder of Jessie Hernandez -what happened? (to the outrage)
DENVER, COLO.- The Denver police had really stepped in it this time. At 6:30am on January 26, officers opened fire on a parked car full of unarmed teenage girls, killing Jessie Hernandez with eighteen bullets. This time the most homocidal police force this side of Baltimore used lethal force against a charismatic 17-year-old Latina. Even if officers had confused the queer tom-boy for a male, Jessie wouldn't pass for a boy over eleven. Jessie's killing follows a year rocked by public protests against police excessive force in Ferguson and New York City. Victims Mike Brown and Eric Garner were black males with the attendant stigmas. This victim was literally a poster child. If Jessie had a criminal record it was as a juvenile. The official account immediately began to unravel as witnesses came forward. Most notably, after the passengers were released from jail, one of them said the police fired first, before an officer was struck by the vehicle and not afterward as the officers claimed. Yet the public's revulsion has been measured and dimminishing. What happened? Was the outcry stage-managed? By whom? The aftermath of Jessie's execution was captured on video, in defiance of officers threatening the bystanders. It's only been described to reporters but the Denver Post has it. If the family of Jessie Hernandez decides they don't want people to protest, do we cease protests? If the family doesn't want to see the video, do we stop demanding its release? Of course they don't want to relive the brutality of Jessie's murder, no one does. But the DPD and the Denver Post must not be allowed to draw the curtain on the teen's brutal death. The DPD's actions must be exposed. The family doesn't own this tragic crime. The responsibility to demonstrate against police brutality doesn't fall on them, or the Latino community or the queer community. It falls on everyone. The Denver police own Jessie's murder. They own all eighteen bullets, they own the handcuffing and searching of Jessie's still-live body, they own the jailing of the four other traumatized teens, and they own all the subsequent lies told to excuse the inexcusable, shooting at a carload of unarmed children. If the public is not given the chance to face the reality of police brutality, we'll never stop the DPD.
When Denver policemen train in Israel, city alleys become Iraqi checkpoints
DENVER, COLORADO- When police killed 16-yr-old Jessie Hernandez in a Denver alley where the teen was dropping off a friend on the way to school, they claimed her vehicle had struck a DPD officer. Police jailed her four teen passengers, ordered residents not to videotape, and refused to release details of the incident except a statement from Police Chief White which claimed that all police conduct had been according to protocol. Now journalists have reached one of the teens who reports that police officers fired first, killing the driver, which caused the car to veer toward the officers and crash. Where did Denver police learn they can face a car load of teenage girls and shoot first. Let's note that DPD brags about sending officers to train in Israel. Let's consider too that DPD hires recent veterans who may be suffering from PTSD, some of whom may have experience with the "Iraqi Checkpoints" where vehicle braking speeds were augmented with the stopping power of US bullets. SO, the police lie about shooting Jessie Hernandez after the car struck an officer and not before. Maybe next we'll learn they're lying about the teens' car being "stolen".