Fullerton, CA – On March 6, Fullerton Police Department (FPD) killed Alejandro Campos Rios with bean bag projectiles and a taser. Age 50 and homeless, Rios was dancing and apparently under the influence but not posing any threat. One officer fired a taser while another shot five bean bag shotgun rounds at Rios, who collapsed bleeding and clutching his body. Rios was pronounced dead after arriving at a hospital.

FPD has not released the names of the officers who killed Rios, who were put on administrative leave but returned to work later that week. A member of Community Service Organization Orange County (CSO OC) submitted a Public Records Request on March 20. In response, FPD said they would give a Community Briefing within 45 days of the incident, but that there were “numerous delay provisions” for the release of the officers’ names. Their names have still not been released.

Meanwhile, on March 25, FPD shot and killed Scott William Thompson outside a Wells Fargo bank. Thompson, age 57, allegedly demanded money from the bank and threatened to detonate a bomb if his demands weren’t met. Police killed Thompson when he left the bank. The bomb turned out to be a harmless replica and Thompson was unarmed.

These back-to-back killings and lack of accountability for the officers is unsurprising given that FPD has killed several people in the last several years with no consequences for the killer cops.

Just four years ago, on May 27, 2020 FPD killed 34 year old Hector Hernandez on his front lawn. His hands were raised and empty, and he was following officer commands when Corporal Jonathan Ferrell sicced his K9 on Hernandez. Groaning in pain, Hernandez defended himself with a knife from his pocket, and Ferrell shot Hernandez twice. The city of Fullerton paid $8.6 million to Hernandez’s family in a settlement, but OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer refused to file criminal charges against Ferrell.

On July 5th, 2011, FPD killed Kelly Thomas, who was homeless and struggling with mental illness. He was unresponsive to officers but showed no aggression. Two officers struck Thomas with batons, four officers pinning him down. He was tasered and bludgeoned by officers Jay Cicinelli, Joseph Wolfe and Manuel Ramos. Thomas died five days later at a hospital. The City of Fullerton paid $4.9 million to Thomas’s parents in settlements. While officers were charged, Ramos and Cicinelli were found not guilty on all charges, and charges against Wolfe were dropped.

The ACLU found that of the 142 police shootings in Orange County from 2010-2020, the District Attorney declined to charge officers in all cases, 24 of those cases under Spitzer.

This pattern of police killings with no accountability shows why we need community control of the police in Orange County. Chicano, African American, and other oppressed nationality lives will continue to be lost without it. We need the power to decide what happens to killer cops, the power to approve or deny policing policies that will impact their neighborhoods, the power to decide how much of their money goes to policing and more. CSO OC is a Chicana-led local grassroots organization that fights for peoples’ demands and control over killer cops. If you are interested in joining CSO OC, reach out to orangecountycso@gmail.com or @cso.oc on social media.

#FullertonCA #OCCA #CA #InJusticeSystem #PoliceBrutality #KillerCops #CommunityControlOfPolice #CSOOC #OppressedNationalities #ChicanoLatino #Feature

Santa Ana, CA – “Capitalism has no interest in ending women’s oppression because it benefits from it! We must eradicate gender-based oppression at its source,” declared Rain Mendoza to over 30 attendees at Community Service Organization Orange County’s (CSO OC) first International Women’s Day on Saturday, March 9.

Chants of “When women’s’ rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!” and “Si tocan a una, respondemos todas!” filled the park as community members and leaders alike gathered around the stage. Speakers addressed their demands for International Women’s Day including reproductive rights, LGBTQ liberation, equal pay for equal work, ending gender violence, and standing in solidarity with the women of Palestine.

Emma Gottfried, member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), spoke on the history of International Women’s Day, explaining how it originally commemorated the labor struggle of garment and needle workers of New York City in 1908. Gottfried also spoke on reactionary attacks on LGBTQ people across the country and in California, explaining that recently defeated bill AB 1314 “would have forcibly required teachers and faculty members to out children to their parents if, while they are in school, they identify with a different gender then they were assigned or engage in activities designed for the opposite sex”. Similar bills have since passed, endangering trans youth. Gottfried ended with a call to action, “We have to fight for systematic change for full LGBTQ liberation!”

Diana Terreros, member of CSO OC spoke of a California law that until 2010 legally allowed forced sterilizations of countless Chicana, African American and other oppressed nationality women. She ended her speech with a demand, “We need comprehensive reproductive rights that include not only the right to abortion but also the right to have children without economic barriers and an end to forced sterilizations.”

Jenny Bekenstein, shop steward and active member of the Teamsters union, bridged the roots of International Women’s Day in the labor struggle to the present. She spoke about the recent UPS contract fight. “Because we posed a credible strike threat, the company gave into almost all of our demands a week before the strike was going to happen.” She explained the significance for women, pointing out “the part-time classification has the most women because they have to take care of their families and take on the household work. We were at minimum wage and we won a 50% wage increase over the next five years.”

Noor Aljawad, member of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), described how islamophobia paints Muslim men to be “barbaric oppressive creatures,” and Muslim women to be “agentless, powerless and oppressed.” She pointed out the hypocrisy stating, “there is fake concern for humanity and liberation of Muslim women that has historically been used to justify killing Muslim people.” Referring to Israel, she asked, “If they care about queer rights and women’s rights, why are they so willing to kill them en masse?”

The event went on with more chants, “When Palestinian women are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

Jay Perez recounted heroic stories of women in her personal life defending other women from male violence, statiang, “May we all fight for each other the way my mom fought for a stranger. May we be as fearless and unstoppable as the woman that protected my mom. May we not hesitate to scream and shove and fight back at the forces oppressing us with everything we have!”

The event was organized by CSO OC and included attendees and speakers from USPCN, OC Environmental Justice, Sullivan en Accion, and FRSO.

#SantaAnaCA #OCCA #CA #WomensMovement #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #InternationalWomensDay #Palestine #CSOOC #USPCN #OCEJ #FRSO