Coalition for Justice and Accountability
Report to Special San Jose City Council Meeting on Police Issues (June 21, 2007)
The Coalition for Justice and Accountability is a community-based coalition that has been working on police accountability issues for the past four years. We are a cross section of this city's ethnic landscape, and are made up of organizations, agencies, and individuals from all San Jose districts.
The Coalition for Justice and Accountability implores the City Council take the urgently needed steps towards more accountability and transparency in regards to the San Jose Police Department. Given our years of experience in organizing work with San Jose communities, we believe the current civilian oversight model, the Independent Police Auditor's Office, is an inadequate mechanism for real, substantive police accountability due to its limitations. We support the three recommendations offered by the 2006 IPA year End Report, as the minimum steps needed to bring integrity to our complaint process. The following recommendations are:
• Have clear and objective criteria for complaint classification, and allow the IPA to have authority over classifications.
• That there is mandatory administrative investigations and IPA review of all critical incidents.
• The IPA be given investigative powers to follow through with complaints that are dismissed by the Internal Affairs .
The CJA believes these recommendations are reasonable, long over-due, and the least the City can do in the aim of building public confidence in the governance of the San Jose Police Department.
The CJA also offers our own policy recommendation that the use of Tasers be banned in San Jose immediately, given the abusive and even lethal impact the implementation of the weapon has had on the public.
The following report is a collection of a number of active community campaigns for police accountability. They offer informational backgrounds of each case, which will greater illuminate the need for accountability and transparency, as well as their own policy recommendations that are intended to help reduce the number of police misconduct cases. We hope the Council takes the time to evaluate each report, as they are direct testimonies from the experiences of community members who have come to embody the imperative need for more accountability.
Included in the report:
• Justice for Steve Salinas Campaign
• Justice for Custodio Family Campaign
• Justice for Stephen Johnson Campaign
• Justice for Rudy Cardenas Campaign
Justice for Steve Salinas Campaign
Report to Special San Jose City Council Meeting on Police Issues
(June 21, 2007)
My father Steve Salinas was a tragic victim on 5-25-07 in San Jose,Ca from being tased by whom was supposed to be SJPD's finest officers. The police are supposed to be there to serve and protect our community and citizens. I would like to note as well, this has affected my life badly, and I am still grieving tremendously, behind my father's death. My father was my world and my everything, and someone decided to take that from me, and that someone was SJPD officers. I am very disappointed with SJPD and their actions and needless to say their careless ways, in leading someone to lose their life, behind being beaten and tased and allowing their heart to stop.I
I propose that tasers be banned and hopefully no longer used here in our community and in the City of San Jose. I am hoping the community will work together, to fight and claim back our city and for every citizen who was born and raised here in San Jose to feel safe in their home town. Again as a community, we need to fight against these violent and alarming tactics, that once again is killing our community and we as the people are suffering on a daily basis.
Again, I am asking that the tasers be banned from SJPD, and so they can no longer abuse the community, and allow the SJPD to hide behind such an awful weapon. Please ban the tasers from our community, and hopefully you can hear the pain through these couple of paragraphs, and know my suffering from a loss of a parent. I would also like to note I will continue to fight until justice will be done and served, and will dedicate all my energy and time and pain to continue in the remembrance of Steve Salinas.
Policy Recommendations:
• Ban tasers from the San Jose Police Department.
Justice for Custodio Family Campaign
Report to Special San Jose City Council Meeting on Police Issues
(June 21, 2007)
On February 5, 2007, Marlo, Romel, and Marilou Custodio, three unarmed Filipino residents of Evergreen Valley in San Jose, Ca were subjected to a series of unprovoked attacks by multiple members of the San Jose Police Department and later arrested to cover up these blatant acts of police brutality. The family members, along with a large base of community support led by the Justice for Custodio Family Coalition, are demanding that the District Attorney, Dolores Carr, drop the bogus misdemeanor charges filed against them.
The Justice for Custodio Family Campaign shares concern for the safety of San Jose residents alongside with the Coalition for Justice and Accountability, and members of families victimized by police brutality perpetrated by the San Jose Police Department. We question the efficacy of current systematic measures to address, meet, and respond to citizens' grievances against the police department due to SJPD's practice of racial profiling, excessive force, ignoring protocol, and the like. We echo CJA in their hopes for the creation of an alternate, independent body to house, monitor and facilitate complaints against the police department.
We do not agree with San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis that all is well with the state of the SJPD. The recent taser death of Steve Salinas by SJPD police officers this past May 25 th, 2007 screams against that lie. The Justice for Custodio Family Campaign believes in the right for all citizens to live without fear from those who have sworn to serve and protect them. We believe that these crimes against the citizenry are amongst the worst of betrayals of pubic servants to the public itself. We stand firmly in solidarity and in unity with all justice loving San Jose residents and families terrorized by police misconduct and brutality.
In the case of the Custodio Family, SJPD police officers tasered Marlo Custodio when he was already compliant, beat and tasered Romel Custodio longer than the time allowed in standard protocol, slammed Marilou's head against the front hood of a police car three times. In addition, Marilou Custodio was frisked and searched by two male police officers without the presence of a female officer, another blatant violation of SJPD protocol.
Policy Recommendations:
These facts compel the Justice for Custodio Family Campaign to demand the following policy changes in the San Jose Police Department:
• Immediate end to SJPD practice of racial profiling of people of color in San Jose, CA.
• Ban use of tasers.
• Institutionalize accountability measures for failure to follow established protocols.
• Institutionalize SJPD cooperation with civilian oversight organizations.
Justice for Stephen Johnson Campaign
Report to Special San Jose City Council Meeting
on Police Issues
(June 21, 2007)
My name is Stephen Johnson and I have been a victim of continual harassment and brutality at the hands of the San Jose Police Department. In March of 2006 I was tased by several police officers after Officer Lira, a cop with 15 years of experience he would later tell me, waited three hours for me outside of what used to be Tower Records by Oakridge Mall. I had a conversation earlier in the night about police misconduct and it apparently didn't sit well with him. I was with two friends and although I was not the driver of the vehicle or in the front passenger seat, I was first asked for my ID card and later demanded out of the car before eventually being forcibly removed from the car. I was wearing my seatbelt the entire time and was not given a reason the first three times I asked for what reason I was being asked for my Identification. I was tased in the neck, drug out of the car and tased more times after I yelled loudly that I wasn't resisting arrest. Later on in the holding cell I was tortured by uniformed employees there. Unfortunately this would not be my last encounter with the police as I was pulled over on my bike and arrested for being under the influence in late January. For what I was under the influence of, you'd have to tell me. Four hours were wasted out of my life for what the officer described as me being aggressive after he pulled me over for not making a turn signal, on my bike. The case was later dismissed after I went to court, presumably because of the negligence with which the officers acted in regards to the law. My most recent arrest came on May 5th, 2007 when Sergeant Aereman (I believe that's how you spell it) attempted to illegally detain me, actually threw handcuffs at me, chased me down in his car and then charged me with resisting arrest. Again, what arrest I was resisting, you'd have to tell me. I was actually leaving the grocery store when I observed Sergeant Aereman and another member of the police department verbally assaulting two African descended males. When Aereman motioned for me to go along and I motioned to him I would not, he threatened me with a taser blast. He then walked over to me, attempted to physically restrain me without any cause. I rode my bike back to the house and was followed by him, threatened with a taser gun once I was trapped and later punched in the face by a late arriving officer, officer Urban. These are just some of my main experiences with people who are here supposedly to protect and serve me.
I actually had to plead to a lesser charge for the case in which I was tased because of trickery that was played the days before my trial. The case involving my bike was dismissed and I recently went to my first court date for the incident on the 5th of May. I would like all of the charged dropped and the officers charged in all of the cases who brutalized me and violated my rights. I have suffered mightily as a result of all of these incidents and believe, just like every thinking person should, that justice needs to be served and compensation awarded.
Policy Recommendations:
- The best thing the city council can do right now is to hand control over to a civilian review board and community based complaint centers when there are allegations of police brutality and harassment.
• There needs to be video tapes accessible in every car that are available to community members to view every month so that there will be no controversy.
• There needs to be unpaid suspension for those who are accused of misconduct and special departments to deal with these matters considering the horrific legacy of police misconduct in San Jose.
Justice for Rudy Cardenas Campaign
Report to Special San Jose City Council Meeting on Police Issues
(June 21, 2007)
On February 17, 2004, Rudy Cardenas was shot and killed in a case of mistaken identity by state undercover agent, Michael Walker. In July of 2004, Walker was indicted by a Grand Jury on Voluntary Manslaughter charges. In February of 2005, Walker's attorneys attempted to get the indictment overturned but a Judge ruled against it. In December of 2005, Michael Walker was declared not guilty of the charges, despite the overwhelming evidence against Walker's guilt.
The San Jose community mobilized to support the family of Rudy Cardenas, holding vigils, marches, collecting petitions, and conducting meetings with city government officials. Despite the not-guilty verdict, the Cardenas family stands strong in pushing for police accountability so that incidents like this do not happen again to innocent civilians. ÒIt's time that people of such stature be held accountable for their actions just as anyone else would have to be,Ó says Regina Cardenas, daughter of Rudy. ÒWe would like to let people know that this incident is not and will not be forgotten. Rudy is only of the many that's been wrongfully killed by police and there needs to be an end to such crimes.Ó
Although the San Jose Police Department was not the lead police department in handling the incident (as Michael Walker was a state agent), SJPD officers were on hand at the scene of the crime. Cardenas family members met with then Chief of Police Rob Davis who promised respectful protocol when it comes to media and family notification of the incidents.
Policy Recommendations:
Towards that end, the Justice for Rudy Campaign calls for the following policy changes in the San Jose Police Department:
- Immediate notification of incident to next of kin involving a death in the hands of a police officer. In the case of Rudy Cardenas, Cardenas family members discovered the unjust death of Mr. Cardenas through the media, when SJPD and hospital officials had known for at least 6 hours that Mr. Cardenas had passed away because of the fatal gunshots from Michael Walker.
- Refraining from releasing information to the media regarding any background of the victim to the media before the police report is officially released. Rudy Cardenas was unjustly portrayed as a criminal in the media even before any facts of the incident were proven, and then Chief of Police Rob Davis promised Cardenas family members at a meeting that nothing about such incidents would be released until the investigation was complete. It seems that in an attempt to ensure that shootings are justified, police release background information of the victim as though to prove that the incident was called for. Even after making such promises, SJPD was still slandering victims in incidents following the shooting of Rudy Cardenas.
- Immediate first aid relief to any victim injured in the hands of a police officer. Rudy Cardenas was not administered any first aid for 10 minutes, despite the San Jose Medical Center then being located less than a minute away. While Mr. Cardenas bled to death, emergency paramedics were kept at bay while police officers snapped pictures of the scene of the murder.
