Posted on 06/17/2005 6:21:16 AM PDT by cweese
Exactly one week after 18-year old Daniel Rocha was shot to death by an Austin Police Officer, a crowd of angry neighbors addressed city leaders.
The community forum was held at the Dove Springs Recreation Center Thursday night.
"My stomach turned when I heard about it. The first thing I thought was,'how could this be?," Yolanda Alvarez, a concerned Austin resident said.
In the crowd sat three mothers who've lost children to Austin Police Department shootings.
"How could you justify taking someone's loved one?" The mother of Sophia King, Brenda Elendu, asked.
The crowd reacted to new information released that says only one of the three responding officers was videotaping the incident that resulted in Rocha's death.
"Why didn't the two officers have their cameras on?," Daniela Rocha, the victim's mother asked.
"In one of the cars, the officer did not check out a tape. In the second one, she did not entirely turn it on, " APD Assistant Chief Rudy Landeros said.
"Schroeder? Is that the officer?," Rocha asked.
"Yes Ma'am," said Landeros.
The mother of Jessie Lee Owens, a teenager killed in 2003, called for Police Chief Stan Knee's resignation.
"I've spent two years paying attention, and I question whether or not you can regain the trust of the community, because you do not have mine," Barbara Shorts, Owens mother, said.
Knee and other city leaders tried to assure the crowd justice will prevail.
"We make no decision to say whether this was an appropriate or innappropriate use of force. The Grand Jury will do that. In addition, the finest federal law enforcement in this nation, the FBI, will also look at these facts," Knee said.
But those words offered no peace for a crowd of neighbors angry and demanding change.
"It's not about this one night for us, it's about the rest of our lives," Shorts said.
The meeting wrapped up just after midnight. City leaders said afterwards there's a lot of work ahead.
Ping!
thanks.
i just posted the newspaper article.
interesting--
not one mention of the common sense approach to dealing with the police when you're stopped.
1. be polite. "yes, maam". "yes, sir".
2. keep your hands in an open areas.
3. don't fight the police.
Yup, and they want the police chief to resign because one of his officers was apparently doing her job as she was trained to do!
Please pull this. A more comprehensive article has subsequently been posted :
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1424828/posts
How unfortunate, for both sides, that the videos aren't available. Perhaps they could have cleared up the whole mess.
Agreed. It would definitely help in resolving this matter sooner than later!
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