Derrick Gaines, a 15-year-old of
multiracial descent, was shot and killed by a South San Francisco Police
Department officer on June 5, just before 9 p.m.
According to police, on the night of the shooting, an officer
approached two teens who they said appeared to be "acting suspiciously."
Then, the police say, one of the teens--Derrick--ran, drew a gun from
his waistband and pointed it--at which point the officer gunned him
down.
Eyewitnesses tell a different story of events that night, and say
that Derrick never drew a weapon and was instead shot down by an officer
who brutalized and restrained him first--throwing him to the ground
with such force that a shoe was knocked off his foot.
Derrick's friends and family have staged multiple actions at the Arco
gas station where the shooting happened. Despite their overwhelming
grief, Derrick's mother and great aunt, Rachel Guido-Red and Dolores Piper, are courageously demanding that the truth be heard.
They spoke with Socialist Worker's about what happened the night of Derrick's death, and their struggle for justice.
Derrick Gaines
COULD YOU start by telling us about Derrick and how was he known in the South San Francisco community?
Dolores: He was an extremely sociable kid from the
time he was an infant, and that was the way he grew up. He always wanted
to be with people, with other kids, his friends, adults, and it was
probably the most charming part of him.
He was really not a confronter of any sort, all through school, never
with teachers, adults or other kids. He was even on conflict resolution
panels in elementary school because, that was how he was. He loved
sports, both basketball and football, but he was impacted by physical
disabilities that made sports tough on him.
When he played these vigorous games or would even just run, for PE
class, he sometimes wouldn't be able to walk afterward. He had a lot of
pain that he dealt with continually in the ankles and feet, so he was a
trooper. In all the years that he was in elementary school, junior high
and high school, I never had a teacher come to me and say, "Derrick
swore at me," or "He was disrespectful."
So, anytime he had any dealings with law enforcement, he was never
one of those kids who would be disrespectful or outrageous. His eighth
grade Social Studies teacher wrote me a beautiful letter, and she said
that she really believed that Derrick would be in some profession that
would change the lives of others with his understanding of history and
social justice. She said that his presence in her class elevated the
level of conversation.
What you can do
As part of continuing efforts to keep Derrick's memory alive
and win justice in the struggle to hold the police accountable, events
are being planned in South San Francisco for September 20, the day that
would have been Derrick's 16th birthday, and September 22. More
information about these and other events will be available at
SocialistWorker.org as it develops.
She described him as "wise beyond his 13 years." I've been carrying
it [the letter] around. I actually read the entire thing at his funeral,
and in it, she said that it [Derrick's murder] was outrageous racism on
the part of the South City Police Department.
WHAT FACTS do you want to put out there to challenge what the South City police are saying?
Rachel: That Derrick was murdered. They murdered my son.
Dolores: The first thing the police department told
us was that they were very involved with the kids in the local schools,
that they know the South City kids really well, the ones who are
struggling or what have you. And I know that isn't true.
They don't know our kids at all. How can they? If they did, things like this wouldn't happen. But people know us
here. I've lived here 40 years, I raised a son here and, well, you
might as well say a grandson too [referring to Derrick]. People know us
here. And right after this thing happened, the first thing that his
friends did, that our friends did when they heard...
Rachel: And his teachers. All of Derrick's teachers.
Dolores: Right. His friends, teachers, everyone, all
came and said that Derrick was a good kid, and would never do anything
like that. He's not the kind of kid to be threatening people with a gun,
especially a cop.
THAT'S WHAT the cops are saying, isn't it--that Derrick pulled a gun?
Rachel: Yeah, and now they're saying he was a gang banger.
Dolores: See, and this is my whole thing: I don't
want the community to think of him in that way. The people who knew him
know he wasn't that way.
Rachel: Regardless of what they said, the proof is in the pudding anyway.
Dolores: The cops have already interviewed
everybody, so they know what we know. One of the witnesses, one who saw
everything, has told us that what the South City police have put out as
the official story is a lie. That it absolutely didn't happen that way.
There was never any gun visible or any attempt on Derrick's part to
reach for a gun. He simply turned his back on the cop and attempted to
run away.
One of the things that really hurts is that Derrick died as an
unknown. The cop who killed him didn't know who he was, and he went with
no name to San Francisco General Hospital. The staff at SF General had
to give him a pseudonym. Derrick died unknown at the hospital. It's so
sad--this was our beloved kid. I wrote a letter of thanks to the
hospital staff, who did everything they could for Derrick.
Rachel: But the cops at the station knew who he was
from questioning his companion. They knew who he was. They murdered him.
Derrick was murdered. And they had no regard for Derrick's life. All
the way to the hospital, they just treated him like a statistic. Like he
wasn't even worth a call to his family--and they knew who he was.
They never called us, never told us anything. I didn't find anything
out until I went to the station--actually the boy that was with him came
to the house and told me, and then I went down to the station. See,
they let the boy who was with him go right away, but another
witness--they kept them there for four and a half hours, probably
because they wouldn't change their story.
FOR OUR readers who are unfamiliar with the facts surrounding the case, what happened when you went down to the police station?
Rachel: I went down to the station late at night and
the front was all locked up, so I started banging on the doors and
finally, they sent an officer to let me in--I knew him, Officer DeSouza.
He knew me personally. He knew my family.
I asked him if it was my son who was killed, and he didn't know how
to answer me, he didn't want to answer me. He couldn't even look at me.
He's a father of two, and it must be hard for him to stand by a
department that is killing our children at will. He eventually said yes,
and a female officer came to the door and I got some more information.
That's how I know they knew who Derrick was. And then the officer came
to the house to search it.
SO, YOU went down to the police station for
information about your son, and they told you they have to search your
house? Did they have any kind of warrant, or give you any explanation?
Rachel: No, no warrant, no explanation. And I was
just in shock. But I insisted the officer who knew me be one of the
people at the house when it was being searched.
Dolores: Yeah. It was him and three detectives.
Rachel: They searched Derrick's room, and they
searched the garage. They didn't find anything, but they didn't really
say what they were looking for.
WHAT WAS your reaction to that? How did it make you feel when they insisted they search your house?
Rachel: My aunt, she's shocked by what they did.
I've been dealing with these people [cops] for a long time, and I know
how they work, and I wasn't shocked. And from day one, I was convinced
what they were telling us was a lie. Because I drove by the scene that
night not knowing that it was Derrick, and I'm going to be honest with
you. When I drove by that night, it looked strange.
I saw all the police officers and I saw the yellow tape and I said,
"It looks like they're trying to get their story together," because
that's what it looked like. They were all running around, some standing
in circles, one would go over here, another over there. It looked really
weird.
WHAT HAVE your interactions been like with the police, district attorney's office or media since then?
Rachel: There isn't any. [With the cops,] they say
they don't know, they weren't there--when I drove by the whole
department was there--and that's it.
Dolores: Well, with the DA's office investigating
they aren't saying anything; they can't say anything. I kind of expected
that. But they could save the taxpayers a whole lot of money if they
just admitted what happened and accepted responsibility for what they
did.
DO YOU know what's happened to the cop who murdered Derrick?
Rachel: They haven't released his name. They put
Derrick's name out right away, and they did it without asking our
permission even though he's a minor, but they didn't release the
officer's name. And they still haven't.
Apparently, he's on administrative leave. I don't know if it's with
pay or not. I'll say this. I want to see the officer who murdered
Derrick serve time. And I don't mean what Johannes Mehserle [the officer
that shot and killed Oscar Grant at an Oakland BART station in 2009]
got, two years.
San Mateo County doesn't let you break any rule – they "prosecute to
the fullest extent," and they gave me two years in prison for a $150 bad
check. But Mehserle gets two years somewhere else for murder. It'll be
interesting to see if San Mateo County holds the same standards for
their officers, if they hold him accountable the way they go after
regular people.
I want to see the cop who killed Derrick get 25 years to life. No two
years, 25 to life. If we get anything from the civil suit, I will use
it all up to fight these guys to press criminal charges, that's what I
will do. It's not about the civil case, I want to see the officer do
time.
WHAT ARE your demands now--what does justice for Derrick mean to you? What do you see as the next steps?
Dolores: You know, the police have on the sides of
their cars "protect and serve"--these teenagers need to be protected
from the police.
Rachel: Our teenagers need protection from them.
Dolores: I want to see this department come out and
admit they were wrong, own up to what they did--publicly--and apologize.
I want them to say Derrick did not pull a gun. Are they going to
squelch all the witnesses, contradict all of them?
Rachel: And we want to make sure this man [the
officer who shot Derrick] will not be on the streets. We want his job,
and I want him behind bars.
Dolores: They have to change policy. When the
police set out these very aggressive policing policies, there's going to
be more of this kind of tragedy. Is there no alternative to shooting
people? What about physically restraining them, or handcuffs?
HOW DO you see Derrick's case tying in to other case
in the Bay Area, like Alan Blueford, Raheim Brown and James Rivera Jr.?
What do you think the prospects are for all of the families who have
suffered losses like this coming together and struggling for justice?
Rachel: Well, it's hard. There's a lot of grief and
pain, and the system is just so slow. It's a long process fighting
something like this. I was talking to one man who's been fighting for 16
years for justice for his brother. There's just not a lot of help for
the ones who are left behind.
I believe it's possible, but it's going to take a lot of work. It's
going to take people saying, "Look, we all have something in common.
We've all lost someone we really, truly love who didn't deserve to die,"
and take action from there. Whether it's chaining yourself to the
police station, a rally, a march to the White House, whatever it might
be.
And it's going to take numbers. I believe it's possible, but it takes
a lot of work. I mean, what else can we do? I still have a little one
to raise, and he's going to see his teenage years without his brother. I
want to see him grow up, and not be faced with this sort of thing.
Something's got to change.
No comments:
Post a Comment