by Adam Wolf
SAN FRANCISCO—Cammerin Boyd, a young Black man, emerged from his car—shirtless and with only one prosthetic leg—yelling, "They [the cops] are going to kill me, they’re going to kill me!" He was right.
On May 5, Boyd stood in a parking lot of a residential community in San Francisco after being chased in his car by San Francisco Police Department officers. With the cops’ guns drawn, Boyd emerged from the car with his hands above his head, saying, "I surrender. Please don’t shoot."
Standing on his one leg and supporting the weight of his body with a hand on his vehicle, Boyd showed no sign of a weapon and there was no indication that he was going to resist arrest.
Nonetheless, the cops insisted that Boyd get on the ground. He started explaining to the cops that he had two prosthetic legs in his possession and therefore could not bend down to the ground, but the cops demanded that Boyd comply with their order. Left with no choice, Boyd reached into his car to grab his other prosthetic leg, simultaneously pleading with the cops not to shoot him.
Then, according to the dozens of witnesses who had gathered in or around the parking lot, the cops shot Boyd. One shot, and Boyd fell to the ground. The cops continued to shoot Boyd, who died at the scene.
Chanel Hawkins was a witness to the shooting. She said, "He [Boyd] put his hands up, and police killed him." Another witness to the killing said that Boyd" was holding his hands up and surrendering" when he was shot.
The cops, who released Boyd’s criminal record to the media well before bowing to public pressure to release the names of the officers involved in the shooting, tell a different story. They claim that Boyd was holding and firing a gun at the time. Their version of the incident, however, is repudiated by a host of the non-officer witnesses.
Another bystander, who was frequently quoted in the local press immediately after the shooting, stated bluntly: "He said, ‘I ain’t got no gun.’ They were still shooting him. He didn’t have any weapons in his hand, and they were still shooting him."
Some say the incident is evidence of the cops’ disregard for the lives of Black men. Others say that the episode is indicative of the cops’ "shoot first, lie later" policy.
One further popular interpretation is that it evinces the cops’ bloodthirsty attitude in the aftermath of the killing of a fellow officer, Isaac Espinoza. Espinoza was shot to death on April 10, while on duty in the Bayview district of San Francisco. (California’s two Democratic U.S. Senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, have called for the death penalty for Espinoza’s alleged killer, over the objections of S.F. District Attorney Kamala Harris.)
Since then, the San Francisco Police Department has ordered a substantial police presence in the Bayview district, a predominantly Black neighborhood. The beefed-up police presence has angered many in the community, who see the new policy as retaliation for the death of Espinoza.
Although the cops insist that neighborhood residents have welcomed the cops with open arms, many residents disagree, comparing the situation to a form of martial law.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has denied allegations that police officers are trigger-happy after Espinoza’s death. Newsom admitted, however, in a rare moment of candor, that he "understands why people would say that." On May 12, a rally took place on the steps of City Hall, demanding a fair and independent investigation into Boyd’s killing.
The article above first appeared in the June 2005 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.
Taken from http://www.geocities.com/mnsocialist/policekilling.html
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