Modesto Police Terrorize Family in West-Side in Wake of Shooting

Police in West Modesto.

On March 5th, a shooting occurred near John Thurman Field in West Modesto. According to the Modesto Police, whose statements were reprinted almost word-for-word in the Modesto Bee, a uniformed officer in a car witnessed a drive-by shooting occur in which a house was fired upon (no one was injured). Then, according to the police, the suspects ran out of the car and into a residential neighborhood, while police searched the car and found a weapon. At this point, Ceres Police, SWAT, and Stanislaus County Sheriffs had joined the search. The suspects ran through the backyards of the neighborhood, with police giving chase.

At this point in the story, what the police say happened diverges completely from what witnesses and family members of those arrested, interviewed by Modesto Anarcho, have put forth. According to the police, chasing the person they believed to be the shooter led them to a home on the 900 block of Rouse Avenue, where they arrested a young man, Anthony Nunez. The police claim that Anthony was the driver of the car that was responsible for the drive-by shooting. Cops say that when they arrived, Greg Woody, boyfriend of Anthony's mother, Kenny Nunez, was found 'cleaning finger prints off of the firearm.' Greg was arrested on parole violations and felony possession of a firearm, while Anthony was arrested on felony discharge of a weapon and a host of other crimes.

"An open-and-shut case," the police tell us. "Police departments converged in a low-income neighborhood, torn apart by gang violence, where the police are the only thing protecting the good citizens from sadistic violence." The media repeats verbatim the cops' story. White, middle-class citizens reading the news see photos of young Mexican-American youth arrested and think the streets are much safer. After all, the police wouldn’t lie and the newspaper never fibs, right?

According to the family and neighbors of Anthony and Greg, what actually happened on March 5th, a day that has completely changed this family's lives forever, was very different – and much more terrifying, than the story put out by the police and the Modesto Bee.

Greg and Anthony's family, who pride themselves on getting their kids to and from school every day and on their work in the contracting business, were relaxing on a Monday evening when they heard gun shots. They became aware of the gravity of the situation as they saw two young men running through their yard. The family's neighbor then alerted them that one of the runners had dropped a hand gun in their yard. Greg, a contractor who was only a few days away from getting off parole on a DUI charge, didn’t want a gun in his yard nor want it around children and went to go get the handgun while his girlfriend, Kenny Nunez and her two boys, Anthony and Thomas, waved the police over to the house, thinking that they could hand them the gun and get on with their evening. When police quickly arrived to the scene however, the families’ dogs began barking and one even jumped over the fence to meet the cops head on. Police then began firing on the dog with rubber bullets while Kenny attempted to get the dog back inside the gate without being shot herself.

Once Kenny had taken the dogs inside the house, police entered the yard in droves and began detaining those on the property. Greg was arrested after he attempted to give the police the firearm that was left in his yard. Police would later claim he was trying to “wipe off the fingerprints” on the gun. Police then proceeded to detain the entire family outside including Kenny, her daughter, and her two twin sons, one of which was Anthony. According to Kenny in her interviews, Anthony verbally stood up to the cops and told them how he felt about the situation and what the police were doing to his family, resulting in the police setting upon him with a barrage of questioning. Anthony remained clear in his resolve that he was not involved in the shooting and had not left his house during the evening. Police also took this time to insult Anthony, calling him repeatedly a "pussy."

Anthony was then arrested by police and put into a cop car. Kenny said that she wanted to speak with him before he was taken anywhere or interviewed by police. She also explained to the police over and over again that all of her children were inside the house with her and had not left the house since they returned home from school - and that they were not involved with the shooting. Police insisted that Anthony was the driver of the car that was involved in the drive-by shooting and told Kenny they were going to take him in for questioning. It should be noted that neither of Kenny’s twins know how to drive, or have drivers' licenses (they are both are 17). By this point, the police had entered and ransacked the house looking for evidence connecting the family to the shooting. They found nothing.

Although police told Kenny that they would not question or leave with Anthony before talking to her, they proceeded to shut the cop car doors and drive off, with Anthony on his way to the Modesto Police Station and then Juvenile Hall.

Anthony’s family was then left to survey the destruction that the police had left. Two of their dogs had been shot with rubber bullets. Several of the windows of their home had been broken out. They also found several burn marks on the ground which they believe to be the remnants of flash or smoke grenades (before the police left, they were reminding each other to ‘pick up the canisters.’)

Almost two weeks have passed since the arrest of Greg and Anthony, and both remain in custody. Greg, although his charges have been dropped, is waiting to finish with the parole board and be released. Anthony faces multiple felony charges, even though police have tested (swabbed) him for gunpowder residue, and the results have come up negative. After the arrest, Kenny and a neighbor who witnessed the event visited the Modesto Police station in an attempt to explain that the men they saw running did not include, nor look anything like Anthony. Despite eye-witnesses' and Anthony's family's testimony, the police are sure that they have their man.

This case makes several things very clear. First and foremost, the role of the police in our communities is not to keep us safe, nor are they here to protect us from a dangerous criminal element. When members of Greg and Anthony’s family attempted to flag down police, they did this with the belief that they could peacefully and without incident, give the cops the weapon that had landed in their yard. Instead, they were arrested and treated, as if they were the shooters themselves. To the police, everyone on the street was a potential suspect and target. This is the same mentality that we see in the repeated killings and massacres of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq by US soldiers – and it’s no surprise, for they both serve the ultimate goal of repression.

When police realized that they allowed the real shooters to escape, they needed to save face and had to take someone in. The goal of the police that day and in all interactions with the public, is not to make people safe, or ‘bring to justice’ to those that hurt or transgress others. It is simply to preserve the present social order and repress the population.

Lastly, is should be pointed out that situations like these are exactly the kinds in which police shoot and murder people in cold-blood. An unarmed Oscar Grant is shot and killed as he lays face down after a fight at a BART station breaks out in the East Bay. Alberto Sepulveda, age 11, is shot and killed in Modesto during a raid by police looking for drugs, while he lies on his stomach. Sammy Galvan is shot and killed in Modesto while cooking food at his mother’s house after police respond to a domestic call and later claim he tried to attack them with a knife. Francisco Moran is shot and killed by Modesto Police in East Modesto after he ‘reaches for a knife,’ which turns out to be a spatula. Rita Elias is shot and killed by an off-duty Sheriff in West Modesto who is attempting to evict Rita to help out her landlord parents. But it is not just the outright murder which is designed to terrify the people that the police supress, but the very threat that at any moment police can, and do, kill at will.

Disruption of Modesto PD meeting.

The Modesto Bee, like all mainstream media, reports on whatever the police tell them without doing any sort of investigation or attempting to interview anyone involved. Of course, this style of "reporting" is nothing new. It wasn’t until cell-phone video of the murder of Oscar Grant was released by the public that the media began reporting on a different perspective of the shooting. By reporting whatever the police feed them, newspapers keep a tight relationship with the police and stay on the good sides of the local elite. But it’s not just police brutality and shootings that the media helps to gloss over, they also cover up resistance to the cops themselves. In December of 2010, people wearing masks of Francisco Moran and Rita Elias marched into an accreditation meeting at the Modesto station chanting “Cops, Pigs, Murderers,” disrupting the proceedings. It wasn’t until the story was written about in Modesto Anarcho that the Modesto Bee was forced to comment on it, even though reporters were there at the scene.

Incidents like what happened on March 5th are terrifying, but they also represent a very real chance for us to get organized and come together as neighbors and as people disgusted with police terror. We can start to see the police for what they are and what they represent and begin to organize ourselves to solve our own problems. We can make our own media and share our own stories so we don’t have to rely on those that work for the cops. Above all, we have to come together to support those that have been targeted by the police and get them out of jail and back into our arms.

FREE GREG!
FREE ANTHONY!

Upcoming Event: Occupy Everything!: A History of Social Struggles in the Central Valley

Saturday, March 24th: Occupy Everything: A History of Social Struggles in the Central Valley

Click to make larger.

Occupations, student walk-outs, and clashes with the police are nothing new - in the Central Valley or across the world. Recent social struggles in the area must inform the growing occupy movement into one that can take on the very basis of power that currently dominates and controls us. 


This event will dive into a both a critique of the current Occupy movement as well as looking at how the struggles of poor, oppressed, and working people have fought and struggled in the recent past and how these movements can give us strength in the battles to come. 


Event is free!
Starts @ 7pm
410 James Street, 
Firehouse 51, Modesto

Potluck, bring a dish to share!

Fascists Confronted in Sacramento; Clashes with Police Break Out in the Street

Police leaving the scene!

On Monday, February 27th, over 100 counter-demonstrators turned out to shut down a Sacramento rally of white-nationalist and fascist groups under the banner of the 'South-Africa Project,' a group which condemns attacks against white-farmers since the fall of Apartheid by non-white people. To read more information about the white power groups bottom-lining and organizing the events across the US, check out our previous article here. Appearing at the Capitol at around 11 AM, counter-demonstrators at first attempted to stop the group of mostly bald-headed white-men from marching onto the steps with banners and shields positioned between themselves and the racists. Unable to push through the police and to physically stop the group from entering the capitol lawn, the counter-demonstrators then gathered themselves on the sidewalk. Chanting "Follow your leader and kill yourself" [a Hitler reference], "South-African, Indigenous, Rise Up and Resist," "Cops and Klan Go Hand in Hand," and "Nazis, Nazis, Come Out and Play, Today Might Be Your Very Last Day!," the counter-protesters shouted down the racists for over an hour. Several attempts at breaking onto the Capitol lawn were attempted, but were stopped by a collection of law enforcement and horse cops. At one point, a young woman was arrested after she tore up some of the SAP's flyers, scattering it across the lawn. Police also removed black journalists who were taking pictures or Livestreaming the protest while they allowed white journalists free reign of the lawn.

The filth comes marching in!

At one point, members of Occupy Oakland, including many in black bloc, (the wearing of all black to protect oneself from police surveillance), showed up, waving black flags and signs. "The Revolution Has Come, Fuck the Klan!," they chanted. At one point, the group marched around the Capitol, engaging in a cat and mouse game with police, who tried to keep them on the sidewalk. Members of Occupy Oakland chanted, "OPD has trained us Well, You Don't Stand a Chance in Hell!" When the group returned to the spot of the original counter-demonstration, word began to pass through the crowd that the permit for the event was ending at 3pm, so people should stick around and try and run the filth off the grass as they left for their cars. While at the scene of the demonstration, Modesto Anarcho editors had the pleasure of talking to Sacramento residents who were out to bash the fascists.

Occupy Oakland arrives at the front!

One such young man identified himself as a S.H.A.R.P., or 'Skinhead Against Racial Prejudice,' and was part of a long lineage of 'traditional skinheads,' a solid working-class and cross-racial culture that originated in England and was influenced by 1st wave ska music from Jamaica. In the 1970's however, organized racist groups such as the National Front (NF) and later the British National Party (BNP) dove into the skinhead scene, recruiting a new generation towards the racist cause. But since that split, many traditional skinheads have stood up against the racist impostors, using violence and force when needed. The person we talked to described the Sacramento punk scene in the late 1990's and early 2000's as one in which a battle was waged against the racist skinheads, who were eventually pushed out of the underground music scene. One of the reasons that people like the one who was interviewed thought it was so important to confront the racist scum in the streets, was so that they could never become as powerful as they were then; harassing, attacking, and terrorizing all those that opposed their racist and fascist agenda or who had the wrong skin color or sexuality.

This little piggie went to the hospital...

Around 2:30 PM, the police began to encircle the crowd of fasicsts, who numbers never were larger than 35-40, and began taking them towards a car garage outside of the Capitol lawn. Seizing the opportunity, the crowd of counter-demonstrators rushed to meet them head on in the street and for about 15 minutes had the racists stuck on the Capitol lawn while police attempted to figure out what they were doing. After attempting to push the majority of the anti-fascists onto the opposite side of the street, the police then attempted to create a line between themselves and the fascists as they herded them into a parking garage where their vehicles were parked. At this moment, many within the crowd took the opportunity to let loose a barrage of projectiles at the racists. Responding to the attack on the other side of the line, police then began attacking the anti-fascists with clubs. At one point, an attempted arrest by police was stopped when the crowd pulled the cop off their intended victim. Police did make 3 arrests during the melee. and two police were hospitalized. We encourage everyone to lend support to our comrades facing charges. More info here. People also confronted the filth while they were in their cars, beating on their widows and doors when possible.

We find that the confrontation of Monday was a success, but offers us many opportunities to learn and to sharpen our skills as street fighters and militants. First, one of our stated goals was to bring attention to the rally as one organized by a collection of white power, nationalist, and racist skinhead groups. We feel that this was accomplished. Across the US, hardly any other news even reported on the SAP, except in regards to the events in Sacramento, and this was only to mention that it was in the streets that people physically stood and fought racist and Neo-Nazi fascists. We see this as a victory; not because we think that the media owned by the upper class can 'tell our story,' but because we successfully destroyed the very story that the racists were hoping to create around their cause.

A total of four comrades were arrested.

The events on Monday were also important because it brought many different militants from the bay area and the Central Valley together in a confrontational action that broke through the bullshit conversations of the 'Occupy Movement' around 'non-violence' and 'violence' and instead engendered a fighting community between comrades. On Monday, there was no politician we were trying to beg too. No message we were trying to get across to those in power. We were brought together with the sole goal of a direct purpose that could only be achieved through collective militant action against our enemies.

While the Nazis were confronted in the streets as well as the cops who protected them, people should be clear on their short comings. People could have been much better prepared to meet the fascists at their meeting spot at 11 AM. Having scouts at the outside of the Capitol would have allowed the larger group time to intersect them directly in the street. When the crowd was then attacking the racists across from the parking garage, it could have also been much better organized and attempted not to scatter when the police attempted to rush the line to move the crowd. We must keep in mind that while police in the Central Valley are not as well trained as in Oakland or San Francisco in dealing with protests, they also do not have to try and appear to act within the facade of a liberal or 'progressive' city government. While they may deal less with political clashes in the street, they have cut their teeth in the day in and day out repression of working, poor, migrant, and people of color.

Fascism can only be met with resistance.

The Central Valley may be largely farmland but it is a desert. A place where nothing is supposed to happen except the constant extraction of profits and resources which feed the rest of the world and make the elites rich and powerful. This is why events like what transpired on the 27th are so important - they cut through the lie of social peace that is this society. It exposes the ongoing social conflict that simply is beneath the surface of a seemingly calm and orderly class-divided society. It reveals that there are people who are organizing and forming associations across geographic lines for the purpose of becoming a concrete material force against the State and capitalism.

In the least, people have shown that racists and fascists cannot walk our streets without resistance.

Freedom to our comrades facing charges.
Death to white supremacy and fascism.

"From Oakland to Sacktown,
the Bay Area and back down,
Cali is where they put they
mack down!"