Fighting in KKKort- While Building Our Own... The Alex Nieto Trial for Justice in the kkkorts and in the Community

pspan class="im"span class="im"iA Mamaz sun riddled with 59 bullits from a colonizers gun.br / 59 bullits fired by slave-catchers and gentrifier glances./i/span/span/p pspan class="im"ldquo;The story the cops had was just that , nothing but a story,rdquo; said Adante Pointer, attorney for the Alex Nieto family from the law offices of John Burris as he stood in front of the multi-storied ldquo;federal kkkort-houserdquo; occupying space onnbsp; Yelamu Ohlone land (San Francisco) It was the last day of final arguments in the Nieto families civil case against the San Francisco Porsquo;Lice for the murder of their Sun./span/p p For several days of this herstory-making trial members of POOR Magazine sat in the hard wooden seats of the colonizers kkkort. When I was there I watched Pointer make clear and powerful arguments one after the other proving that Alex was killed for being a Brown man in his life-long Mission barrio (neighborhood) by the people who get paid to profile, survey, watch, abuse and kill Black, Brown and Poor people in the US./p p ithis Mama canrsquo;t look awaybr / and yet i pray so hard everydaybr / hoping to wipe awaybr / what i canrsquo;t unsee -br / what i canrsquo;t ever un-do from that fateful day/i /p p I am very confused how the jury came to the decision they did after seeing all the evidence that was presented, said Refugio Nieto, Alex#39;s father, on the night the verdict was released. Like Sr. Nieto said, the testimony on the side of truth was extensive, including an unsolicited witness who came foreward on his own to testify to Alexrsquo;s hands being, in fact, in his pockets. In addition to testimony physical evidence was clear and simple, a wrist bone fragment was found in Alexrsquo;s pocket, proving ldquo;beyond a reasonable doubtrdquo; that Alex Nieto, a student, a buddhist and a good Sun was eating his dinner before he went on his shift as a security guardnbsp; and had his hands in his pockets when he was shot 59 times by Porsquo;Lice./p p span class="im"iI look at this 28 year young sun -br / this Raza peace warrior-br / this student- this Man-child -br / this Human/i/span/p p The next clear piece of physical evidence was from the Taser Inc salesman , oops i mean, ldquo;expertrdquo; Brian Chiles who admitted that the taser wasnrsquo;t used by Alex when the Porsquo;Lice claimed he did . Incidentally Taser Inc is poised to get a multi-million dollar contract with the City and County of SF to sell tasers to the SFPD, another fact brought forth in the trial by Alexrsquo;s lawyer./p p While all the physical evidence was being presented to a mostly white, all suburban dwelling jury, the disinterested, almost arrogant Deputy City attorney. objected to little inconsequential issues and yet there was really nothing she could present that countered any of the rock solid truths. There was an extensive and confusing series of testimoney about the logging on and off of Alexrsquo;s taser as all taser use is logged in with the parent company and yet even after all this, Chiles had to admit that the taser was in fact, un-used as it lay on the ground next to Alexsrsquo; lifeless body in one of many terrifying and tragic images we all saw at multiple times in the kkkort case./p p iIm in kkkort in my wite-man suitbr / trying to not breathe ,scream or even move.br / Oppressors words wash over his beautybr / his peaceful spirit -br / I am trying to hold in screams, gritos,br / my body shakes with each utterance.br / We are taught to be still.br / Held in check by more laws that arenrsquo;t even real/i ./p p The Cityrsquo;s case was non-existent, there lack of evidence and arrogance was based on them being the tools of the machines who set up these racist, white-supremacist systems. They had nothing to present and yet they didnrsquo;t seem to care. In one of the highlights of utter sloppiness from the deputy city attorney who represented the cops, Margaret Baumgartner, there was a strange robotic like man named Mr Fries ( who I re-named Mr Freeze) who had launched his own 3D crime model business and admitted that he was paid $345.00 per hour. Once on the stand he presented his Sc Finbsp; superman image that showed Alex dropping to the ground after being shot multiple times and holding his taser like something out of a Batman movie./p p The real diagram that showed the way the shots entered Alexrsquo;s body was the one created by the Peoples Investigation, a beautiful community -led process to get to the truth of this Porsquo;Lice murder when the system refuses to come from or present any facsimile of truth. /p p ldquo;The cost is prohibitive to order an independent autopsy, one of the many ways that working class or low-income parents are kept from pursuing their own evidence, ldquo; said beautiful advocate for the family and member of the Amor 4 Alex Nieto Coalition, Adriana Camerena/p div class="yj6qo ajU" div class="ajR" data-tooltip="Hide expanded content" id=":1u4" role="button" tabindex="0" img class="ajT" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif" //div /div pBut in the end with her typical casual arrogance and understanding of the codes and signs that enable the police to get away with murder, the Porsquo;Licersquo;s attorney put the jury form up on the big power-point screen in the room and literally told the jury what box to check off to find the murderers innocent of murder./p p iA gang in blue tells us to hold our tears, our terror, our shouts, our screams.br / We are taught to be quietbr / sit in their wood chairs and not riotbr / To breathe in and out while they shoot us and get our children ready to kill or be killed/ibr / nbsp;/p p ldquo;Sure he had a bone in his pocket, Baumgartner said in closing arguments, ldquo;but maybe it accidentally got there, One check-box after another, she took the confused jury down the list, ldquo;so in this one you would just say, No, and this one you would just say no again,rdquo; she rolled off her instructions. It was a brilliant move of brain-washing of an already brainwashed jury. Mostly white and middle -class, they were all residents of nearby suburbs. None of these people knew the violence of gentrification. None of them knew the brutality of losing your baby, who did nothing but go to work and happen to be Brown. Oh yea, but that makes them, ldquo;objectiverdquo; right?. Ha, its the same lie in so-called objective media. There is no such thing as objective , everyone comes with their opinion and their opinion is shaped by their experience, and these peoples experience had nothing to do with the humble, hard-working, born and raised in Frisco Raza Alex Nietorsquo;s experience in a City where his quiet place to sit and eat and has now turned into a ldquo;dog parkrdquo; with brand new mostly white, mostly middle class residents walking around, laden with their inherent white supremacist notions of race and class and place, casually thinking a Brown young man in a red jacket was maybe a ldquo;gang memberrdquo; ( a statement actually said by Baumgartner in her closing arguments)/p p ldquo;Sure the taser wasnrsquo;t on when it was on the ground, but maybe someone kicked it or something,rdquo;nbsp; Baumgartner continued Like kicking a taser could turn it off, after we heard extensive testimony from their guy, Chiles , about how hard it was to get on and off./p p The City Attorneyrsquo;s was a testimony of maybes standing next to a testimony of truths And yet jury came back with the form filled out just as they were instructed to do the Porsquo;Lice were innocent of murder./p p In the end this was another murder of a working class Brown man in a City trying to wipe out the existence of working class Black, Brown and Poor people. The killers were paid to do what they did and the system protected their murder, like its supposed to do./p p bBuilding, Lifting Up and Manifesting our own humane systems that donrsquo;t kill us, test us and arrest us /bbr / As brutal and terrifying as this trial was for this mama, for all of us Mamaz, uncles, Papas, Brothers and Sisters.nbsp; As devastating as it was to witness yet another miscarriage of so-called Kkkolonizer justice, it was also a triumphnbsp; A triumph of organizing, of art-making, of love, of community. The powerful team of poets, and artists and dreamers and community members who showed up everyday at marches and rallies and art events and theatre and movies and eventually in kkkortnbsp; and who are part the Amor 4 Alex Nieto Coalition. Artists like Favi Estrella and Equipto and so many more. Leaders in this beautiful coalition like Adriana Camarena, Oscar Salinas and Ben Bac Sierra who along with Alexsrsquo; beautiful parents have continued to manifest community justice and lifted us up so much higher than the hater system could ever begin to bring us./p p And so although the Kkkorts said we lost, we all know our fight for justice has just begun. and it is equally important to ldquo;stop looking to trainingrdquo;of the police,rdquo;nbsp; as the catch-all soluution like La Mesha Irazarry from Idriss Stelley Foundation who lost her sun Idriss to the same killer Porsquo;Lice years ago and Leroy Moore and I say from a href="http://www.poormagazine.org" target="_blank"POOR Magazine/a and Krip Hop Nation and start looking at each other as solutions.To stop believing in the colonizers lie of safety and security aka the Po#39;Lice and 911 calls when we have an emergency.nbsp; Yes, we walk in this stolen indigenous land everyday and yes our babies are unsafe with these killer kkkops, but we also have so much community power to change. To build self-determined manifestations of change like us Poor , indigenous, Black and Brown landless people are doing with a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/homefulness" target="_blank"Homefuless/a in Deep East Huchuin Ohlone Land, a concept we are sharing with other communities in poverty, facing gentrification, racism and criminalization across Turtle Island and with a poor mama and uncle led school we built on Homefulness called a href="http://www.racepovertymediajustice,org/academy" target="_blank"Deecolonize Academy/a that refuses to teach our young leaders lies about the warriors and leaders they came from and can be. Warriors, leaders and peace-bringers like Alex Nieto./p p The first step like our elders and ancestor revolutionaries did in MOVE AFRICA, THE YOUNG LORDS and Black Panthers,nbsp; which is first to a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/node/5464"NEVER engage with the Porsquo;Lice/a but also to build community like the Justice Amor for Alex Nieto Coalition and Justice for Mario Woods Coalitionnbsp; have done. In the end we have to keep our children safe and our minds clear. Realize the issues ofnbsp; racism, gentrification, poverty and houselessness are all linked and so are we, linked. So as we continue to fight for the crumbs and bang on the systems that oppress us, we also need to build our own... For Mario, For Sandra, For Alex, Amilcar, For Oshaine, For Josiah... for so many more and for All of us./p p iBut this is a win fambr / the people have already Wonbr / With our Own self-determin-Nashunbr / With Love for Alex-br / Our ancestors andbr / our collective liberation/i/p p AMOR 4 ALEXbr / ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLEbr / OUR JUSTICE HAS JUST BEGUN- ... a poem 4 Alex by tinybr clear="all" /br / nbsp;/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJTr6ftnDRM"Ben Bac Sierra Speaking on the Trial /a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fG-qhwnFdM"Refugio Nieto Speaking After the Verdict is Given/a/p