Mayan Resistance to Po'Lice Terror: The Journey to Justice for Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat

pldquo;Geeet on the ground, Get on the Groundhellip;rdquo; Moving in slowly like they were on a hunt.nbsp; High-powered weapons pointed down. the descendants of slave-catchers aka Porsquo;Lice stalk an indigenous man humbly sitting on Shotwell street holding a soccer ball. More disgust-filled shouts in English fill the a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=enq=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DfED0T5Rkjh8source=gmailust=1466730617772000usg=AFQjCNFM3c6-hr2odv1y0fuLEORd6oUAJg" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fED0T5Rkjh8" target="_blank"video screen/a, my heart stops, I try to keep watching, reminding myself i need to wear my reporter hat instead of my trauma-filled, police terrorized from my life of houselessness blanket. We are watching the extra-judicial murder of Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat by the SF Porsquo;Lice dept. This is a press conference, i need to remain sane. My body is shaking, My eyes turn back to the horrific video. They keep approaching, robotic, murderous minds already made up to kill , their bodies tense, yet arrogant, as they were the aggressor and he their prey. ldquo;Get on the Ground,rdquo; then thenbsp; sounds of genocide fill the roomhellip; POP POP POP POP POP POP POPhellip;/p div br / ldquo;Mr. Gongora Pat was already down on the ground when the third officer decided to pump three more shots into his body,rdquo; said Adante Pointe one of four members of the John Burris legal team who spoke at a press conference held Friday to announce the filing by their firm against the city for the unjust murder of Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat, and contrary to the police claims, they were speaking English, a language Mr. Gongora didnrsquo;t even understand,rdquo; concluded Mr Pointer. p ldquo;When he tried to get up and move like anyone would do. he is shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shothellip;in the side, back, shoulder and head,that shouldnrsquo;t have happened, it is why we are here today to vindicate this unjust murder, a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=enq=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D0D62kHppQKgsource=gmailust=1466730617772000usg=AFQjCNH2b1M-yF5N6T60TvWyirf59G2Itg" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D62kHppQKg" target="_blank"said Attorney John Burris /ato the small crowd of media and family gathered at The Episcopal Church of Saint John the Evangelist in San Franciscorsquo;s Mission District/p p ildquo;He had a knife,rsquo;/i/p p ldquo;He was acting erratic,rdquo;/p p ldquo;He was a homeless man,rdquo; /p p After the violent murder of innocent Mayan father, Brother, Uncle, Husband Luis Demetrio Gongora Pat, just like after the violent, horrific murder of innocent Sun and Brother Mario Woods, Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez Lopez, Orsquo;Shaine Evans and almost all the other victims of police terror, the police and their corporate media stenographers perpetuate a message of the poLice terror victimsrsquo; perceived violence and ldquo;criminalrdquo; behavior. Not only is this racist and classist, it was an out-right lie, In Mariorsquo;s case just like Luis, there was no knife, aggressive behavior or alleged ldquo;criminal behavior as a matter of fact the porsquo;Lice released the same stock photo of a random knife both Luis and Mario allegedly were brandishing when they were killed in cold blood by the police in the now gentrified neighborhoods of the Bayview and the Mission districts of San Francisco./p p ldquo;This is the fourth shooting in San Francisco, a pattern of deadly force that goes unchecked and unmonitored, what we want is the shootings to stop,rdquo; Mr. Burris continued, ldquo; the witnesses do not support in any way shape or form, the claims by the police that (he was acting in a threatening mannerrdquo;, essentially they say Luis was a non-egressive person, he was sitting there on the street mining his own business and his life was taken unnecessicarily,rdquo;/p p In Luis as in Mariorsquo;s case, they were known as easy-going, kind people doing nothing but being alive in Gentrification City, they were unarmed and never dangerous. What they both were were Men of color, and in Luis case, also unhoused, living in one of the richest cities in the world, with rampant and overt displacement efforts and increased police harassment of their communities./p p ldquo;Our Husband, Father, Brother Luis will never be forgotten,said Luis daughter, Rossana Poot May a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=enq=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Dkoa5Xa5LWFwsource=gmailust=1466730617772000usg=AFQjCNElsGqJf1jUqvuHvuSgh1yefBN_jg" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koa5Xa5LWFw" target="_blank"calling in from Mexico to the press conference/a, we thank all the people who are working for justice for him in San Francisco, it means a lot to usrdquo;, Rosanna concluded./p p ldquo;He was our friend, anyone who needed anything only needed to ask Luis and he would help out,rdquo; said Marty X one of the unhoused neighbors of Luis on Shotwell street. Marty was one of over a dozen housed and unhoused San Franciscans who knew their unhoused, peaceful neighbor Luis Gongora Pat. ldquo;He always peacefully kicked his ball, never bothering anyone or anything,rdquo;/p p POOR Magazinersquo;s PeopleSkool and Revolutionary Social work project which is all of us unhoused and formerly unhoused mamas, uncles, poets, artists and cultural workers teaching and writing our own stories to make sure we are not only narrated by the hater ruling class, but with our own poverty scholarship, have been working with the unhoused witnesses to Luis murder. Like we have done for our entire organizational life in poor and unhoused communities, we have launched a new series of street newsrooms and stere-based writing workshops to chronicle the stories of police murder and harassment in the tent city encampments in SF and Oakland as well as released a series of WeSearch results to make sure that peoples belongings being stolen by DPW are chronicled as belongings not trash./p p As unhoused peoples we face an onslaught of focused hate coming from corporate media, corporate poltricksters and the capitalist business class, with a healthy dose of hate from society at large for our exposed, roofless bodies, Luis, like a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=enq=http://www.poormagazine.org/node/5539source=gmailust=1466730617772000usg=AFQjCNH-vXvoTDxvpG2hv_uW7SoGSf5GGw" href="http://www.poormagazine.org/node/5539" target="_blank"Jessica Nelson Williams/a, were fundamentally seen as a ldquo;problemrdquo; by the landlord class who directs the agenda of the police because they were unhoused in a city being re-made, re-devil-oped, re-branded as a city for the very rich and mostly white. And because our unhoused bodies are no longer considered human, and our belongings are no longer seen as belongings we no longer have basic human rights, and are constantly at the mercy of more and more ancient, re-branded settler-colonizer laws like the recent tent city removal laws being proposed by San Francisco Board Supervisor Mark Farrell, which are just like the ones created by Scott Weiner before him and Ed Lee before him and Gavin Newsom before him and odd Kafka esque things like the Department of Homelessness which does a whole other form of re-branding and re-making to make it seem like new stuff is being done to solve an intentional capitalist problem and on and on and on./p p ldquo;We are here to support and fight for justice for our brother,rdquo; said Joseacute; Gongora Pat, brother of Luis Gongora Pat at the press conference, translated by the amazing artist and community care-giver Adriana Camerena./p p In actuality one of the most power-Full things happening now is the resistance of Black and Brown communities to the ongoing police terror across Amerikkka and in the case of Luis Family who are indigenous Mayans, they are bringing their own pre-colonizer controlled indigeneity in the form of their language, culture, spirit, consciousness into the white supremacist halls of InJustice.nbsp;/p p ldquo;We are here in support of the legislation written by John Avalos, rdquo; was the beginning of testimony given in the language of Maya at the budget hearing on Monday by Joseacute; Goacute;ngora Pat, while the justice and honor for Luis Gongora Pat coalition stood with them in the Board of Supervisors hall./p p The spirit of Maya, the spirit of Mama Earth, and ancestors from all four corners, all of the things never respected in this stolen Yelamu Ohlone territory, the colonizers called San Francisco. With every pre-colonized word Luis#39; family crossed and unhinged false colonizer borders built with hate and stands up for honor and justice for their peaceful father, brother, uncle, husband Luis Demetrio Gongora Patnbsp;br clear="all" /br / nbsp;/p/div pScroll down to see all the videos of the press conference. For more information on the case of Luis Gongora Pat case go online to citea data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=enq=https://justice4source=gmailust=1466730617772000usg=AFQjCNHBEvN4lIKf0xxLumiq5Ytl-dl4rg" href="https://justice4" target="_blank"https://justice4/abluis/b.org/. For more information on POOR Magazine#39;s upcoming revolutonary journalism classes email us at a href="mailto:deeandtiny@poormagazine.org" target="_blank"deeandtiny@poormagazine.org/a/citebr / nbsp;/p pstrongBelow are the links to the PNN-TV coverege of this Herstoric press conference /strong/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT3dddIBPfw"PNN-TV John Burris on Luis Gongora Pat #2/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHUvuyZ3Wb4"PNN-TV:Adante Pointer on Luis Gongora Pat/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fED0T5Rkjh8"PNN-TV: The Video of Po#39;Lice Murder of Luis Gongora Pat/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1bGH-sXAfE"PNN-TV:Family of Luis Gongora Pat speaks/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMCdDEQ_4bI"PNN-TV-Police Murder images of Luis Gongora Pat/a/p pa href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D62kHppQKg"PNN-TV-Luis Sun Father Husband we will never forget/a/p