Along with my POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE family I attended a powerful rally and march for justice for Ernesto Duenez Jr who was shot by Manteca Police 2 years ago and I got touched by the beauty of this family. The Duenez family are victims and I sincerely believe this story is about murder. I fell into tears while watching the Youtube video of the incident and I had to cry.
As a writer with POOR Magazine we are taught as poverty scholars to start with the approach of how I relate to the story and why I think it is important. I am really humbled to speak with the poor mother of this beautiful guy that got murdered in front of his home, and yet no justice for an innocent man. This is something the world needs to see that the people who police the communities should have rules and guidelines. Police are supposed to protect, guide, lead, and keep the peace within the neighborhood or district they are assigned to. There is not one reason for a cop to shoot at people because of a power issue within the person. This officer by the name of Moody shot Earnest Duenez several times when he had no knife, his back was facing the officer and his foot was stuck, In the video that was from a police dash cam that the attorney had to plead for was released to the public.
The Manteca daily newspaper stated that the "incident" was a routine traffic stop. As I watched the cop shoot him numerous amount of times, was because the police officer feared for his life when he had no proof of something on him. The officer said drop the knife yet his hands were in the air. This is racial profiling and it has to stop. This officer should be tried for a crime and not a civil suit. Instead of saving this guys life the officer ripped his shirt open looking for the knife and put him in handcuffs while he was bleeding to death. The Mom begged for the officer to call the ambulance and she was screaming that he was dying. The officer told her to back up and had a gun pointed to her as well. The officer that shot the gun was only put on a three day suspension and now he is teaching other cops. This is outrageous and it needs to be talked about with the world. In December the DA decided it was a justifiable murder, they are going to have another trial in March because they want it to be justice for the family and a crime case instead of a civil case. The officer Moody was investigated by his police station and not another. Which made it a given that he wouldn’t get in trouble.
This was an act of injustice and yet the family was so peaceful and caring. They had cold water for everybody and popsicles for the kids that were walking. The Duenez family goes to the police station every Sunday to have a rally, as well as praying and performing peaceful resistance. The same officer Moody put a restraining order on Earnest Duenez’s younger brother for telling him not to take pictures of his children. How is that harming his life? Every time they attack the family it back fires on them. They have even modified the facebook pages of him and the family, because they do not want the story to be heard.
After the initial rally in memory of Earnest Duenez they had a barbeque and post cards of other murders that happened to other people of other races around the world. This has become an epidemic and something has to happen. The Mother stated that she wanted everyone to be peaceful and not have to suffer from the same thing she went through after loosing her son. He was on parole for only three more weeks and he has reported to be clean for more than a year. Even though he slipped up a little bit the probation officer said he would only be held for a month and then he would have a clear release from everything. This is the coldest part about it how he was doing so well and the cop just killed him despite all of these things. The family will continue to protest every Sunday and if it doesn’t affect Moody one day he will pay for what he did whether or not if he goes to jail. No justice no peace, and that was the last words I heard while leaving the rally with the brown berets.