Entire families have been left with the trauma of their loved-ones’ life being taken away at the hands of police, said some San Jose community members during a Friday vigil.
More than 30 people gathered at San Jose City Hall to remember the lives of five men who were killed by San Jose police and other local law enforcement officers between 2004 to 2017.
Warm candlelight illuminated banners decorated with the faces of Phillip Watkins; Antonio Guzman Lopez; Rudy Cardenas; Jacob Dominguez and Jesus Geney-Montes.
The banners surrounded a mural with the names of 50 people who’ve died at the hands of local police officers over the last 20 years.
The event was organized by the families of Watkins, Lopez and Cardenas as well as Silicon Valley De-Bug, a San Jose nonprofit that advocates for social justice.
Laurie Valdez, the partner of Lopez who was killed by San Jose State police in 2014, said none of the families ever imagined going through the situation they are in.
“The life we’ve been forced to live is not fair,” Valdez said during the vigil. “It’s an everyday struggle to try and find the happiness that was [there] once before.”
Corina Griswold and Regina Cardenas, two of Cardenas’ daughters, remembered their father during the vigil.
Cardenas was shot and killed in 2004 after being mistaken as someone else by a San Jose narcotics officer.
“He was a very giving person,” Griswold said. “If you said ‘Those are some cool shoes,’ he’d be like, ‘You want them?’ He would give you anything he had.”
Sharon Watkins, a software specialist at SJSU and mother of Philip Watkins, who was killed by police in 2015, said she misses her son and described him as kindhearted and generous.
“If you don’t walk away with anything else tonight, walk away with this,” Watkins said at the vigil. “When you look at those faces, it’s more than just the people, these are entire families and each one has another hundred people that were affected.”
There have been 17 people who’ve been shot and killed by California police this year.
Almost 900 lives have been taken by police statewide since 2015, according to the Washington Post’s Fatal Force database.
“People need to remember that these things happen in our communities,” said Brian Larson, an attendee and member of Showing Up for Racial Justice, a group that “moves white people to act as part of a multiracial majority for justice with passion and accountability,” according to the group’s website.
Valdez said the countrywide outrage from the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor left some families feeling alone because San Jose communities didn’t come together and protest for their loved ones with the same force they did for deaths that went viral.
“Everyone needs to be conscientious of their selective rage,” Valdez said during the vigil “If you’re gonna come out here and protest, don’t let it be a fad.”
Even though the vigil was created to remember the lives that were taken by law enforcement, organizers raised awareness about past successes and a bill that could reduce police-related killings.
According to the website of Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager of district 54, Assembly Bill 118 would “…establish a pilot program enlisting community-based organizations to serve as first responders to emergency situations, rather than law enforcement personnel.”
Raj Jayadev, a coordinator for Silicon Valley De-Bug who’s been working with the families for years, said they’re using their tragedies to educate others.
“[The families] are using their energy and translating it to knowledge,” Jayadev said.
