Every Picture Tells a Story – Ongoing Series

June 13, 2020

In San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Park nearly three weeks after the Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd people are still marching to protest racism and police brutality.

Meanwhile, three months after Shelter in Place was ordered, San Francisco’s premier shopping area Union Square remains a desolate place.

Photos:  Liz Heidhues and Lee Heidhues

Even Superior Court in Civic Center is an empty place as the midweek photo below of the usually busy filing room shows.

Perhaps the worst purveyor of this fair and balanced coverage is the PBS News Hour with its anodyne talking head Judy Woodruff. I nearly fall asleep listening to her dull monotone deliver each night.

Now that these talking heads are working from home I always look on the books which are affixed as a prop. On Judy’s shelves are books about  US Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and George HW Bush, two of the most inconsequential, conservative and do nothing Presidents in American history.

Since PBS receives government funding it has to placate the Republican reactionaries currently running Washington. Still, PBS could do better than Judy who has definitely outlived her shelf life.

The Nation – Eric Alterman 6.11.2020

Elite media still hasn’t figured out how to cover the Trump presidency.

More than three years into the Trump presidency, given the threats we face, it is long past time for editors to stop playing both sides with fascism and democracy.

The Trump administration and its Republican enablers are fighting a series of wars directed at targets inside the United States. A partial list would include immigrants, African Americans, Jews, poor people, middle-class people, people with student loan debts, the environment, voting rights, fair elections, blue-state taxpayers, the rule of law, honest elections, and all forms of accountability for Donald Trump, his family, and the criminals who helped him get elected.

Those running the country’s elite media institutions have no experience with a situation like this and still cannot figure out how to handle it. Historically, media machers have seen themselves as collaborators with government officials to ensure that things run smoothly for whoever is in power. They do this, in part, because they believe in the cause and, in part, to obtain access, quotes, and the public pretense of respect.

US government officials, especially but not exclusively Republicans, have been lying to the American people about matters of life and death for a long time. The mainstream media eventually righted itself under President Richard Nixon’s assault on our democratic institutions, but its ability to do so today under Trump, an even greater threat to American democracy, is considerably diminished.

The mainstream media cannot make up their minds about the fundamental question of the Trump presidency: “Which side are you on?”

The top editors of almost all of America’s mainstream media institutions have explicitly rejected the notion of a journalism of opposition. While The New York Times and The Washington Post, for instance, have tallied Trump’s untruths—separate from the articles in which they are repeated verbatim—neither has proved willing to reconsider its commitment to the mindless both-sides style of reporting in which Republican lies and incitements to fascist violence are given equal weight to Democratic attempts to tell the truth and defend democracy.

Thanks to Trump’s response to the protests against police brutality, however, the jig is up. Military leaders past and present and even a few Republicans have had enough. It is not OK for Trump to demand a military attack on our own citizens and then lie about having done so. And yet at this moment, New York Times opinion editors offered American journalism’s most prestigious real estate to Senator Tom Cotton to make the case for Trump’s proposed assault.

Stories like this defy logic and boggle the mind. There are a lot of sick and twisted people out there.

In the time of the Pandemic and  world wide outrage over the police murder of George Floyd in America there are still stories which can shock the conscience.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 6.10.2020

The Birmingham Crown Court sentenced Alice Cutter, 24, to three years in prison and her ex-boyfriend, Mark Jones, 25, to five-and-a-half years.

The 24-year-old entered the beauty contest under the name ‘Miss Buchenwald’ in reference to the Nazi death camp. She was sentenced along with three men for being part of the banned far-right group, National Action.

A former “Miss Hitler” contestant and three other neo-Nazis were jailed in Britain on Tuesday, after being convicted of membership of the banned far-right group National Action (NA) in March.

Two other men — Gary Jack, 24, and Connor Scothern, 19, — were handed four years and six months, and 18 months respectively, for the same crime. A fifth defendant was sentenced to three years in prison last year.

Cutter, a waitress, had entered the Miss Hitler beauty contest under the nickname “Miss Buchenwald,” referencing the World War II Nazi concentration camp.

Jurors were shown messages in which Cutter had joked about gassing synagogues, using a Jewish person’s head as a football, and saying “Rot in hell, bitch” after hearing about the 2016 killing of MP Jo Cox in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.

The group was banned the same year, following the comments, with the government describing it as a “racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organizaton that stirs up hatred and glorifies violence.”

Read more: Italy busts neo-Nazi ring, ‘Miss Hitler’ pageant winner

Prosecutors said a search of the home that Cutter and Jones shared revealed Nazi paraphernalia and images, as well as weapons including knives, brass knuckles, catapults, a longbow and ball bearings.

Jack was described as an active member of National Action even after its ban and had a previous conviction for putting up racially charged stickers at a university campus.

Scothern was also an active member and had distributed almost 1,500 stickers calling for a “final solution” in reference to the Nazis’ genocide of the Jews.

Anti-fascist campaigners Hope Not Hate estimated that despite the ban placed on the group in December 2016, NA still had several “hardcore members” and used different names to hide its activities.

At  any other time Nancy Tung, an Assistant District Attorney in neighboring Alameda County, would have passed muster and been voted to sit on San Francisco’s Police Commission.

She is definitely qualified to sit on the Commission based on her long time legal experience.

These are not normal times. Tung, who ran a spirited campaign for District Attorney in 2019, was arguably the most conservative of the four candidates regarding her views of criminal prosecution.

That said, Tung is very honest and forthright in expressing her views. True, she would have been an advocate for strong law enforcement.  She also would have brought her integrity, background and knowledge to the Commission.

Tung would not have been swayed by rhetoric and posturing. She would have taken up each matter on its merit.  Tung is yet another casualty in the ongoing political trench warfare in San Francisco.

San Francisco Chronicle 6.10.2020

Both of Mayor London Breed’s nominees for Police Commission are officially out.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday rejected the nomination of Nancy Tung by a 10-1 vote, with many saying the prosecutor did not possess a desired track record of advocacy or action around police reform. Attorney Geoffrey Gordon-Creed withdrew his candidacy for the police watchdog group earlier in the day, correctly predicting that he too wouldn’t win a majority of the votes.

The denials came amid a national uprising over police use of force and accountabilty, as communities around the globe reel over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd on May 25. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.

George Floyd and his accused killer ex-cop Derek Chauvin

Tung, who is supportive of police using Tasers and accepted a donation from the San Francisco Police Officers Association during her run for district attorney, was the wrong person to lead this charge, supervisors said Tuesday.

Supervisor Shamann Walton said it would be disrespectful to the black community to support Tung’s appointment.

“That comes from my heart as a black man,” he said.

Supervisor Catherine Stefani cast the lone vote supporting Tung. She said the board ought to give careful consideration to a candidate put forward by a black mayor with a personal family history studded with incidents of violence and involvement with the criminal justice system. Breed’s bother is serving a 44-year sentence for a manslaughter conviction and, as Breed has recently revealed, her cousin was killed by San Francisco police in 2006.

In a statement, Tung said she was “disappointed” that some of the supervisors mischaracterized or failed to familiarize themselves with her record.

“I am proud to have been nominated by Mayor London Breed for the Police Commission,” she said. “While the outcome of the Board of Supervisors’ vote is not surprising to me, I stand firmly behind my professional record as someone who is independent, fair, and willing to challenge authority to do what is right.”

The board also tacitly rejected Gordon-Creed, another Breed nominee. Gordon-Creed, a former deputy city attorney, withdrew his nomination in a letter to Breed Tuesday, saying he lacked “sufficient support” from the board to confirm him.

Breed will now be tasked with recommending two more nominees.

“The mayor has spent her career leading on the issue of police reform and she just announced that she will be leading the effort to redirect funding from the San Francisco Police Department to support the black community,” Lynch said. “This is the type of action this moment calls for, and the board needs to stop holding critical commission seats vacant when we have real, important work to do.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/SF-supervisors-reject-London-Breed-s-nominees-15328824.php

I sincerely wish Mr. Gugino a speedy recovery.

Trump’s vile and obscene comment is to be expected. The only way to mitigate the behavior of this dangerous clown is to toss him from office 147 days from now.

Excerpted from New York Times 6.9.2020

The president attacked Martin Gugino even as the activist was in the hospital recovering from a head wound sustained when the police shoved him to the ground.

The tweet on Tuesday, which appeared to accuse Mr. Gugino of having instigated or even faked the encounter, was not the first time Mr. Trump has sought to blame Antifa — a word that describes a loose collective of anti-fascist activists — for encouraging what has now been nearly two weeks of nationwide demonstrations.

Hours after the tweet was posted, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo lashed out at Mr. Trump, saying that he should “apologize” and “show some humanity.” Mr. Cuomo said the tweet was “all made up,” adding that he was shocked the president would accuse Mr. Gugino of being an anti-fascist plant without any evidence.

It is true, his friends admitted, Martin Gugino was an activist, a seasoned peacenik who in a lifetime of protest had taken part in demonstrations against military drones, climate change, nuclear weapons and police brutality.

But Mr. Gugino was also a football fan, they said, a mild-mannered bachelor and a Buffalo native who returned to his hometown some years ago to care for his ailing mother.

The one thing he was not, however, those who knew him said, was what President Trump claimed he was on Twitter Tuesday morning: a wily Antifa provocateur.

Mr. Trump’s viral tweet — none of it backed by fact — raced across the internet all day even as Mr. Gugino, 75, still lay in the hospital, recovering from the head wound he sustained on Thursday night when two Buffalo police officers shoved him to the ground at a demonstration marking the police killing of George Floyd.

A cellphone video of the encounter has now been seen by millions of people and led to charges being filed against the officers on Saturday.

But even by his own standards, Mr. Trump appeared to test the boundaries of credulity by trying to brand a retired septuagenarian computer programmer as a follower of Antifa, whose adherents are, for one thing, generally much younger.

Nate Buckley, a co-owner of the Burning Books bookstore on Connecticut Street in Buffalo, said that Mr. Gugino was a regular customer who often came to hear the speakers that he brought into his shop — everyone from figures in the Catholic Worker Movement to Princeton professors lecturing on race.

“Martin is interested in everything — he’s a very inquisitive person,” Mr. Buckley said. “He’s also a very social person with an active mind who’s always asking questions.”

Mr. Buckley said he was disturbed that Mr. Gugino — “a 75-year-old elder,” as he put it — had effectively been tarred as a thug by Mr. Trump and his supporters.

“He’s one of the most gentle people I know,” Mr. Buckley said. “He’s not aggressive at all. But people make up the most insane stories so they don’t have to deal with reality.”

Mr. Trump’s tweet seems to have been based on a report by One America News Network, a right-wing cable television channel, which claimed that Mr. Gugino had been trying to knock out the police officers’ radios with his cellphone — an idea that several of Mr. Gugino’s friends dismissed as ludicrous.

The world’s attention is riveted to the demonstrations and protests following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, back in the USSR Neo-Nazis have found a home to further hone their abhorrent skills.

Deutsche Welle 6.6.2020

German right-wing extremists are receiving paramilitary training in St. Petersburg, Russia, according to a new report by news magazine Focus. Who is running the training, and what do we know about the participants?

What kind of camp did right-wing extremists reportedly visit in Russia?

Participating in paramilitary training is legal in Russia. Such training takes place under the protective umbrella of DOSAAF (Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Navy), an organization whose founding dates back to the days of the Soviet Union. The actual training, in which Germans reportedly participated, is provided by a club appearing under two different names: “Rezerv” or “Partizan.” It takes place at a military facility on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Until 2018, “Partizan” and its members were listed on the website of St. Petersburg’s municipal office as a vigilante group in the Vyborg district. “That was prior to my taking office,” a district representative told DW when asked about the matter.

Talking to local journalists in 2017, one of the organizers of the paramilitary camp confirmed that the center also provided paramilitary training for foreigners, “including Germans.” Today, the center advertises both offline and online courses, including classes on handling weapons and on “military topography” — in June 2020 alone, it offers six different classes, bookable via the Russian social network Vkontakte.

Read more: Right-wing terror in Germany: A timeline

Right-wing populists in Russia

Russia in the past has served as a meeting point for right-wing populists and radicals from around Europe. In 2015, St. Petersburg hosted the “International Russian Conservative Forum.” Participants included the former chairman of the German extreme-right National Democratic Party (NPD), Udo Voigt, as well as representatives from Italy’s extreme-right Forza Nuova party, Greece’s neo-fascist Golden Dawn party and Italy’s far-right League (Lega) party.

In 2017, just prior to presidential elections in France, Marine Le Pen — then the leader of French far-right party National Front, which was renamed Rassemblement National in 2018 — visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Le Pen advocated closer ties with Russia and criticized European Union sanctions against the country. The National Front also received a €9 million ($10.2 million) loan from a Russian bank.

Representatives of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) paty, led by then-chairperson Frauke Petry, also visited Moscow in 2017. The delegation met both lawmakers from the ruling United Russia party and representatives from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, led by right-wing populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Read more: Germany and right-wing extremism: The new dimension of terrorism

Who conducts the paramilitary training?

The training center and club organizers have very close ties to Russia’s Christian Orthodox extremists. The chairman of the club and founder of the training center is reportedly Denis Gariev, who is also one of the key figures behind the Russian Imperial Movement, or RIM, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States government in April 2020.

By its own account, the Russian Imperial Movement is a monarchist, “orthodox-patriotic,” “right-wing conservative” organization fighting for “white supremacy.” RIM is not considered a terrorist group in Russia. However, the country’s Ministry of Justice categorized the organization’s website, as well as a number of its online articles, as extremist.

While the RIM website is now temporarily inaccessible, their social media channels on Telegram and Vkontakte are still in operation. Statements posted there make plain that the movement explicitly shares racist views. Worldwide protests in the wake of the killing of black American George Floyd under the Black Lives Matter slogan are referred to as “hell,” with protesters “worshipping a black idol.” The spreading of the coronavirus is labeled “the so-called pandemic” and portrayed as an international conspiracy. The group also claims Russia’s salvation will be the “rebirth” of the Christian Orthodox monarchy, which, if necessary, has to be reinstated by force, “because an Orthodox Christian is always a fighter, too.”

Read more: Coronavirus: How do I recognize a conspiracy theory?

What is known about the right-wing extremist participants?

According to Focus magazine, some of the men are members of the Young Nationalists, the youth wing of the NPD, Germany’s oldest right-wing extremist party. As the youth wing only counts 280 members, it remains politically insignificant, although its participants are rather active when it comes to public action. The group has run would-be environmental protection campaigns, for example, in an attempt to win over young supporters.

Other participants in the paramilitary training in Russia are reportedly members of The Third Way, one of the most radical political parties in Germany. 

According to the Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, the party promotes a nationalist and racist ideology influenced by Nazism, and it rejects democracy. The Third Way was founded by members of a right-wing extremist association from southern Germany just as it was about to be banned by lawmakers — in Germany, the hurdles for banning a political party are much higher than those for banning a club or association.

Read more: Combat 18: The neo-Nazi network facing a ban in Germany

How have German officials responded?

The German Government has remained tight-lipped thus far. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said that it was familiar with the issue but that there was no specific information about individuals suspected of receiving training at the paramilitary camp. Right-wing extremists conducting target practice and paramilitary sports exercises abroad continue to be a concern for German government officials.

In 2019, the German government stated in response to an inquiry by the Left Party that, for many years, German neo-Nazis had been seeking close cooperation with right-wing extremists abroad. Time and again, target practice sessions were publicized on social media. Due to the extremists’ penchant for weaponry, authorities say they have remained in contact with the intelligence services of the countries involved.

https://www.dw.com/en/why-are-german-neo-nazis-training-in-russia/a-53702613

This wanton and unprovoked assault by Buffalo cops is another in the litany of abusive and criminal behavior by law enforcement in the two weeks since the police murder of George Floyd.

What makes this particularly more odious is that none of the Buffalo cops in the phalanx which conducted the assault stopped to offer assistance. Predictably the cops are standing in unison behind their criminal comrades and maintain the accused were just doing their duty.

That’s what all these lawbreaking cops claim as a defense.

Buffalo News 6.6.2020

Two Buffalo Police officers were arraigned Saturday on felony assault charges, accused of shoving and injuring a 75-year-old peace protester Thursday night outside City Hall during one of dozens of protests that have roiled cities across the nation since the death May 25 of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis officer.

The Buffalo officers, part of a contingent in tactical gear ordered to clear Niagara Square after a citywide curfew started, are accused of taking steps that led Martin Gugino to fall backward, striking his head on the sidewalk.

Video taken by a WBFO reporter has been seen on Twitter more than 77 million times.

Officer Aaron Torgalski, who can be seen on the video pushing Gugino before he fell, was charged with felony second-degree assault, as was Robert McCabe, who can be seen about to kneel toward Gugino after the fall before being moved along by a supervisor.

Both officers pleaded not guilty to the charges as part of back-to-back procedures that took place over five minutes online about 11 a.m. before City Judge Craig D. Hannah.

Erie County Assistant District Attorney John P. Feroleto, chief of the Felony Trials Bureau, did not ask for bail, saying that both officers are longtime county residents without criminal records.

First McCabe, then Torgalski, appeared via Skype for the arraignment. Both were represented by attorney Joseph M. LaTona.

McCabe, 32, a U.S. Army veteran, wore a mask during his arraignment, which lasted about two minutes.

Torgalski, 39, remained out of range of the Skype camera, save for a few wisps of curly black hair.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood suspended both officers without pay after the Thursday night incident and ordered an internal investigation.

“These last few weeks have obviously been a very challenging time,” Lockwood said in a statement Saturday, “not only for our city and community but for our entire region as we grapple with some very critical issues.

“My officers have been through, and continue to work through, one of the most difficult times in our history. I stand by the men and women of the Buffalo Police Department. I’m proud of how they have handled the vast majority of the situations and encounters that they have faced. I hope and pray that we can all work and grow together as we move forward in the City of Buffalo.”

Erie County District Attorney John Flynn also launched an investigation amid calls by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and others to do so.

On Friday, all 57 fellow members of the Buffalo Police Department Emergency Response Team team resigned from the unit. Several of its members, along with others from the department ranks, gathered outside Buffalo City Court on Saturday morning in a show of support for Torgalski and McCabe.

Flynn explained after the arraignment that the two officers were charged with felony assault because Gugino, who suffered a head injury in the incident, is older than 65 and the two officers are more than 10 years younger.

Gugino remained in serious but stable condition Saturday at Erie County Medical Center, according to a hospital spokesman.

Officers should have gripped, handcuffed and arrested Gugino if they thought he was committing a crime, Flynn said.

“They’re not trained to shove a 75-year-old man with a baton and knock him to the ground,” he said.

In a statement released Saturday evening, Mayor Byron W. Brown said: “As I have repeatedly said, my administration believes in due process for the officers. I also continue to pray for the full recovery for the injured person. …

“My administration believes this is an opportunity for the Buffalo Police Department to reform and further progress into the Community Police Officer Model that Commissioner Lockwood has been steadfastly implementing.

“I have directed the commissioner to further engage the community, as I do the same, so that we can collaboratively and expeditiously realize our shared vision of a police department in which every officer is truly a community police officer.”

Police Benevolent Association Attorney Thomas H. Burton, who represents Buffalo police in use of force cases including this one, said the case should not be tried outside the legal process.

“As you know, the officers pleaded not guilty, and this case will be tried in a court of law,” Burton said. “It will not be tried in press conferences and shallow internet references.”

Cuomo, during his daily coronavirus briefing on Saturday, praised the way Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and other leaders in the region have reacted to the matter.

He said he saw the video of the incident, that he thinks there was “criminal liability” in the way the officers treated Gugino and that Flynn was right to file charges against Torgalski and McCabe.

“What we saw was horrendous and disgusting; I believe illegal,” the governor said. “So if there’s something else that I didn’t see, or what I saw was not correct, then tell me. Otherwise, do justice. And that’s what the mayor did and that’s what the DA did. Good for them.”

In response to questions, Cuomo also acknowledged the difficulty officers face in the line of duty, including during protests like the ones that have become common during the last two weeks.

“All of these are difficult situations,” he said, “and I understand that this situation is superheated, it is controversial, people are frightened, people are polarized. There is no path that is going to make everybody happy. … Police have to do their jobs, but they don’t have the right to abuse, to hurt, to use unnecessary force, and (if they do) they’re going to be held accountable.”

https://buffalonews.com/2020/06/06/buffalo-officers-charged-with-shoving-protester/

The Mayor of DC, in a permanent show of support for people of color, has renamed 16th Street NW between H and K streets, “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”

The street renaming sends an ongoing message to Trump.

Channel 4 – Washington, DC 6.5.2020

The city of Washington, D.C., is echoing a call for justice by naming a road and painting an unmissable message on a street that leads to the White House: Black lives matter.

A section of 16th Street in front of the White House is now called Black Lives Matter Plaza, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Friday. Earlier, the road was painted with huge yellow letters spelling out the name of the movement.

“We want to call attention today to making sure our nation is more fair and more just and that black lives and that black humanity matter in our nation,” Bowser said.

The justifiable outrage being expressed by citizens of Vallejo will likely not generate the  protest which has been the focus of world wide attention following the murder of George Lloyd.  It should.

The police slaying of 22 year old Sean Monterrosa, while kneeling on the ground, is criminal. Another act of police violence.  

Feature photo:  Sean Monterrosa with his dog Gucci.

San Francisco Chronicle 6.4.2020

Less than an hour before he was fatally shot by a Vallejo police officer, 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa texted his older sister with a request.

“Can you help me out by signing this petition?” he asked.

The next message, sent just before midnight Monday, was a link demanding justice for George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man killed a week earlier by a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Monterrosa’s sister “loved” the texts and responded a minute later: “Just did it.”

Sean Monterrosa’s sisters Michelle and Ashley

The simple exchange between siblings has now taken on greater significance, as Monterrosa became the second person in the Bay Area to lose his life amid historic protests and clashes with police, as communities across the nation demanded justice in Floyd’s killing and an end to police brutality against people of color. An Oakland security guard was gunned down in the region’s first killing May 29.

The circumstances surrounding Monterrosa’s death have fanned the flames of the local movement: The young man was kneeling and had no weapons in his hands early Tuesday morning when a Vallejo officer opened fire through the windshield of a police cruiser and killed him.

Monterrosa’s family and friends are now launching their own quest for justice, saying the lifelong San Franciscan was “murdered” by police. He was shot at the scene of an alleged looting at a Walgreens, where police said he was a suspect.

“My brother was kneeling and surrendering, yet you shot my brother from your vehicle through your windshield,” Michelle Monterrosa said of the officer, an 18-year veteran of the Vallejo Police department whose identity has not been released. “How much more cowardly can you be?”

Over the last 10 days, tens of thousands of people throughout the Bay Area have taken to the streets in protest and hundreds have been arrested or cited on suspicion of looting or breaking curfew, as overwhelmed police forces struggled to keep pace. On Tuesday, Vallejo officials announced they were calling in help from the National Guard.

In interviews with The Chronicle, Sean Monterrosa’s family and friends offered a glimpse into the young life that was cut short in a similar manner to Floyd’s, which has been denounced on all sides.

Sean Monterrosa grew up in Bernal Heights and attended Aptos Middle School before graduating from Independence High School in San Francisco.

He was the child of Argentine immigrants and the middle of three siblings, each spaced two years apart. But sisters Michelle and Ashley agree they all felt more like triplets — if you shaved the girls’ heads they’d all be indistinguishable, they said.

Their father was a surgeon in Argentina, but it was nearly impossible for him to go back to school and learn how to be a doctor again in the U.S., especially with their first child on the way. So, for the past 24 years, Neftali Monterrosa has worked at Anchor Oyster bar in the Castro neighborhood, where the Monterrosas were welcomed into the community.

As a teen, Sean Monterrosa loved drawing, skateboarding and boxing, and he talked about building generational wealth. From an early age, he set his sights on a lofty goals. “He always told my mom, ‘I want to buy you a house,’” Michelle Monterrosa said.

By the time he was 13 or 14 — still unable to legally work — he became set on helping provide for the family, and created his own off-the-books gig. He would troll local nightclubs, like Monarch in the South of Market neighborhood, selling hot dogs to tipsy patrons.

“He’d always laugh and say, ‘They’d give me $100 bills as tips thinking they were a dollar,’” Ashley Monterrosa recalled. But he was too honest, she said, and would try to give the money back. Most of the time customers let the cute kid keep the money.

“They must have seen the light in my brother,” Ashley Monterrosa said. “Even though they’re out having a good time, they’re like, ‘Let’s provide for this kid.”

In high school, Sean Monterrosa was “an athlete that wanted to be a ladies man,” said Rafael Resendiz, his best friend.

“He used to love reading, and he was always trying to get me to read,” Resendiz said.

At a news conference Wednesday, Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams described Sean Monterrosa as a potential looting suspect whom officers believed was carrying a firearm. Williams listed a criminal history that included charges of shoplifting, assault with deadly weapons, shooting into an inhabited dwelling and attempted murder.

Williams said Monterrosa appeared to be running toward a suspect vehicle just after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday when he suddenly dropped to his knees and brought his hands above his waist, revealing what an officer mistook for the butt of a firearm.

The officer, who was in a vehicle, unloaded five shots through his own windshield, striking Monterrosa once. The object the officer saw tucked into Monterrosa’s sweatshirt pocket was actually a 15-inch hammer, Williams said.

Resendiz and the Monterrosa sisters pushed back on this image of their brother.

Ashley and Michelle Monterrosa said Sean Monterrosa was never convicted of a crime, and that he was currently facing charges for shooting a firearm into the air on New Year’s Eve three years ago.

“It’s not fair the way the Vallejo PD had presented their case to the whole public — they gave a false narrative,” Michelle said.

Between 2015 and 2017, Monterrosa participated in the Lifeworks program at Horizons Unlimited, which aims to help youth develop career and job skills.

Nancy Abdul-Shakur, the program director, said she saw the program change him.

“I saw him bloom from a young man who didn’t really communicate well to a young man who really wanted to learn,” she said.

He became a voracious reader and developed into a mentor who wanted to help other kids develop a love of learning.

“He was a natural born leader,” Abdul-Shakur said. “He was very compassionate, kind and thoughtful. He was always concerned about not getting other people upset.”

Abdul-Shakur last saw Sean Monterrosa about two years ago, during one of his occasional visits to give a hug, and say hello and thanks. She learned of his death Tuesday from other Horizon alumni. She wants him to be remembered as a leader and friend.

“It’s important to focus on who he was and not focused on tactics of the police to criminalize him,” Abdul-Shakur said. “We will continue to uplift his image.”

In the past few years, Sean Monterrosa had worked as a security guard and more recently as a carpenter. He loved learning, creating and doing things with his hands, the sisters said.

“He’s been arrested a few times wrongfully, (and) because of the way he looks he’s been stereotyped,” Ashley said. “He has tattoos, he dresses a certain type of way — they would always try and stop him.”

The sisters said they had no idea what their brother was doing early Tuesday morning in Vallejo. In the middle of the night, they received a hysterical call from his girlfriend who said she was talking to him when she heard gunfire.

All three siblings share location data on their phones, so the sisters set out to try and find him in the middle of the night. Sean Monterrosa’s last location pinged at 1050 Redwood St. in Vallejo — the address of the Walgreens where he was shot.

Police and hospital staffers refused to provide any answers, and it wasn’t until the following morning when the sisters began calling mortuaries and their worst fears were realized.

The family is now represented by civil rights attorney John Burris, who attended Wednesday’s press conference and called the circumstances of the police shooting “disturbing.”

“He hadn’t done anything to threaten the officer or anyone else,” Burris said, stressing that Sean Monterrosa was on his knees when he was shot. “Even if it had been a gun, he did not try to pull it out. There was no basis to shoot him. He overreacted.”

Sean Monterrosa was scheduled to start a new carpentry job Friday. He was planning to buy his mom that house, and with his skills he could fix it up, his sisters said. He wanted to take classes, build generational wealth and give back to his family.

“One thing my brother would always say is: knowledge is power,” Ashley said. “So, we always have to pursue the (best) education that we can, get our parents the American dream, and give them everything they deserve.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/My-brother-was-kneeling-and-surrendering-15318383.php#photo-19505568

The cops are still shooting people of color.

Never mind the protests and demonstrations world wide since the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis a week ago.

American cops are trained to shoot first and ask questions later. Sadly, the latest victim of police violence in Vallejo, California is dead.  He can’t answer any questions.

Only his family and friends are left to mourn his demise.

San Francisco Chronicle 6.3.2020

The man fatally shot by Vallejo police as the city erupted in chaos Tuesday was kneeling outside a Walgreens and not carrying a firearm at the time an officer opened fire — sending five bullets through his own windshield.

Sean Monterrosa, 22, of San Francisco died after the shooting at around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday but police did not tell the public the man was killed — or disclose the circumstances of the officer-involved shooting — until Wednesday at a news conference outside City Hall, a day after calling in 50 troops from the National Guard to help control protests and rioting sparked by the Minnesota police killing of George Floyd.

In a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams said the officer believed he saw the butt of a handgun poking out near Monterrosa’s waist, and opened fire “due to this perceived threat.”

“Investigations later revealed that the weapon was a long, 15-inch hammer, tucked into the pocket of a sweatshirt,” Williams said.

The shooting is now under investigation by the Vallejo police and the Solano County District Attorney’s Office. The officer, an 18-year veteran of the force, has been placed on administrative leave.

The chaos continued in Vallejo into Tuesday evening. City officials said about 100 people and nearly 40 vehicles “surrounded” the Police Department and rocks and bottles were thrown at officers.

The death of Monterrosa, a Latino man, is almost certain to fan the flames of an already outraged community, after activists here say for years they have run up against a police department that has disproportionately targeted people of color and rarely held accountable for their actions.

“My brother was murdered out here by a cop too — they got no justice,” said Alicia Saddler, who is the sister of Angel Ramos, and who attended the press conference. “Now this man was on his knees? Unarmed? A hammer is not a weapon.”

For Ramos, whose 21-year-old brother died after a police responded to a fight at a home, Monterrosa’s death was chillingly familiar.

“He should be here. He should be alive,” she said. “This cop needs to be arrested and taken to jail, period.”

The incidents leading up to Monterrosa’s shooting began late Monday evening, when police began responding to reports of a looting at a Walgreens on Broadway and Redwood streets, Williams said at the press conference.

Looters initially fled the scene, but about 12:15 a.m. looters had returned and were attempting to break into the east side of the building, Williams said. The responding unit reported seeing 10 to 12 potential looters in the parking lot, and police additionally turned their attention to a young man dressed in black, who appeared to be armed in front of the building, Williams said.

As a police vehicle drove into the parking lot, at least one officer reported potential looters inside two vehicles, a black sedan and a silver truck.

Williams said officers in a second responding unit saw a single male dressed in black standing on the east side of Walgreens, “holding what appeared to be a weapon.”

“This individual appeared to be running toward the black sedan but suddenly stopped, taking a kneeling position, and placing his hands above his waist, revealing what appeared to be the butt of a handgun,” Williams said.

The black sedan rammed into one of the police vehicles, Williams said, which caused the airbag to be deployed.

The two suspect vehicle fled the scene, prompting a chase into Contra Costa County, where the driver of the silver truck was apprehended, Williams said.

One officer was injured in the incident when the airbag was deployed, Williams said.

Civil rights attorney John Burris, who is representing Monterrosa’s family, said he was “troubled” by the shooting.

“Notwithstanding what he’s accused of doing, you don’t kill people because they’re looters,” he said.

Burris said he’s awaiting more information on the case, including police body camera footage of the incident.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Attorney-identifies-SF-resident-fatally-shot-by-15315301.php#photo-19499002