Cicely Tyson Honored with Hand & Footprint Ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre
GIVE BIG KERN: One Day to Celebrate the Giving Spirit of Kern County
News Observer Bakersfield
Volume 44 Number 30
Serving Kern County for Over 40 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Killing of Unarmed Black Man Sacramento Residents are Demanding Answers about Stephon Clark
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Rev. Al Sharpton to Attend Funeral of Black Man Shot by Police
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The Rev. Al Sharpton says he plans to attend Thursday’s funeral for an unarmed black man shot to death by Sacramento police officers who say they thought he was holding a gun that turned out to be a cellphone. The civil rights advocate said on his MSNBC program Sunday that he’s been concerned by the March 18 shooting of Stephon Clark and doesn’t believe it’s gotten the media attention it deserves. Clark, 22, was standing with the phone in his grandmother’s backyard when he was shot 20 times. Officers responding to a report of someone breaking car windows say they chased a suspect into the yard. The shooting has roiled California’s capital city, leading to a protest last week that shut down a freeway.
Fiesta Mart to be Bought by El Super Grocer
Stephon Clark, 22, was fatally shot by Sacramento police officers last week. This photo of him with his two young sons has been widely circulated on social media by family and friends decrying the shooting and calling for justice. (Twitter)
By Genoa Barrow Sacramento Observer/NNPA Member SACRAMENTO—Angry and frustrated residents are demanding answers after a police-involved shooting left an unarmed, Black man dead last week. Stephon Clark, 22, was fatally shot in his Meadowview area backyard Sunday, March 18 after two Sacramento Police Department (SPD) officers shot at him more than 20 times. Local law enforcement officers were in the area after receiving a 911 call about a man suspected of breaking into vehicles in the area. A Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department helicopter spotted a man they believed to be that suspect, described as being 6’1”, thin, and wearing a black hoodie and dark pants, in a backyard and they directed SPD officers on the ground to that location. Helicopter personnel also communicated to officers that the suspect had picked up a “toolbar” and broke a window to a residence. Officers who had been canvassing other yards, eventually entered the front yard of a home on the 7500 block of 29th Street and observed Clark, along the side of the residence. Officers commanded Clark to stop and show his hands. According to a statement released by the SPD, the officers say Clark turned and advanced towards them while “holding an object which was extended in front of him.” The officers said they believed Clark was pointing a gun at them and, “fearing for their safety,” they fired their duty weapons. Police admit they only found a cellphone, not a gun or a “toolbar,” on the scene. On Wednesday, March 21 the SPD released video footage of the interaction from the body cameras worn by both officers, as well as audio from the initial 911 calls and dispatch. Chief Daniel Hahn, the city’s first African American police chief, has vowed to be transparent in such incidents since he took the position last year. Sacramento City Council policy on Police Use of Force mandates that the SPD release video and audio associated with police-involved shootings to the public within 30 days. The policy was adopted after a mentally ill Black man, Joseph Mann, was shot and killed by SPD officers in Del Paso Heights in 2016. The three-day turn around in the Clark shooting is much quicker than has happened in years past. “SPD acknowledges the seriousness of this incident and the impact it has on our community,” reads one of two statements on the shooting, released by the SPD last week. “We are committed to providing timely information, communicating openly, and working directly with our
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Hundreds converged on Sacramento’s city hall last Thursday in protest of the police-involved shooting of Stephon Clark, 22, who was killed in South Sacramento Sunday, March 18 by two officers who mistook a cell phone he was holding for a gun. Protesters, led by activists with Black Lives Matter Sacramento, left city hall and proceeded to move onto Northbound I-5, shutting down the busy highway just before the evening commute. (Antonio R. Harvey/The Sacramento Observer)
community, so that they have a full understanding of what occurred,” the statement continues. The body camera videos are each about 17 minutes long. While neither officer has been identified, one appears to be White or Hispanic and the other African American. In the graphic video, the officers don’t appear to identify themselves as police officers, but simply say, “Hey, show me your hands, gun” and seconds later “Show me your hands, gun, gun gun,” before one shoots off 10 rounds and the other, at least 11. Officers waited five minutes for backup to arrive and can be heard telling Clark, who was unresponsive, to show his hands. One officer tells another to grab a “non-lethal” from a police vehicle so they can “hit him a couple of times with that” before approaching him. When officers did approach Clark’s body, he was laying face down on the ground. They handcuffed him and began CPR. He was pronounced dead on the scene by the Sacramento Fire Department. The use of non-lethal weapons, such as rifles that shoot bean bags at suspects, were part of reforms fought for by local activists after the Mann incident and the shooting death of another Black man, Dazion Flenaugh; the mandatory use of body cameras was also part of the reforms. “You authorized non-lethal weapons. Why weren’t non-lethal weapons used in this instance?” Richard Owen, co-chair of the Law Enforcement Accountability Directive, asked of the city council during a meeting where the Stephon Clark shooting incident was discussed. Owen continued: “Did Mr. Clark really have to die? It doesn’t seem that way to the community.”
Owen, a retired school principal, also questioned why officers waited before attempting to save Clark’s life. While Owen said he’d hold off for the video to reveal the facts, he addressed some of the most salacious rumors that have been circling in the community regarding the shooting. “If this man was shot in the back and shot 20 times, that’s excessive force without question,” Owen said. Chief Hahn, who was at the meeting to read an official SPD statement, and answer questions, said those elements of the incident are currently under investigation. Family members are also asking why the body cameras were muted for a period of time. Black Lives Sacramento leader Tanya Faison also spoke out at this week’s city council meeting. “I’m sick of seeing people die that look like me,” Ms. Faison said. She called for the firing of the officers involved in the shooting, as others in the audience voiced their agreement. “I know the City Manager doesn’t have the power to convict, but he does have the power to fire,” Ms. Faison said. “You need to start firing these officers when they kill us in the streets. It needs to happen. I’m tired of this.” Also concerning members of the public is how police interacted with Clark’s family after the shooting. The home where the shooting occurred was that of his grandparents, with whom he’d been staying. His grandmother, Sequita Thompson, told local media that the police questioned her for hours about what she’d heard, but was never told that her grandson had been shot. It wasn’t until she looked out of a window that she saw him on the ground, dead. Continued on page A2
Film Details Hidden Figures in
Pro Wrestling Black Women
Ramona Isbell talks about her days as a professional wrestler in the 1960s and 1970s beside a framed collage of mementos including publicity photos and a jacket, on Monday, March 19, 2018, in Columbus, Ohio. A new documentary tells the story of black women professional wrestlers in the 1950s and 1960s, many of them from Columbus. (AP Photo/ Andrew Welsh-Huggins)
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ Ramona Isbell is worried. What will people say when they find out? After all, she mostly kept her secret for more than 50 years. The practices. The out-of-town _ and out-of-country _ travel. Her role as a hidden figure in a lesser-known aspect of integration brought on by the civil rights movement. Her life as one of the country's first black female professional wrestlers. “I liked the freedom, I liked the money, I liked the travel, and I had fun,” Isbell said. A new documentary explores the role of black women recruited as professional wrestlers in the 1950s and 1960s. Columbus was an epicenter for the female wrestlers thanks to promoter Billy Wolfe. “Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring” debuts Thursday at Ohio State University's Wexner Center for the Arts. Filmmaker Chris Bournea said people like Isbell wrestled not only before women were deemed capable of athletic accomplishments but before blacks had civil rights in many places. They also didn't talk a lot about what they did, perhaps concerned about others' reactions. And when they were finished, they wanted to move on with their lives. Bournea, who is black, grew up in Columbus without ever hearing the stories. After he learned of them Continued on page A5
HOUSTON (AP) _ The Houston-based Fiesta Mart chain is being acquired by a California grocer to create what’s billed as one of the largest Hispanic-focused supermarket companies in the U.S. El Super Grocer, based in Paramount, California, announced the deal Sunday, saying the new chain will have 122 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. Terms of the agreement weren’t immediately released. The Houston Chronicle reports the deal could be worth as much as $300 million. El Super is owned by the Bodega Latina Corporation, a subsidiary of Grupo Comercial Chedraui. Fiesta Mart is operated by ACON Investments, operating 63 stores mainly in the Houston, Dallas and Austin areas. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. Fiesta Mart stores will retain that name.
US Gas Prices Rise 7 Cents a Gallon Over Past 2 Weeks
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) - The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline shot up 7 cents a gallon over the past two weeks to $2.66. Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday the increase was driven primarily by rising crude oil prices. Lundberg says she expects prices to continue to rise over the next few weeks. The increase brings the price of gas to 32 cents a gallon higher than it was at this time last year. The highest average price in the contiguous 48 states was $3.54 in the San Francisco Bay area. The lowest was $2.22 in St. Louis. The average price for diesel fuel rose a penny, to $3.01.
Authorities Search for Two Escaped Inmates
SAN MATEO, CAlif. (AP) - Authorities are searching for two male inmates who left a correctional facility in Northern California. The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office says they were notified of two “walkaways’’ from the Glenwood Camp correctional facility in La Honda, California at 9:45 p.m. Sunday. Television station KNTV-NBC reported Monday that the inmates were identified as an 18-year-old black male about 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds and a 17-year-old Polynesian male who is about 5-foot-7 and 200 pounds. Both were last seen wearing grey sweatpants and a grey sweatshirt.
TCM Honors Cicely Tyson with Hand & Footprint Ceremony
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Cicely Tyson’s legend is being cemented into film history. Turner Classic Movies says it will honor the 93-yearold actress and activist with an official hand-and-footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood on April 27. Tyson is best known for performances in films like “Sounder’’ and television films “Roots’’ and “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.’’ An Emmy- and Tony Award-winner, Tyson has also been honored by the NAACP and the Kennedy Center and in 2016 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The ceremony will run in conjunction with the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival. Previous TCM honorees have included Jane Fonda, Frances Ford Coppola, and Carl and Rob Reiner.