THE SAN BERNARDINO
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AMERICAN
“A Man In Debt is So Far A Slave” -Emerson
NEWSPAPER A Community Newspaper Serving San Bernardino, Riverside & Los Angeles Counties
July 01, 2021 Thursday Edition
Volume 52 No.11 Mailing: P.O. Box 837, Victorville, CA 92393
Office: (909) 889-7677
Email: Mary @Sb-American.com
Website: www.SB-American.com
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them and these will continue till they have resisted either with words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance those of whom they suppress. —Fredrick Douglass (1849)
New Study Reveals Depth of Police Violence and its Effect on Communities of Color
The coronavirus is still in the midst of the Black community in California NNPA NEWSWIRE — “The vaccine is here to prevent severe illness and death from the virus,” said Sami Gallegos, press secretary for the state’s COVID-19 task force. “Just because California is open, does not mean that COVID-19 has disappeared.”
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Since 2015, more than 400,000 people have been treated in emergency rooms because of a violent interaction with police or security guards, according to the report that The Marshall Project published in conjunction with NBC News. “But there’s almost no nationwide data on the nature or circumstances of their injuries,” the report’s authors wrote. By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia
Despite incentives, LA County data shows that the percentage of unvaccinated Blacks exceeds that of the general public. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)
Although California businesses are open Lisa Olivia Fitch | Our Weekly News
Officers are protectors of state, representing and enforcing immense state power, added Dr. Andrea Boyles, a sociologist, and criminologist in the university’s Africana Studies Program. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA) A new investigation by the nonprofit The Marshall Project and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal the depth of police brutality and unpunished violence that continues to rock the nation, particularly communities of color. Since 2015, more than 400,000 people have been treated in emergency rooms because of a violent interaction with police or security guards, according to the report that The Marshall Project published in conjunction with NBC News. “But there’s almost no nationwide data on the nature or circumstances of their injuries,” the report’s authors wrote. “Many of the country’s roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies don’t tally or make public the number of people who need medical care after officers break their arms, bruise their faces, or shock them with Tasers.” The researchers noted the national conversation about policing over the past year, where public attention has focused on those like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tamir Rice, who die at the hands of officers. “Few know that tens of thousands of people like Eliel Paulino end up in emergency rooms after run-ins with police,” the researchers penned in the study. Paulino was less than a block from his apartment complex late one night in 2015 when
“red police lights flashed in his SUV’s rearview mirror,” the researchers continued. Officers told Paulino that lights on his license plates were out, and “within minutes, a routine traffic stop became a beatdown.” An emergency room doctor needed four staples to close the wounds in Paulino’s battered right arm after officers mercilessly slammed him to the ground and viciously beat him with their batons. The officers claimed that Paulino resisted arrest, but video from a security camera proved them wrong. The city of San Jose, California, paid Paulino a $700,000 civil settlement after a jury found the cops violated his constitutional rights. According to a 2020 analysis, when police use force, more than half of the incidents end with a suspect or civilian getting hurt. The report authors also noted that “most experts agree that injuries at the hands of cops remain underreported.” “This data depends on the discretion of police, who get to decide who is worthy or unworthy of an ambulance,” Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, an associate professor of sociology at Brown University who has researched the Chicago Police Department, told researchers. “It is absolutely an undercount.” In an email to the Black Press
of America, Tulane University professor Andrea Boyles said police officers are the most visible arm of the government. Officers are protectors of state, representing and enforcing immense state power, added Dr. Boyles, a sociologist, and criminologist in the university’s Africana Studies Program. “This includes violence, which in turn, becomes akin to professional or occupational hazards,” asserted Dr. Boyles, who also serves on the faculty of Tulane’s Violence Prevention Institute. “And since law enforcement acts as their master status, police violence is treated as inherently warranted and undeserving of prosecution regardless of exchanges across time and places.” Dr. Boyles continued: “The bigger concern are the numbers of unreported and uncharged violent crimes committed by police daily. I argue that violent crimes committed by the police largely are not occurring as one-offs or in insolation. Rather, many are happening as buildups of problems that manifest as dangerous and anticipatorily vindicated escalations. Thus, they become lead-ins to the more series cases like murder.” San Jose, which has just over one million residents, tracks injuries and hospitalizations as part of reducing violent interactions between residents and the police.
However, researchers noted that about 1,300 people over the three years ending in 2020 still landed in the emergency room after an altercation with police. Most of the ER visits involved officers using their hands on people, the analysis found. “Control holds” — twisting arms or holding people down — played a role in 60% of the cases, The Marshall Project found. Almost 20% of people who went to the ER were shot with stun guns. Police hit 10% with an “impact weapon” such as a baton. “In those four years, city data shows, encounters with San Jose police left 72 people’ seriously injured,’ which includes broken bones, dog bites, and internal injuries. Nine more people died, all from gunshot wounds,” the researchers continued. They said rough arrests had cost the city more than $26 million in lawsuit payouts for civil rights violations since 2010. The Marshall Project found that police in San Jose, Denver, and Chicago has strict rules about seeking medical attention when someone complains of an injury. “If [the victim] is not complaining of an injury,” Chicago Police Spokesman Sgt. Rocco Alioto told researchers, “And there’s no visible sign of injury, then there’s nothing that says that we have to call or take them to the hospital for clearance.”
Only 45.5 percent of the state’s Black community is at least partially vaccinated, according to California Department of Public Health data. This despite the fact that the virus death rate for Blacks is 9 percent higher than the statewide population. “The vaccine is here to prevent severe illness and death from the virus,” said Sami Gallegos, press secretary for the state’s COVID-19 task force. “Just because California is open, does not mean that COVID-19 has disappeared.” Last week, Califor nia retired its Blueprint for a Safer Economy and businesses can open at full capacity, with a handful of exceptions. And Gallegos, speaking at a media briefing hosted by California Black Media, suggested caution. Continuing to wear a mask is just common courtesy, she said. Protecting us from increased COVID-19 surges. Gallegos joined a panel of healthcare professionals who insisted that increased vaccination numbers are necessary to reduce hospitalizations and save lives. “Vaccines are our most effective tools,” Gallegos said. “This is our shot to improve the health of our state.” Although Gov. Gavin Newsom chose the final winners for those inoculated residents who received cash incentives; other incentives from the state are still being offered, including $50 gift cards. Gallegos said a final drawing will be held July 1, when the state will give away six destination packages to lucky recipients. Despite those incentives, LA County data shows that the percentage of unvaccinated Blacks exceeds that of the general public. “We still have to be careful and cautious,” said Dr. Jerry Abraham of Kedren Health, who noted that the national hospitalization and death rates are just as high as they
were two months ago. “It’s been a difficult 17 months now, but that doesn’t mean it’s all over.” Abraham said his organization has been getting out into the community and making home visits. They have encountered a host of questions and are working to dispel the variety of myths surrounding the vaccine. “We engage, we educate and we vaccinate,” Abraham said, adding that the vaccines have gone through rigorous testing through the Food and Drug Administration; there were Black representatives in the vaccine s clinical trials, and the National Medical Association—a Black organization of doctors—has approved the vaccines through an independent review committee. “All vaccinated persons are 100 percent protected from death due to COVID-19,” he said. Abraham recommends that families talk up the vaccine to family members—young and old, men, women, and children, as shots are now available to those over the age of 12. “The faster we all get vaccinated, the faster we all get back to life,” Abraham said. “June is Men’s Health Month and getting vaccinated is the manly thing to do.” If unable to travel to a vaccine site, the DPH suggests checking with healthcare providers, the local health department, or local pharmacy. Additionally, If someone cannot leave home to get vaccinated, they can indicate this on myturn.ca.gov or when calling the state’s COVID-19 hotline at (833) 422-4255. If eligible, they will be connected with a local health jurisdiction to arrange for in-home vaccination services. For more information on the latest developments in the vaccine distribution process, visit www.covid19.ca.gov or https://www.vaccinateall58.com/.