Oscar Grant Committee Letter to Sacramento DA about Yvette Felarca

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View or download this letter as a PDF document

October 3, 2017

The Honorable Anne Marie Schubert
District Attorney of Sacramento County,
901 G Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
daoffice@sacda.org

Dear District Attorney Schubert,

We continue to be deeply concerned about the prosecution Yvette Felarca on what appear to be trumped-up charges. We wrote earlier that her arrest in connection with the June 2016 events in Sacramento appeared to be a case of selective prosecution. Now it appears that the Berkeley Police Department is joining in, targeting Ms. Felarca in what appears to be a premeditated and unwarranted arrest on the part of the police. (See the YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HZN1Qb44Yk.) This raises the question of possible collaboration between the police and the neo-fascists and white supremacists. In light of the vicious smear campaign against her by the Alt-Right, it could be argued that the police should be protecting Ms. Felarca, not harassing her further.

We fear that the recent arrest of Ms. Felarca may be used as a pretext to increase her bail, even though no one has suggested that she has become a flight risk. If anything, she has become more dedicated to her cause and is in no sense a flight risk.

In the interests of justice, the Oscar Grant Committee again urges you to drop the pending charges against Yvette Felarca and certainly her bail should not be increased in what might be seen as a punitive manner.

Sincerely,

Eugene E Ruyle, Oakland, CA
For the Oscar Grant Committee
Against Police Brutality and State Repression

Propaganda War in Baltimore: Some Commercial Media Waking Up!

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People of color and veteran activists know that murders and cover-ups by police are nothing new. What’s new is the recording equipment that enables us to document them, and the Internet, which enables us to publish this evidence.

After the video of Officer Slager gunning down Walter Scott as he was running away surfaced, Adam Johnson of Fairness & Accuracy In Media wrote, “most of the local press,” by simply repeating what police said, “amplified a storyline that, in retrospect, was entirely made up.” Even NBC News published a mock report based on “official sources,” observing that these were the only known sources before the video came out.

The police department in Baltimore has been quick to tweet about “violence,” “looting,” and “bottles and bricks being thrown at officers;” a local teacher tweeted her experience (“police were forcing busses to stop and unload all their passengers,” students “were trying to leave on various busses but couldn’t,” cops “in full riot gear marching toward any small social clique of students.” This video shows cops throwing things back at protesters, and WBAL TV in Baltimore interviewed gang members.