A Fresno Mother's Horrific Bus Ride Home

At a press conference held Wednesday [October 19, 2005], Sharee Bess explained how she and her infant daughter were abused by a city bus driver and a Fresno City policeman because, said Bess, she did not fold up her baby's stroller fast enough. She says she was yelled at, threatened to be shot with a taser gun, ordered off the bus, searched and handcuffed by a policeman who was called, and made to drop her baby.

She said she asked the driver to call a supervisor, but he would not. He kept repeating "Get off my bus."

She was ordered to get in the police car, while her baby was running around crying.

Her court date is November 16, 2005.

Bess has injuries to her head, arms and wrists. Her daughter also has injuries, and has started crying during the night, she said.

California State President of National Action Network, the Rev. Floyd D. Harris, Jr., under the leadership of the Rev. Al Sharpton in New York, is demanding an investigation of the Fax Area Express and the Fresno Police Department on the arrest and abuse of an African American woman, Sharee Bess, and her child.

At the press conference held Wednesday noon in Courthouse Park, Harris launched an investigation of the Fax Area Express and the Fresno Police Department.

"The policies and procedures of Fax Transit on why a supervisor was not called, need to be evaluated," said Harris. And he added, the possibility of a bus boycott in Fresno is on the table.

Harris said the Fresno Police department would not release the police report to him or Sharee Bess.

"You can look at the video on the bus and see, I did not use profanity or do anything to warrant such treatment," said Bess. Some of the passengers gave their names and numbers in case she needed a witness, she said.

Bess' sister-in-law, who is white, and her infant were with Bess. She said the sister-in-law also boarded the bus with a baby stroller, but the bus driver did not say a word to her.

Rosa Parks Remembered

Rosa Parks, who refused to surrender her seat to a white bus rider in 1955, was arrested in Montgomery, Ala. Rev. Floyd Harris says the Rosa Parks days are still alive in Fresno, Ca. He said black people in Fresno County are still being treated like second class citizens.

"Dr. King took a stand for Rosa Parks, so I have to take a stand for Sharee Bess and her daughter, by any means necessary. We are not asking, we are demanding respect in this so-called All-American City," stated Harris.

Contact Rev. Floyd Harris Jr. at 559-288-0828, by email at xyfloyd [at] aol.com, or on the web at http://www.nancal.org.

- reprinted from The California Advocate (Volume 38 Number 42 October 21, 2005).