Hog Wild: CHP Shoots Unarmed Carrick "Eric" Vigen 55 Times as Elias Family finds Pipebo

Local law enforcement claimed it's latest victim as three CHP officers gunned down and killed an unarmed mentally disturbed man with semiautomatic rifles, shooting him 55 times, several miles south of Modesto. The shooting happened on Saturday, June 18th, on Crows Landing and West Main.

From the Modesto Bee:

The officers involved were Sgt. Ian Troxell, a 12-year CHP veteran; Jonathan Box, who's been with the agency 3½ years; and Adam Percey, a 2½-year employee, according to Sgt. Anthony Bajaran, a Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department spokesman. The shooting happened within minutes of officers arriving.

According to Vigen's family, Eric had bipolar disorder and was in a manic state before the shooting. He also made comments that he wanted to get into a shootout with the police and that he was armed with a weapon. Thinking that law enforcement could help her son as they had done in the past, Eric's mother called police and told them that he was possibly armed and in need of help. Eric's family was given the murderous details of his untimely death when Sheriffs gave the family their report.

In 1999, New York man Amadou Diallo was shot by NYPD when they stopped him as he was entering his residence. When told to put his hands up, Diallo raised up his wallet as well. Police opened fire and killed the 23-year old Guinean man, shooting him 41 times. His murder and the acquittal of the officers involved kicked off large protests across the New York area. Sean Bell, another unarmed black man, was shot 51 times in 2006 after coming out of bachelor party in Queens, NY. Bell was killed and two others were injured and his murder brought three detectives to trial who were later found not guilty. Like the Diallo case, Bell's killing brought thousands into the streets. Both of these incidents are worth noting because they involve the killing of two unarmed men who were shot a large amount of times by several cops, just as Eric Vigen was. Also, in both of these cases the police were completely exonerated by the 'justice' system. Media coverage on the shooting of Eric has been slim and the Modesto Bee has not even allowed online public commenting on their article. And while Diallo and Bell's murders received national attention, there has hardly been any outrage over Vigen's murder even though he was shot even more times than both of them. It's clear that when the Modesto Bee can't present a story from the side of the police, they don't want to tell it at all.

Around the same time as the details were coming out about the Vigen shooting, on Wednesday, June 29th, the day of a public forum on the Rita Elias case, a pipe bomb was found on the front property of where one of Rita Elias daughters now lives. The next day, Kari Abbey, the former Sheriff facing charges for the murder of Rita Elias, was in court.

While police have not released details about the bomb and it's origins, the implications one can draw from who the bomb was directed at and the time it was placed there, are clear. Are local law enforcement and friends of Kari Abbey trying to scare the Elias family into dropping their case in court against Abbey? Are they trying to scare witnesses that have claimed that Rita was shot unjustly? Are they trying to stop more information coming out in regards to police corruption, steroid abuse, and drug trafficking? One thing is certain, someone wants to hurt and scare the Elias family. We must all stand behind them and show that solidarity is strength.

In these times, there are many things we can do to resist police terrorism and murder in our communities.

First, we must share information and discuss these incidents with each other. Share articles from this website at work with co-workers, those in your neighborhood, or post them up at the corner store. You can also share them online or email them to friends. We cannot count on the Modesto Bee to report correctly or at all, on these incidents. As poor and working people, it is up to us to destroy the credibility that the police have created for themselves and make the argument to other people that violence that comes from the police is not a problem of 'bad apples.' Instead, it is a systemic problem caused the nature of the police as a repressive organization of social control that helps maintain divisions and inequalities within society. Furthermore, only people organizing against police abuse and violence directly on their streets and in their communities, will bring change. Attempts to "hold the police accountable" through the legal system, a system which depends on the institutional violence that the police represent, have always failed us.

Second, we must show solidarity with each other and to those that have been affected by police violence. We must show up to court dates when we can, provide child-care for those that need time off to speak to lawyers, raise money for legal services (or give them for free), and come to protests, marches, and rallies. If those that we know that are standing up to the police are facing repression or harassment from the police, organize a watch vigil at their home to give them piece of mind. Organize a protest outside of the local station to let them know that you've had enough. The more people that stand up to the police, the easier it is for all of us to resist.

Third, we must organize. We have to generalize confrontation with the police and resistance to them, especially within the areas in which they are the most active. When police stop people on the street or in their cars, bring out your cell phone or video camera and begin recording. Do not allow the police to interact with people without at least watching the situation. This needs to happen in groups if possible. When large amounts of people begin to stop passively allowing police to enter their communities and interact with individuals, it will decrease instances of abuse and murder. We must also create a culture in which we do not talk to the police or use them in order to settle disputes. In order to do this, it means that we have to have each other's backs as well as find ways in which problems are resolved without calling the black and whites. This remains especially true for people with mental illness or those that are emotionally unstable. Let us take great care of each other, so we can be more dangerous together.