Shutting It Down For Alex

On March 21, 2014, Alex Nieto, a SF native, full-time student, and intern at Youth Guidance, was shot down by Police who responded to a 911 call about a “conspicuous person” in Bernal Heights Park. Alejandro Nieto, in the park on his lunch break, wore a Taser required for his job. Once again, the police used their mantra, a gun was pulled and we feared for our lives.” Witnesses state however they did not see Alex with a gun.

March 23, 2015, on the one-year anniversary of the police killing of Alex Nieto, and as none of the four cops involved Alex’s death faced any charges, Stop Police Impunity held a peoples’ court in front of Mission SFPD Station. The entire block of Valencia in front of the SFPD Mission Station was held down for four hours. The SFPD, Mayor Lee, and District Attorney Gascon have lost credibility in the community. Consistently, cops are given impunity after killings. This trial complete with a peoples’ judge, jury, and prosecutor found all four officers guilty.

A chant told the truth of the day. “Indict, Convict, Send the Cop Killers to Jail; The Whole Damn System is Guilty as Hell! Speakers linked the issues of gentrification, economic inequality caused by the Tech Takeover of our city, killings of people with mental or physical disabilities, injustice to homeless people, and the militarization of our streets with the same weapons used against people in Gaza. The demonstration also called attention to the national epidemic of police brutality. The organizers declared solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and called for Black and Brown solidarity.

They demand an end to police impunity and call for an independent federal investigation into officer-involved shootings in San Francisco.