Remembering Idriss Stelley

Clearly there is a long standing link between global and local oppression...As the grieving family, friends and supporters of Idriss "E" Stelley, gunned down at SF Metreon by SFPD, on 6-13-2001 (more than 27 shots, while he stood alone in an emptied theater), we will express our outrage about excessive use of force and the current ratio of police officers trained to do a "5150" (crisis intervention with individuals in mental distress): 24 VOLUNTEER officers out of 2000 (1%) on the force are currently trained! Since one out of four 911 calls are 5150 requests, we demand that a minimum of 25% of officers per precinct will receive MANDATORY 5150 training by the end of fiscal year 2003, and that this ratio will be maintained thereafter.
This motion calls for a major increase in the police budget and internal re-allocations (much more proficient than the absurd amounts of money spent in harassing the homesless in our city).
Having been routinely involved in police training since 1981, as an advocate for battered women,immigrants, substance users and survivors with HIV, when it comes to appropriate use of force when dealing with individuals in mental distress, I also demand to be a panelist on this specific police training on a permanent basis, not as an hysterical mother, but as an professional expert in the matter, who can dissociate her grief from her social responsibility to contribute in urgent, crucial changes in SFPD budget, policies and procedures.
I truly hope that my son's case will be an earmark in our struggle to curb senseless police brutality, and that we can move forward, away from the origin of the police department in the US: the "slave catchers", poor Irish immigrants hired to hunt and kill those who were trying to escape from slavery...May my son's now free spirit guide me in making a difference and focusing on positive changes.

Mesha Monge-Irizarry, idrissonelove [at] multimania.com