Justice for Everardo Torres

All my respect and carino to Lalo's family ! Your courage, dignity and example is a great inspiration to all of us striving for justice.

All my respect and carino to Lalo's family ! Your courage, dignity and example is a great inspiration to all of us striving for justice.

What a Kodak moment... The kind of picture you would see in Life magazine, restrospective on race relations under the Minutemen rule!

I was there. The Anglo individual whose body language was quite violent kept yelling :"I believe in the Constitution! You are all Americans ! So what? It was not racist, he was killed by his own kind!" This pathetic excuse for a human being should have been totally ignored. Although the corporate press stated that Madera Police escorted him away, 3 officers actually walked him inside the station, patting him affectionately on his back, although the station was barred to all other on lookers and protest participants. The provocation did not work, thanks to Raza not putting themselves at his level.

Shooting ruling leads to march
Protesters support the family of Madera man killed by police officer.
By Charles McCarthy / The Fresno Bee

(Updated Wednesday, August 10, 2005, 5:51 AM)

MADERA — A federal judge's ruling that the fatal shooting of a handcuffed man was accidental sparked a march Tuesday and a protest in front of the Madera Police Department.

About 85 people chanted about police brutality and demanded justice in the death of Everardo Torres, 24, who in October 2002 was shot in the back seat of a police car by police officer Marcy Noriega.

"We are protesting against police brutality and badge malpractice ... people vs. injustice," Torres' brother Mel said.

The Torres family filed a civil lawsuit in 2002 in U.S. District Court in Fresno against the city of Madera and Noriega after the city rejected a $10 million claim.

"We want to keep our civil rights," Mel Torres said.

At issue is an April 8 order filed by District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii denying the family's claim that Noriega deliberately intended to shoot Everardo Torres and thus violated his civil rights.

Noriega said she shot Everardo Torres accidentally with her Glock semiautomatic police handgun instead of her nonlethal Taser stun gun after the handcuffed man started kicking at the windows of a police patrol car.

Torres had been handcuffed and placed in the car's back seat on suspicion of resisting police as they tried to quell a loud party on North Schnoor Avenue.

Madera County District Attorney Ernest LiCalsi watched part of Tuesday's protest rally from the Government Center parking lot across the street.

LiCalsi said his office conducted an extensive investigation of the shooting and in May 2003 announced no criminal charges would be filed against Noriega.

Ishii's 18-page decision called the shooting an accident. The judge disagreed with family lawyers' contention that regardless of which weapon the officer fired, the intent was to "seize" the restrained man.

The ruling let stand other parts of the family's lawsuit amended in January 2003. In the amendment, the family alleged the shooting was a wrongful death that involved assault and battery, false arrest and imprisonment, and negligence.

In Los Angeles this week, lawyer Cameron Stewart said Ishii's civil rights ruling in the case is on appeal before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The reporter can be reached at cmccarthy [at] fresnobee.com or(559) 675-6804.

Anyone that will listen,
On March 31, 2005 in Madera my two children and I experienced our first direct experience with racial profiling and harrassment. The reason I say direct experience is because we have had many indirect experiences of racial profiling against my husband, the father of my three sons. I am an African American female and two of my children ages one and three years of age at the time of the incident. I am a tax paying citizen with no criminal background of any sort and I have never even had a ticket before in my life. On the above stated date a madera police officer along with a ride-along approached three young African American Males in the parking lot of the Mace Headstart Center which is shared by an appartment complex. One of the three young male whom is a resident. The three young men were harrrassed, searched, one placed in the back of the police car to be detained, one arrested for resisting arrest who was a minor at the time. Then I was yelled at and told to get out of my car. My car door was snatched open and I was threatened to be shot in front of my children with the taser. My children began to scream because all they knew was that someone had just threatend to shoot there mother and they have no clue of the difference between that of a taser or a real gun. My car was then illegally searched, my children removed from the car by someone they don't even know. I never knew all this had taken place because I was taken from the area in handcuffs and was unable to see my car or my children. The teachers at headstart were witnessed to this and asked to take my kids inside to keep form further harming them and they were told to get away even though they had explained to them she is a participating parent in our program and she just left out the door. I had to yell and scream out my hausbands cell phone number in hopes that someone would hear all seven numbers and please call him. That did happen and someone did make the call perhaps more than one person. My husband did get the messange and was in Chowchilla at the time for work purposes. He called a friend of his that he works with and said, "Hey, can you please go check on my wife and kid something has happened to them involving the police and I don't know what is going on". His friend did so and arrived in the parking lot and said, "Hey Monet' what's going on" He was then told by an officer, "Don't talk to her and get away from here". I was detained for approxoimately twenty minutes and was then let go and told to hurry up and get out of here by one of the officers who began the initial incident. On March 31, 2005 my husband observed some of the same officers with two African American Males detained on the curb at the intersection of sunrise and A street in Madera. My husband stopped at the stop sign looked to see the two being detained and proceeded through the stop sign. He was able to make eye cantact with the officers. My husband proceeded in route to the Post Office in which upon his arrival and exiting the vehicle he heard," Get back in the vehicle you're being detained by Madera Police," in which he did so. He was told by the police officer you were starring we stopped you to see what you needed. When they ran my husbands information and it came back we had the same last name and address they knew they had made a mistake so they then stated you rolled past the white line at Sunrise and A street before stopping. The stun guns were also pulled and he was threatened to be shot. He was removed from the vehicle, a county marked vehicle and the vehicle was searched. Later on after this incident he was told by one of the males detained on the curb that they (police) ask them when my husband came through the intersection if they knew and what did he want because he was starring. An investigation was done by the County Board of Supervisors and they came to the conclusion that the pulling of the stun guns were justified for a minor traffic infraction because the officers stated that my husband kept reaching into an orange bag that never existed. Therefore these officers are falsifying information to justify there actions. In my incident when I spoke to one of the Sargents at the police department to find out why this happened to me and my kids I was told there was white package involved that was never found and has yet to surface to this day. This is to try and justify there illegall actions because they are LIARS. Our whole system in Madera is corrupted and unless we all come together as a minority community and bring these things to light there will be no justice. My husband appeared in Chowchilla court before a Judge along with two of the officers involved in his incident. My husband tried to explain what was going on with my incident and his from the racial aspect and the judge told him it was irrelevant and he did not want to here it. This basicly says that we as the justice system do not care and we are not even going to here it. The officers stated they had my husband on dvd running the stop sign but they did not bring it to court. If this was true we would have been satisfied with the decision to pay the fine but by the Judge not even asking to review the dvd and this being the basis for the whole case it seems as if there covering for each other and avoiding the truth. Also as additional information I would like to make it known that on the day of my incident I went to police department for answer in which I was not giving any and to this day I've still been refused a copy of the police report, but on that day I was told something by a young African American Male student a Junior at Madera High. He told me don't worry it'll be alright they do that to us all the time. DO YOU KNOW WHETHER OR NOT THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOUR CHILD?

This is just a briefing of the incidents that occurred with myself and my husband and the damage that it has done to our family. Please get involved help us help each other for the sake of the community we live in and should not have to leave to feel safe.

Monet'

As an attachment to my earlier comments there was a typing error. The dat of the incident involving myself and my childre occurred on March 9, 2005 and the incident involving my husband occurred on March 31, 2005.

The Madera Tribune has an article about the march and rally. See:

http://maderatribune.1871dev.com/news/newsview.asp?c=165883

The article starts out:

A group of citizens from all across the state marched to the police department Tuesday to protest police brutality. While the intent of the protest was centered around the shooting death of Everardo Torres in October 2002, the event was used to express everything from racism to violation of civil rights.

KILL A COP WHEN U SEE ONE! KILL THEM ALL, GO TO CHICO AND KILL THAT BITCH!!! WERE THE BLACK PANTHERS AND BROWN BERETS OF TODAY!
FUCK DEVILS FUCK CRAKERS FUCK POLICE!
SNIPE EM OUT! KILL THEIR WHOLE FAMILYS! KILL EM ALL GAD DAMMIT!

YOUR AN IDIOT!!!

Yaaa....That bitch killed my tio Lalo the only meaning of life that I had..The only man i reached up to besides Jesus...Atleast he's in a better plce! R.I.P...Tio Lalo..Gone but never forgotten and always in our hearts....

If anyone was wondering the Madera Police officer that killed Everado is back on the force and working the streets of Madera. So be careful if you are an honest person in Madera. She might kill you if you have a party that gets out of control. Good thing the team she is on only works Monday through Thursday nights.

Lalo,
For anyone who know him, then you know that was a special name. He got it from his family! I know personnally from being around his family. You will never know another Lalo, like this one! I also know from having one on one conversations with Lalo. He will not rest in peace till the BITCH is dealt with. Also his family knows this to. That is why they will not give up on justice. Lalo deserves this!!!!!!!! For those who didnt know him they dont know how special he was, and still is!!!!! So unless you knew him words can not explain. There will be justice one way or the other,because if not. Marcie will go crazy just from people who love him making life unbearable for her!!!!!!!