Candlelight Vigil Marks Third Month Since Antonio Lopez was Killed by SJSU Police
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
A candlelight vigil was held in San Jose on May 21 to mark the three month anniversary of the death of Antonio Guzman Lopez, who was killed by San Jose State Police near the university on February 21. Antonio was shot in the back by police twice in broad daylight, and Laurie Valdez, the widow of Antonio and mother of Josiah Antonio Lopez, still has not received the police report or coroner's report on his killing from any agency. "I want answers and it's three months already and I don't have nothing at all," she said at the vigil. The San Jose Police Department and the University Police Department are not returning her calls or revealing what the officers' uniform-mounted cameras recorded that day.
The intimate vigil was organized at the last minute when Antonio's parents arrived from Nayarit, where they live and where Antonio is now buried. Antonio's mother, who spoke briefly at the vigil, wanted to see where her son died. In April Laurie described Antonio as a, "loving son, brother, father, and partner...a hard worker, and a friendly and generous person who was always willing to help others."
"As an undocumented immigrant Antonio would never jeopardize his presence here, if for no other reason than to protect and stay for our son Josiah. To risk deportation was not something Antonio would ever do, he never wanted to be separated from his son, but this has happened anyhow, permanently and tragically," she said
In addition to his four-year-old son, Josiah, Antonio was also a loving father to Laurie's daughter Angelique.
At the vigil, Josiah could be seen happy and playing, even though he has suffered greatly since the loss of his father. Laurie told the group that Josiah, "wakes up every night, crying, saying the monsters are going to get him," adding, "he tells me every other day that he wishes he could grow up so that the cops could kill him and he could see his dad again."
"My son is going to end up being a statistic of the crimes that are committed because he's going to be upset about what happened to his father."
Family, friends, and supporters are seeking "Justice for Josiah".
"Between all of us we will get the justice that Josiah deserves for not having a dad," Laurie said.
"If we can get Justice for Josiah, Antonio's death will not have been in vain."
Community members in Santa Cruz commemorated Juneteenth this year with a large march from Louden Nelson Center to Santa Cruz City Hall, where speakers were heard. Reverend Deborah L. Johnson of Inner Light Ministries started off the speeches with a history of the Juneteenth holiday. Other speakers included Valentin Lopez, Chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.
After being stopped by officers with the Santa Cruz Police Department in Downtown Santa Cruz over the summer, photographer Craig Burton explained in a video interview that he was taking a picture of a child in public and that his subsequent detainment by the SCPD was a case of racial profiling. Burton was clear in stating that his stop by the local police was unwarranted and that they should have known that he was not a predator. Though the authorities did not apologize to him or treat him politely, he didn't blame them, they were just doing their job he said. Burton instead focused on liberals in California, in general, as the source of the problem, stating that, "people act like they are really liberal, but they are not really liberal." He later added, "As you can see, this is Santa Barbara now." When officers Winston and Warren arrived in their patrol vehicle and first caught up to him that day on Locust Street, Burton said he was told by them to sit...
The original Mission Santa Cruz adobe and the replica mission were both spray painted during a demonstration organized on June 10 in Santa Cruz in support of the abolition of police. The phrase "Fuck Your Citizenship" was painted on the Neary-Rodriguez Adobe, and the phrase "Maldita Cruz" was spray painted on two structures. The word maldita means "damned" or "cursed" in Spanish. Additionally, the word "genocide" was painted on the state park plaque, and the mission bell located in Mission Plaza Park was removed. Mission bells were installed across the state to memorialize the California missions. The bell displayed in Mission Plaza Park was donated by the Santa Cruz Woman's Club in 1998. In 2019, local indigenous leaders lead a successful campaign to remove the mission bell at UC Santa Cruz. They stated in a news release that the California mission system was a place where their ancestors were "enslaved, whipped, raped, ...
Comments