Slaying by sheriff’s deputy ignites mass movement across racial lines

SONOMA COUNTY, CA—In Sonoma County, California, a broad-based coalition has emerged over the killing of 13-year-old Andy Lopez by a county sheriff’s deputy who fired seven shots into his body, six of them apparently after he was down.
Made up of Latino and social-justice organizations, Greens and progressive-Democrats, and student, civil-rights, and peace groups, the coalition formed in late November to keep the strong response going to Lopez’ slaying.
Lopez was killed while walking with a toy rifle near his Santa Rosa home. Like the killings of African-Americans, Trayvon Martin in Florida, and Oscar Grant in Oakland, the killing has ignited the community to demand justice.
Dozens of large, peaceful actions ranging from marches and vigils to a flash mob in a local mall indicate the rise of a mass movement. They could change how the largely Latino working-class neighborhoods in Sonoma County are treated by law enforcement.
“The Lopez family wants justice for the killing of Andy Lopez, which would be the prosecution of the law officer,” the family’s advocate, attorney Arnoldo Casillas, told the initial coalition meeting.
The coalition will focus on demanding prosecution while District Attorney Jill Ravitch completes her investigation of the killing and decides whether to file charges. She must do so by January 20, Martin Luther King Day, when another demonstration is planned.
The deputy’s killing of Lopez is being investigated by the Santa Rosa Police Department at the same time that a killing by Santa Rosa police is being investigated by the Sheriff’s Office. Ravitch, whose early December fundraiser was greeted by demonstrators banging pots, was endorsed by both county and city officers’ associations in 2010.
At the coalition’s founding meeting were members of the American Civil Liberties Union, North Bay Organizing Project, Latino Democratic Club, Peace and Justice Center, 100 Thousand Poets for Change, Green Party, Police Accountability Clinic and Helpline (PACH), Peace and Freedom Party, students from Santa Rosa Junior College, and Lopez family friends.
The coalition endorsed making the vacant lot where Andy was killed into a park. The neighborhood has already constructed a large memorial for Lopez there, where it holds regular prayer vigils. Other demands include creating a transparent Civilian Review Board to investigate complaints about the police and outfitting police with cameras that document their actions.
Casillas and the Lopez family have launched their own, independent investigation. “The [official] investigation is a whitewash,” he explained. “I believe their decision has already been made. The conflict of interest is clear.”
The Andy Lopez killing “is intimately implicated with the militarization of the police,” notes Sonoma State University sociology professor Noel Byrne. It encourages police to view themselves as an occupying force—“most of the general public is seen as like the populations of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan during wartime,” he says.
“Andy Lopez is not going to be forgotten,” Casillas noted near the end of the coalition’s founding meeting. “There is something that resonates deeply in the hearts of people about the killing of Andy.”