The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.44           December 7, 1998 
 
 
Houston Cops Who Killed Immigrant Are Fired  

BY LEA SHERMAN
HOUSTON - On November 2 Houston police chief C.O. Bradford fired the six police officers who participated in the July 12 shooting death of 22-year-old Pedro Oregón Navarro.

The cops entered Oregón's apartment with no search or arrest warrants, acting on a tip from a police informer about drugs. Smashing into his bedroom, they fired 33 rounds of bullets, hitting the Mexican worker 12 times all from behind. Nine bullets hit him in the back, one each in the back of the head, shoulder, and hand. No drugs were found in the apartment or in his system.

The internal police investigation found the six cops violated state and federal laws including lying, criminal activity, entering without a search warrant, and using a drunken informant in an authorized drug investigation.

The firings came in the wake of an October 19 ruling by a grand jury here refusing to indict the cops on any felony charges. Only one cop was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing.

The Houston Chronicle reported November 5 that one of the cops who was no-billed (cleared of felony charges), David R. Barrera, had fired 24 of the 33 shots discharged in Oregón's apartment. He fired his semiautomatic pistol until the magazine was emptied then, reloaded it and continued shooting.

This grand jury ruling sparked widespread condemnation and outrage.

City officials used the firings in an attempt to restore confidence in the Houston police department and the justice system. Mayor Lee Brown, along with three Houston city councilmen, backed the decision to fire the six cops involved in the shooting. Brown told the Houston Chronicle the firings were "proof that our system of justice is the fairest and most democratic system in the world."

But at a news conference and protest sponsored by the Justice for Pedro Oregón Coalition on November 5 to demand the cops be indicted for murder, four families of victims of police brutality repudiated Brown's statement and called for real justice in Oregón's case.

Speaking out at the protest were Janie Torres, whose brother José Campos Torres, a Vietnam veteran, was savagely beaten and thrown into Buffalo Bayou by police in 1977 to drown; Susan Hartnett whose unarmed son Derek Jason Kaesman, 24, was killed on October 25 after a chase, in a hail of 50 bullets with 14 bullets hitting him; Betty Williams, whose unarmed brother Robert Williams, was shot to death in front of her house earlier this year; and Skip Allen, whose 17-year-old, 126lb son, was shot twice through the heart while lying face down and handcuffed.

Except for the Torres case where some of the cops received a short probation, no charges have been brought against any of the other cops involved in these cases. Also participating in the protest were the NAACP and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

After the news conference, 50 protesters against police brutality marched in front of the office of District Attorney John B. Holmes, demanding murder charges be brought against the killer cops in the Oregón case.

Much anger and condemnation has been directed at Holmes who has been in the forefront of defending the cops against prosecution. He sent the case to the grand jury with no charges. Just a few days after the shooting death, he conceded that the cops had entered Oregón's apartment illegally, but that they had a right to shoot him.

Holmes, who has sent more working people to death row in Texas than any other prosecutor in the country, defended Barrera's actions - shooting 24 bullets at Oregón - by saying state laws allow police officers to use deadly force "so long as they reasonably perceive" they are threatened.

"An analogy I use is that if it is OK to kill a guy dead, it is OK to kill him dead, dead, dead," Holmes said.

The Justice for Pedro Oregón Coalition plans further actions to keep the pressure on city officials and demand further action. A picket line was planned in front of Holmes office on November 12 demanding murder charges be filed. A townhall meeting is scheduled for early December.

The coalition has organized a series of protest actions, including news conferences, marches, and picket lines.

On October 22, some 300 people rallied and marched to the Houston police headquarters, protesting the grand jury's decision and demanding prosecution of the six police officers involved. On October 25, more than 200 people marched in the neighborhood where Oregón was killed demanding justice and denouncing the cover-up.

On November 4, more than 100 students at the University of Houston participated in a rally sponsored by MEChA, the College Democrats, and the Young Socialists to demand justice in the case. One week earlier about 50 people participated at a press conference, where five professors joined students in demanding justice.

The coalition vows it will continue to call public protests to demand murder charges against officers involved, keeping the pressure on until justice is served.

Lea Sherman is a member of the International Association of Machinists.

 
 
 
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