FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 25, 2012
Mona Navarro, Irvine Chapter Coordinator
irvine@af3irm.org
949-412-1122

The Association of Filipinas, Feminists Fighting Imperialism, Re-feudalization, and Marginalization (AF3IRM) condemns the Anaheim Police Officers involved in the fatal shootings of two Latino men: Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo on July 21st and 22nd, respectively.  The unjustified deaths of Diaz and Acevedo have been further aggravated by the actions taken by the police after the shootings. The firing of rubber bullets, bean bags, and pepper spray at the people of the neighborhood living near where the unarmed Diaz was ultimately shot down is uncalled for. Among the crowd were women and many children who were not spared from the rubber bullets or from the police dog that had been unleashed onto the crowd.  

The rising police brutality occurring in Anaheim has outraged and continues to bring together the community, as people rally together in protest against the Anaheim Police Station each and every day since Diaz’s death on Saturday.  The deaths of Diaz and Acevedo mark the seventh and eighth officer-involved shooting this year alone in Anaheim.  

“People assume that Anaheim is this rich place housing Disneyland and the Anaheim Angels– they do not understand that the city is largely comprised of low-income, immigrant, working Latino families living in a city that crumbles outside of the walls of Disneyland,” says Anna Capinpin, AF3IRM Irvine member.  “It angers me that now our communities have to experience a growing amount of police brutality and police-related shootings in their neighborhood streets where their children play.”

AF3IRM is enraged that we are once again witnessing people of color, immigrants, and the poor as targets of police brutality.  While the people protest peacefully, the police use unnecessary brute force against them.  

As a transnational women's organization that calls for the end of imperialism and marginalization, AF3IRM demands the end of U.S. militarization in other countries and so too will we demand the end to state-sponsored terrorism happening here and happening everyday in our local communities.

On the heels of the Oscar Grant and Trayvon Martin killings, AF3IRM demands justice for the wrongful slayings of Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo!

AF3IRM demands an end to the police brutality rising, not only in Anaheim, but all over the U.S.  

Dismantle the police state!

End state-sponsored terrorism!

No justice, no peace!  

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