Mario Gonzalez, left, with family. Courtesy Gonzalez family
From a reader:
On April 19, the day before pig Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, Mario Gonzalez, a 26-year-old Latino man, was murdered by three cops in the city of Alameda in the San Francisco Bay Area. While the eyes of the world were focused on the horrific video of George Floyd having the life squeezed out of him beneath Chauvin’s knee, for the Alameda cops it was like a training video.
Once again, our eyes are filled with tears and we are filled with rage, at the loss of a young person to brutal police. These pigs deny our humanity, blatantly lie, and cover up their crimes. A life full of dreams and possibilities has been cut short.
“The police killed my brother, in the same manner they killed George Floyd,” Gerardo Gonzalez, said at a press conference. “We are humans,” Mario’s mother, Edith Arenales, said. “They broke my family for no reason.”
While not everything is known about Mario Gonzalez’s murder by pigs, these are undisputed facts:
There was no reason to stop and question Mario: There were two 911 calls. In the first, the caller said of Mario, “He’s not doing anything wrong.” In the second call, the caller said Mario had “two Walgreens baskets with some alcohol bottles.”
There was no reason to try to take Mario into custody: The police approached Mario and spoke with him for several minutes. Mario spoke calmly and made no threatening moves. Then the cops suddenly took Mario to the ground.
Police with knee on Mario Gonzalez’s back shortly before he lost consciousness—still picture from police body cam video.
There was no reason for the police to put a knee on Mario’s back with his face in the dirt, a position they, and the world, know is potentially fatal. They held him face down for 6 minutes and 17 seconds, kneeling on his back and shoulder. When one of the cops suggested that they turn Mario on his side, the other cop refused to do it. Mario pleaded for the police to stop until he lost consciousness. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Pigs lied to cover up murder. Just like Minneapolis police did in the murder of George Floyd, the Alameda police lied in their initial reports on what happened to Mario Gonzalez. In Floyd’s murder, the police reported that he died of “medical distress” after being cuffed, leaving out the 9+ minutes that Chauvin had his knee on George’s neck, causing his death. The Alameda Police Department reported of Mario’s death that “officers attempted to detain the man, and a physical altercation ensued. At that time, the man had a medical emergency.” Again, no mention of the 6+ minutes that Mario was face down with the police kneeling on him.
Mario was one of at least 64 people who were killed by cops during the Chauvin trial, including 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago. Just in the 24 hours after the conviction of Chauvin, six more people were murdered by cops, including 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, and 42-year-old Andrew Brown Jr. in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
The facts of these killings are evidence that the crimes that police commit are not just “exceptions,” “tragic accidents,” or the result of “poor training.” Murder, brutality, and mass incarceration are the purpose of cops in this society, one that is based on capitalism, slavery, white supremacy, and genocide, from its very beginnings to the present day.
This string of murder must STOP! There can be no end to these outrages under this system. Our grief, rage, and determination need to be directed to working toward a real revolution. Humanity needs revolution, nothing less!