Breaking Through Systems of Injustice

My name is Joey Williams and I grew up in East Bakersfield (1.5 hours north of Los Angeles). It was the NWA, American Me, and Rodney King era — the early 1990s — and I was a teenager in Southern California. Gang violence, drugs, and police brutality were rampant.

My earliest encounter with law enforcement was when Kern County sheriff’s deputies pulled my cousin and me over in the fall of 1993. They pulled us out of vehicle in middle of nowhere and pushed my face in the gravel. I could taste the bits of rock pushing on my lips and teeth as the deputy asked, “Where is the knife?” And for the third time I assured him that I didn’t have a knife. We were eventually released that night and drove home, but that would not be my last encounter with the sheriff’s department.

On Nov. 22, 1998, my 21^st birthday I was arrested and taken to Central Receiving (Jail) in Bakersfield, Calif., and let’s just say I wasn’t there for jaywalking, nor did I rob or murder anyone. I was taken into an elevator and beaten by six deputies because they said I had a big mouth, which may have been true. I remember my body being pressed on the cold concrete floor and feeling my ribs be kicked, and seeing a deputy, which was a classmate from high school, watch me be taken to elevator, and realized that officers did this on a regular basis. I was not the first, and there are many stories of men that do not make it out of the elevator alive. I felt fortunate.

Flash forward 10 years.

In 2011 former NFL running back David Turner was shot dead at a local convenience store by Kern County sheriffs’ deputies. They had stopped Turner in regards to an incident. They unreasonably detained him. When Turner became irritated with the harassment the officer struck him with a baton. Turner swung the cans in his bag at the deputy. At that point, the deputy’s partner fired two shots into Turner, as his family watched. The investigation by KCSO took eight days. They concluded that the officers were within department guidelines. The store video that showed the incident conveniently cut out 6 seconds—the 6 seconds when the officers shot Turner.

This is very typical of the way business is done in communities of color in Kern County.

In 2013 David Silva was passed out on a sidewalk by the county hospital. Eight sheriff’s deputies beat Silva to death. Witnesses to this beating were detained and cell phones with video were confiscated. The department was cleared by their own investigation of any wrongdoing in a matter of days, and discredited the victim saying they found drugs in his system.

In case you thought these were fluke incidents, in November of 2014, Bakersfield police chased and shot James Villegas De La Rosa. Police say that Villegas went for his waistband and didn’t follow commands. Witnesses said they didn’t see Villegas go for his waistband. These witnesses’ testimony soon went away and they no longer cooperated with investigation, and department was cleared of wrongdoing.

Police brutality, harassment, and unjustified killings have been going on in communities of color in Kern for past three decades. Faith In Action Kern County (a PICO Network affiliate) is a network of congregations working toward the betterment of our community. People of faith from various congregations have decided that enough is enough. This evil must stop. No more business as usual.

Last Monday we organized a community meeting with the Bakersfield Chief of Police and had almost 200 people show up and discuss President Obama’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing. We are calling for accountability, transparency, openness, and independent review of deadly force. We are moving forward in building trust and wholeness to a system of justice that has never been healthy. I thank God for the people of faith that have decided to take action and not stay silent.