hardboiled blog

Some would say that the title of this blog entry is sensational and untrue– I for one cannot see how what has happened is nothing short of murder.

This past Sunday, police officers were called to a Berryessa neighborhood in San Jose after Brian Pham called to say that his mentally ill brother was making unprovoked attacks on the family. The call was made after Daniel cut his brother with a knife from throat to ear. Thereafter, the police arrived at the home. The family members shouted “Don’t shoot him– he’s mentally ill!” In spite of this, the police tasered Daniel and shot him four to five times until he was dead.

Clearly, this was a fragile and highly dangerous situation. Yes, the police needed to use force to prevent Daniel from hurting others but it is a fucking outrage that they would shoot a man with a knife to death. Menace or not, there is no way that it is justifiable for an officer to shoot someone to death when they are not armed with a gun. Police officers claim that they did not know that he was mentally ill but also state that they would have acted in the same way even with this knowledge. Some remorse, huh? There’s plenty of talk about whether or not Daniel was on drugs– can I just say that this is completely beside the point? It makes no difference if he was mentally ill or on drugs because we know that he clearly had problems. This is a mere distraction from the overt injustice taking place. The fact of the matter is that the police shot to kill a man who did not have a gun and are now calling it acceptable procedure.

What absolutely tears me apart is the suffering and guilt that Daniel’s family must be feeling right now. Daniel’s father says that his brother, Brian, feels responsible for Daniel’s death because he was the one who called the police. The family reports that the police have made no effort to contact the family, update them on the case, or make any gesture to express their condolences.

For the Vietnamese community in San Jose, this incident has evoked memories of Bich Cau Thi Tran’s murder. In this 2004 incident, the police were called to check up on reports of unsupervised children. When the police arrived and saw this 4′ 9” woman gesturing with a Vietnamese fruit peeler knife, they shot her in the chest and killed her. The police were acquitted by the grand jury.

Protests and vigils are taking place in San Jose. Keep an eye out for the way in which the investigation of this shooting unfolds.

You can read the San Jose Mercury News article here.

– hardboiled. keeping an eye on the watchdogs as usual.