‘The Corruption Is Palpable’: The Black Power Collective 2 Case
In Pomona, California today marks the end of the 2nd week of the Black Power Collective 2 Case, where two community organizers and human rights activists are on trial charged with trespassing, obstructing/resisting a public officer, trespassing/obstructing the business of a public agency, and picketing the courthouse to impede justice. These charges stem from a July 31,2020 protest in support of Lawrence Bender, who was shot during an arrest by Rialto Police in June 2019. Broderick Dunlap and Yoselin Saucedo are both professional educators and community organizers with Black Power Collective IE (formerly Black Lives Matter IE) facing trumped up charges, police and prosecutorial misconduct; and the most frightening part — their case allows for a dangerous precedent to be set, especially as the united stated moves every closer to out-right fascism.
BACKGROUND
In June 2019, Rialto police pulled over Lawrence Bender for a traffic violation. Rialto Police Officer Michael Babineaux arrived at the scene as backup for the traffic stop but quickly escalated the situation. Babineaux believed Bender was attempting to steal the tow truck connected to his car and quickly drew his weapon and forced Bender to the ground. While on the ground Bender is shot twice by Babineaux and after shooting the unarmed Bender, he is arrested and taken to hospital for multiple weeks without any contact from the outside world and without knowing his charges.
Black Power Collective IE took to the streets to demand Lawrence Bender be set free and the charges dropped. This set the stage for where we are today.
Arrests
On July 31, 2020, the Black Power Collective held a protest outside the San Bernardino Justice Center. In video footage of the protest, San Bernardino Sheriffs are seen aggressively attacking protesters, even Saucedo who was in the wheelchair. Ultimately 11 arrests were made, but the majority of those arrests appeared to have been targeted towards the leadership within the Black Power Collective IE team. This targeting of Black and Brown organizers is nothing new for the u.s. government — all we need to look at is COINTELPRO’s infamous plan and objective which was to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” Black organizers. And only gives even more credibility towards the political nature of these arrests and trials. One of those arrested was even convicted of a felony for chalking the sidewalk and the DA asked for him to serve prison time, for chalk.
TRIAL
From the beginning of the trial, the BPC2 case has been marked by questionable tactics by the prosecution. A jury selection process that saw virtually no Black and Brown jurors chosen quickly reminded those of us paying attention to the case why the Black Panther Party’s 9th point called for a jury of peers from the Black community. Judge Samatha Abraham has also denied the defense team the ability to contextualize why Dunlap and Saucedo were protesting at the courthouse in the first place, as well as Bender’s subsequent $1.3million dollar settlement awarded by a Trump-appointed federal judge after it was ruled Bender’s civil rights were violated by the Rialto Police Department. All vital information that goes to inform a jury just how and why this case is before them.
Early in the trial the prosecution claimed to have lost critical video evidence needed by the defense after breaking chain of custody for said evidence; it was only after Dunlap and Saucedo’s attorney hired an expert did these pieces of evidence magically re-appeared. And for good reason apparently as police statements were refuted by video evidence.
The state’s first witness, a retired police officer of 30yrs, dennis smith, who wears a hearing aid and who currently is the risk & safety manager for the courthouse, told the jury on the day of arrest, he was on the 11th floor of courthouse & heard “rhythmic chanting” coming from outside. He claims to have looked out one of those 11th floor bullet proof windows to see a “skirmish line” as he described it, he then testified he put out a courthouse alert for south entrance. However, during cross examination the defense attorney entered video evidence that shows Smith running out the lobby door to be present at the first arrest.
The defense showed separate camera footage with Smith around the video command center on the 1st floor lobby during the same time frame when the southwest security camera pans towards the southeast corner away from the protest and then to the ground; only to resume its normal view after the protest has been shut down and arrests have been made. Smith worked diligently to avoid defense questions regarding responsibility, control and ability of the courthouse cameras, despite a 30 year career in law enforcement, not to mention his title as “risk and safety manager” at the courthouse. It would seem like a working understanding of security cameras seems like a routine and necessary function in his line of work, but you know what they say about assuming.
One of the charges in the case is obstructing the “business of a public agency” related to the claims that protesters blocked the door of the courthouse, but again the eye in the sky don’t lie. Seen through numerous camera angles, multiple people are able to enter the courthouse through the south entrance which was supposedly blocked, again completely contradicting police testimony. As one person watching the trial said, “the corruption is palpable.”
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING/IMPORTANT?
The BPC2 case is important because it holds the ability to set an ugly precedent of police power and the police’s ability to limit, control and restrict community organizers/activists movement and access in public. It should not be lost on us that this same District Attorney’s office is responsible for the RICO indictment against the JUSTICE 8, a group of Latinx community organizers. This type of repression is becoming the norm post-2020. The government’s current strategy to criminalize Black and Third World Peoples by painting them as disruptive dissidents and troublemakers is eerily similar to Nixon’s strategy with the “war on drugs”.
The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying?
We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.
Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
- John Ehrlichman
The BPC2 case has all the makings of what has been legal lynching after legal lynching of Afrikan people organizing towards people power and community control. The case has been drawn out in order to tire out and drain resources from a Black radical organization and their members, the state has spent over $2million dollars, hired a private law firm to assist in the investigation/case, been caught in numerous witness contradictions and engaged in a public smear campaign of the leaders and Black Power Collective IE organization as a whole. While the charges against Dunlap and Saucedo may not land them decades inside, it is very important that we understand how this case opens the door for even more violent and calculated attacks by the police on our movement. It is imperative we support the BPC2 and work to ensure their righteous victory against politically motivated charges.
ways to support
- Show up to court
— 400 Civic Center Plaza, Pomona, Ca
- 6th Floor Courtroom T
2. Tell the DA to drop the charges
Samantha Abraham
Abraham@sbcda.org | 213–765–1000
3. Sign the petition to drop their charges
4. Support with legal and travel fees associated with the case
- @BPCIE (venmo)
