Victims of racist cop lead protest
By
Larry Hales
Denver
Published Oct 5, 2006 8:23 PM
On
Sept. 30 CopWatch activists, community members and victims of police
brutality—Loree McCormick-Rice and her family—protested against the
latest case of police brutality in Aurora,
Colo.
Pedestrians and people in cars
showed a lot of support. People also stopped to recount horrible incidents of
terror at the hands of Aurora and Denver cops. Many people talked about being
stopped by cops for no reason and being made to strip on the side of the road, a
violation of all their rights.
The
protest was called for Loree McCormick-Rice and her daughter, Cassidy McCormick,
who say Aurora cop Sgt. Charles DeShazer beat them brutally on June
17.
What makes this latest case even
more despicable is that McCormick-Rice is disabled. She suffers from severe
asthma and has had one of her lungs removed. Cassidy, her daughter, is only 12
years old.
Workers World interviewed
them after the demonstration to get their take on what happened last June. Their
story follows:
On the night they were
beaten, McCormick-Rice and Cassidy were leaving a King Soopers supermarket in
Aurora. DeShazer, who moonlights as a security guard for the supermarket,
approached them.
McCormick-Rice was
parked in a handicapped parking spot. DeShazer asked where her handicapped
placard was and she pointed it out. She had to point it out twice to him, and
then pointed to her carbon dioxide and a nebulizer to relieve asthma, which were
on her seat.
Loree McCormick-Rice and her daughter, Cassidy McCormick.
|
A white woman who did not
have her placard displayed openly approached McCormick-Rice. The white woman
remarked: “That’s just pure racism. When will it ever end? I’m
parked right here next to you in a handicapped zone without a placard and he
walked right pass me and didn’t question me, and yet he’s harassing
you.”
DeShazer, as he was walking
away, said, “F—king n——s.” The woman talking to
McCormick-Rice volunteered her name and number as a witness. Other witnesses
also said they overheard the slur.
When
DeShazer admitted to McCormick-Rice that he had used that racist insult, Cassidy
suggested they report him to the store manager. Back in the store, another woman
of color, overhearing McCormick-Rice’s complaint at the Service Desk,
volunteered that she had had problems with DeShazer
before.
As McCormick-Rice was walking to
her car after lodging a complaint, DeShazer, who was sitting in a blue Ford
Taurus, called her a “f—king idiot.” She
responded.
McCormick-Rice and Cassidy
drove out of the parking lot. DeShazer pulled up behind them and flashed his
lights. McCormick-Rice turned to pull back into the parking lot, which is well
lit. It was 10 p.m. She and her daughter were afraid. DeShazer blocked their way
and yelled for them to “Get out of the f—king
car.”
McCormick-Rice asked
DeShazer if they could go into the parking lot where there were witnesses, and
DeShazer again yelled at her, this time saying, “Turn off your
f—king
engine.”
McCormick-Rice told
Cassidy to go and get help. DeShazer grabbed the young girl by her arm, after
threatening her if she didn’t get back into the car. DeShazer, a large
man, shook the small, young girl repeatedly.
Cassidy screamed for help from her
mother. DeShazer threw the child against the car and put her in handcuffs, while
McCormick-Rice pleaded for him to let her daughter go and not to hurt
her.
McCormick-Rice then got out of the
car and put her arms around her daughter. DeShazer threw the mother to the
ground. Witnesses noticed the attack. McCormick-Rice picked herself off the
ground and tried to get her cell phone, which was ringing. It was her
15-year-old son, and she told him she needed
help.
DeShazer grabbed her and threw her
to the ground again. He put McCormick-Rice in handcuffs, stood up, stepped down
on her and kicked her. He then threatened the witnesses who were
gathering.
The “back-up”
that DeShazer called for arrived. McCormick-Rice told them what had happened,
but they laughed her off and refused to give her her medicine. When asked what
he was charging them with, DeShazer said, “I’ll think of
something.”
McCormick-Rice was
having difficulty breathing, but was repeatedly denied her medicine and was told
that she was faking.
DeShazer continued
to be belligerent, even asking, “You still want to screw with me?”
The full-time security guard for the
store came and corroborated McCormick-Rice’s story about the racial slur,
but was told to accompany DeShazer into the middle of the street, where they had
a brief conversation.
McCormick-Rice
said she was worried about her daughter because they were put in separate cars.
She heard Cassidy screaming and crying. Finally, one cop said that
McCormick-Rice should be let go. A female cop threw McCormick-Rice’s shoes
at her when she asked if she could have them
back.
When McCormick-Rice returned to
her car, she noticed that her purse had been rummaged through and that the
witness list was gone. Cassidy was taken to the Aurora police station. The
12-year-old was bruised and crying when her family picked her
up.
Cassidy’s shoulder was
fractured, it was later discovered. McCormick-Rice and Cassidy were charged with
obstructing a peace officer, resisting arrest and failure to obey.
McCormick-Rice also received a charge of disturbing the
peace.
This is their story. This latest
episode is an outrage for many reasons, but it illustrates that incidents of
police brutality are not isolated.
Young Cassidy would later ask her mom,
“Is this what we get for being
Black?”
The reality is that cops
are agents of the racist capitalist state. But what’s more, the agenda of
the racist state filters down through the capitalist-run media, which constantly
demonizes people of color. Even a 12-year-old Black woman, who has received
numerous school accolades and, after this ordeal, support letters from teachers,
principals and deans of students of schools she has attended, is seen as less
than human and brutally
attacked.
However, the family has vowed
to fight until DeShazer is fired, and to continue to fight against racism and
police brutality. And the community has rallied around them, even trying to
start a defense campaign.
DeShazer,
though, is not an anomaly, a bad cop among good cops. He is one among an army of
thugs whose job is to protect capital and to keep the poor, people of color and
workers in line.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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