Alliance forms against police brutality

A multinational alliance of community activists here is charging that on June 17, Aurora Police Sgt. Charles DeShazer, a supervisor of other cops, attacked a mother and daughter after the two had lodged a complaint over DeShazer calling them “f...ing n....rs” during a dispute over her disabled parking permit. Aurora is a city of 300,000 in the Denver metropolitan area.

The attack occurred in a dark area, after DeShazer followed the car with Loree McCormick-Rice and her daughter, Cassidy Rice, out of a mall parking lot and pulled them over.

Perhaps DeShazer thought the two were defenseless. Within the last month, however, this cop, the city of Aurora, the King Soopers market where the attack occurred and the owners of the strip mall that employed the moonlighting cop have found a community up in arms, ready to defend the 13 year old and her 51-year-old mother.

There have been three rallies. One was down the street from Aurora City Hall and the other two in the parking lot of King Soopers.

Communities United Against Police Brutality—a group formed by Black, Mexican, Latin@, Arab and white activists—was formed in the wake of community outrage over this latest case of police brutality. The group is made up of activists from the New Black Panther Party, International Action Center, Workers World Party, Mexican National Liberation Movement, Copwatch and other organizations. It is forming a broad campaign to fight back against state repression and to show solidarity among oppressed nations here and abroad.

King Soopers, the market where the mother and daughter had shopped before being stopped by the racist cop, has issued a public statement and handed out flyers to customers as part of a disinformation campaign.

King Soopers says that DeShazer is not officially on its payroll and that the company was not responsible for filing complaints that resulted in a “disturbing the peace” charge against Loree McCormick-Rice.

The supermarket issued the statement after the successful start of a boycott campaign. It had contacted McCormick-Rice’s family, her lawyer and activists, stating that the boycott was hurting business and should be called off.

King Soopers was even able to convince a wayward Black activist to go on television and announce an end to the boycott. This person, who has a history of similar acts, had never met the family, never participated in any actions supporting them, and hasn’t even seen the security video that shows the brutal attack.

However, the Greater Denver Ministerial Alliance, at a press conference with activists and other victims of police brutality held in front of the Aurora Municipal Building, supported the boycott, showing it had never stopped.

The press conference was a great show of unity, even though the press chose not to print statements supporting the boycott and a television channel then replayed the clip of the person who said it was over.

Those supporting the McCormick-Rice family have decided to have public showings of the video to dispel the misinformation campaign.

King Soopers has admitted that McCormick-Rice was within her right to file a complaint against the store and that she was pleasant while doing so. It even has stated that the store supports her. But the video, Aurora City Attorney Tim Joyce and even Police Chief Daniel Oates reveal a different truth.

In court, when pressed to explain the disturbing the peace charge, Joyce said that King Soopers employees had said McCormick-Rice caused a “near riot” in the store. The video does not corroborate this. In fact, it shows an understandably upset but restrained woman and her daughter filing a complaint.

Joyce added that the basis for the complaint of a “near riot” was customers remarking that they would not shop at the store any more.

DeShazer never witnessed anything McCormick-Rice said or did in the store, so the complaint against her had to come from King Soopers.

Furthermore, on the tape, DeShazer’s unmarked police vehicle can be seen lurking outside. He makes a few passes. Before one of them, a King Soopers security guard who had been shooed away by the head clerk on duty, after the guard tried to goad McCormick-Rice into a confrontation, walks directly to DeShazer’s automobile.

This same security guard, plus another from King Soopers, figure prominently in the video. During the attack, one of the security guards is seen kicking then 12-year-old Cassidy Rice.

King Soopers may figure that a technicality—it doesn’t directly pay DeShazer—shows that it isn’t responsible, but what is clear is that either DeShazer indirectly works for King Soopers or King Soopers security works for DeShazer.

Activists have promised to leave no stone unturned in getting justice from the city of Aurora, its police department, King Soopers and Dreiseszun-Morgan, the company that officially pays the moonlighting cop.

The community has demanded that King Soopers come clean and that all charges against the mother and daughter be dropped. If King Soopers was indeed not responsible for complaints, then the cop had no reason to tail the mother and daughter. Therefore, the city has no case. What’s more, it means that City Attorney Joyce and the police chief have been caught in a lie that is on record.

While the community has demanded that the city drop all charges and fire the racist cop immediately, it has also demanded that King Soopers issue an official apology to McCormick-Rice and her family, plus explain its own security guards’ involvement in the brutal attack and fire them.

A long fight is ahead, as it looks that the city will continue with its sham trial and cover-up, but the family of McCormick-Rice is not defenseless. They have a multinational grouping of community activists behind them.