On February 26, two undercover cops in San Francisco gunned-down 21-year-old Amilcar Perez-Lopez outside of his home in the city’s Mission District. The officers fired six times at Amilcar, alleging that he was refusing to drop a knife that he was holding.
While the police version of events tell a tale of a bicycle-robbing criminal putting the lives of these officers and others in danger, the community and friends of Amilcar tell a very different story of a loving, hard-working man brutally killed at the hands of aggressive police.
On the evening of March 1, a vigil was held at the scene of Amilcar’s murder, at which friends, neighbors, and others who were present in solidarity spoke in grief and frustration. Among the 30-40 people in attendance was the mother of Amilcar’s very close friend Eduardo, who told Liberation News that Amilcar “would never rob, he had no ego. If he could help anyone, he would.” Amilcar was a relentless worker who devoted most of his time to several construction jobs while always putting the needs of
others first, buying food and drinks for his co-workers that couldn’t afford to eat and also sending money back to his family in Guatamala.
The police charge that Amilcar refused to obey their orders, which they use as justification of his murder, yet friends of Amilcar recount that he “didn’t speak English and didn’t know what they were saying to him.”
It is no surprise to hear about officers who are ignorant of the culture of the people that they police. SFPD is no different from other police forces throughout the country, in that they protect and serve the interests of the rich, while ruthlessly repressing dissent and terrorizing poor and working class communities. The Mission District is a historically Latino community that has been plagued with gentrification and rising inequality following the city’s tech-boom, and this inequality is enforced strictly and often brutally by SFPD. This case of Amilcar Perez-Lopez, a Guatamalan immigrant who managed to make it to the United States to find work and support his family back home, is far from the only example of police terror in the community, and will unfortunately not be the last unless action is taken.
The ANSWER Coalition held a press conference along with many community members at 5 p.m. on March 2nd in front of the Cesar Chavez Elementary School on Shotwell Street, between 22nd and 23rd streets. We demand justice for Amilcar Perez-Lopez and the prosecution and jailing of the officers who murdered him.
