-- For Immediate Release --
Solano Democrats Call for Justice in Police Use of Force Incidents
Fairfield, CA – April 20, 2021 – Solano County Democrats along with Stonewall Democratic Club and Jewish Democratic Club of Solano County issued a resolution calling for Justice in Police Use of Force Incidents in Solano County.
Given the historic events of April 20 in the trial of Derek Chauvin for George Floyd’s death, we are calling on for the review of the Willie McCoy case and others in Solano County. These cases show that there is a propensity for police use of force and lethal action in cases involving members of the African American community more than others.
The resolution calls on Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams to review these cases of police use of force and the outcome of the investigation of the case of Willie McCoy. It is the belief of these organizations that the police (Vallejo Police Department) have used undue force in cases such as these.
The Resolution calls for Abrams to reexamine the cases her office has ruled as justified. McCoy, 20 years old, had fallen asleep in his car at a Taco Bell when cops were called. Body cam footage did not corroborate the claim by the Vallejo Police Department that the victim pointed a gun or threatened the officers in any way prior to their firing 55 bullets into his car within 3.5 seconds.
“Accountability cannot be overlooked no matter who perpetrates the crime,” said Margie Olson, Chair of the Solano Democratic Central Committee.
The resolution also calls into question several of the officers that were present for having previously caused the City of Vallejo to lose multiple civil cases for the same behavior. “America has a problem with systemic racism and a shoot-first mentality among the legions of cops,” said Thomas Bilbo, Chair of the Stonewall Democratic Club of Solano County.
We are asking that people in Solano County join us on Thursday, April 22 at 7 pm for a vigil remembering the people lost to Police Violence and Brutality at the County Event Center plaza.
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Press Contact
Thomas Bilbo
Information Resource Officer
p: 707-800-3609
[email protected]
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Solano County Democratic Central CommitteeResolutionThe need for justice to prevail in Solano County District Attorney investigations and prosecutions of police use of force incidents
WHEREAS, when Krishna Abrams was elected as Solano County District Attorney, she took an oath to uphold the law and to prosecute criminal violations, however, in her six years in office she has found in all cases of fatal shootings by police, that they were without exception acting in self-defense, even though in Vallejo there have been nineteen killings by police officers in the last decade and Vallejo police have the highest rate of lethal force in all of Northern California; and WHEREAS, in the case of Willie McCoy, a 20-year-old who was sleeping in his car at the drive-thru of a Taco Bell, the Abrams’ appointed special prosecutor, Michael Ramos, found in January 2021 that the six police officers acted in self-defense though they had fired 55 bullets at Willie McCoy in the span of 3.5 seconds after he stirred from his sleep, with no evidence in multiple videos that McCoy pointed a gun or threatened the officers; and in the case of 33-year-old Ronnell Foster who was unarmed and shot multiple times in the back of the head by Officer Ryan McMahon and was cleared by Abrams in January 2020 of any wrongdoing after McMahon gave chase to Ronnell Foster for riding his bicycle without a headlamp; yet in a civil case brought by the family of Ronnell Foster, the City of Vallejo paid $5.7 Million in settlement and McMahon was one of the officers found responsible for killing Willie McCoy; and WHEREAS, District Attorney Abrams also found that Officer Zachary Jacobsen was acting in self-defense when he fatally shot 21-year-old Angel Ramos for allegedly hovering over another man on the back porch with a knife, though there was no video of the shooting, no knife found on the porch, and Ramos’s family and the man Ramos was purportedly attacking all maintain that Ramos was unarmed when he was fatally shot by Officer Jacobsen; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Solano County Democratic Party affirms its commitment to ensuring Black Lives Matter in word and deed, condemns the culture of undue violence by police and those who enable it, and calls for justice to prevail in Solano County District Attorney investigations and prosecutions of police use of force cases. Sponsored by: Stonewall Democratic Club of Solano County Adopted by Solano County Democratic Central Committee |
