Injustice

This week in front of the New York City office of Governor Andrew Cuomo, two members of the New York State Youth Leadership Council were arrested during a peaceful demonstration urging the governor to pass the state’s version of the DREAM Act. After the arrests, NYSYLC published the words of the two individuals arrested, Verónica […]

Latino Rebels is running a series of pieces by local Bakersfield journalist/writer Nicholas Belardes about the in-custody death of David Sal Silva. This is the series’ third post. You can read “Part One: Culture of Drugs” here, and “Part Two: Culture of Violence” here. (All photos here should be credited to Nicholas Belardes.) Part Three: Analysis Of A Protest BAKERSFIELD, […]

Last fall a troubling video out of Philadelphia showing a police officer punching a women went viral on YouTube. Earlier this year, former Philadelphia Police lieutenant Jonathan Josey, who was fired from the force after reaction to the video was so overwhelming, was found not guilty for striking Aida Guzmán. The not guilty decision was […]

Yesterday The Bakersfield California reported new developments in the May 8 in-custody death of David Sal Silva, a case that has garnered continued local attention and major social media interest, yet has yet to reach national media levels. According to reporter Christine Bedell, the “attorney for the family of David Sal Silva plans to file […]

We received the following Tumblr post last night from Bare-Life. The author describes a new DoSomething.org campaign that asks people to be “undocumented for a day.” As the site says: “Send your friends this experience to show them the challenges of being undocumented (i.e. living with no citizenship). You’ll qualify for a $3,000 scholarship.” We […]

In 1971, César Chávez moved his home and the headquarters of the United Farm Workers union from Delano to La Paz, a property encompassing 187 acres in the Tehachapi Mountains of eastern Kern County, California. Kern is the fifth-largest county in California with nearly 50% of its population of Mexican American descent. When he died […]

Latino Rebels is running a series of pieces by local Bakersfield journalist/writer Nicholas Belardes about the in-custody death of David Sal Silva. This is the series’ second post. You can read the first post, “Part One: Culture of Drugs” here. Part Two: Culture of Violence BAKERSFIELD, CA – There is a solemnness to the surveillance […]

This weekend the Bakersfield Californian published “a timeline of events surrounding the death of 33-year-old David Sal Silva on May 8.”  You can access the entire timeline here. Based on the timeline, we do know that at 10:20 pm on May 7, “Silva arrives at KMC’s emergency department and requests directions to the nearby Mary K. […]

Latino Rebels will be running a series of pieces by local Bakersfield journalist/writer Nick Belardes about the in-custody death of David Sal Silva. This is the series’ first post. Part One: Culture of Drugs BAKERSFIELD, CA – There’s a culture of drugs in the cities where we live in America. Amid the urban streets of […]

With only two days left before filing a final petition to force a special election, supporters of a campaign to recall Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio entered its final push to gather 90,000 remaining signatures. Supporters are hoping that last week’s federal court decision against Arpaio and his office stating that they racially profiled Latino […]

In a May 26 video report from RT America, attorney David Cohn said that the in-custody death of David Sal Silva was just another example of troubling police misconduct in Kern County, California. “For too long the Kern County Sheriff’s Department strikes first and asks questions after the fact,” Cohn said in the report, which […]

Ever since Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood held a press conference on Thursday to tell the world that the in-custody death of 33-year-old David Silva was ruled “accidental” and that the father of four died of a heart attack and did not die from baton blows at the hands of Kern County and California Highway […]

Earlier today on The Michael Slate Show out of KPFK in Los Angeles, the father of David Sal Silva blamed police for murdering his son. In an emotional interview packed with honesty and outrage (segment recording below—the full show can be accessed here), Sal Silva discussed the his son’s May 8 in-custody death in Bakersfield, […]

Yesterday in Bakersfield a group of civil rights organizations, including the Dolores Huerta Foundation, NAACP, American GI Forum and the California Civil Rights Coalition, held a press conference calling for a new citizens review board to be formed in Kern County, in light of the recent in-custody death of David Sal Silva. Here is what […]

This afternoon in Bakersfield, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood held a press conference to say that the in-custody death of David Sal Silva on May 8 was ruled accidental and that Silva’s cause of death was “hypertensive heart disease, acute intoxication, chronic alcoholism, severe abdominal obseity, chronic hypertension and acute pulmonary caridovascular strain.” Sheriff Youngblood […]

Slowly but surely, the in-custody death of 33-year-old father David Sal Silva on May 8 in Bakersfield is gaining more online attention. A Change.org petition created last week is beginning to get noticed, after a local Bakersfield columnist wrote about it. However, the petition has garnered only about 500 signatures, and it has a target […]

Last week, we shared one part of Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood’s press conference discussing the cell phone videos seized the night of the May 8 in-custody death of David Silva in Bakersfield. LiveLeak has also run another video of the Youngblood conference. In that conference, there were questions about one of the missing cell […]

Gradually the in-custody death of David Sal Silva on May 8 in Bakersfield is beginning to get more and more attention through alternative media and online communities. For example, a new online forum called Justice for David Sal Silva has been formed. The forum contains links to news articles and discussion threads about the case. […]

This past Sunday, the New York Post printed an article about a company called Real Bronx Tours and how its tour guides promised tourists “a ride through a real New York City GHETTO.” The article detailed how a tour guide, Lynn Battaglia, led tourists through the South Bronx, ridiculing its neighborhoods, defaming its history and […]

UPDATE (from the Los Angeles Times): Rodriguez told ABC23 that “the more incriminating video was one on the other cell phone.” He said that video was shot “while the batons were swinging.” Rodriguez added the second phone was returned to his client with no video. If a video was erased from that phone, he said, […]

Several outlets have reported tonight that the genocide conviction of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt has been annulled. This is what Reuters reported: “Guatemala’s constitutional court on Monday overturned a genocide conviction against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, throwing out all proceedings in his case since a dispute broke out last month over who […]