A mob of nine men beat David Sal Silva, 33, to death in Bakersfield, California, last week. They hogtied him, bashed his head with batons, picked him up and then dropped him at least twice as he screamed and pleaded for his life. They committed this crime openly – I would say in broad daylight, except that it was around midnight. Nonetheless, they slaughtered Mr. Silva on a fairly busy road, across the street from a hospital and in view of the neighborhood’s residents and passers-by.
Indeed, so blatant were they that said passers-by videotaped the atrocity from beginning to end on their cell phones. Which the thugs or their accomplices then stole, menacing and intimidating the witnesses.
Where are the cops in all this? Protecting their own: the nine killers are sheriffs from Kern County. When a guard at the hospital called to report a “possibly intoxicated” man in the area, they descended to exterminate him. Their excuse is the usual: resisting arrest. But the onlookers vehemently deny that. One named Sulina Quair called to report the crime and courageously told a dispatcher in the sheriff’s office, “…These cops have no reason to do this to this man.” She repeatedly stressed in her comments (listen to them here by scrolling to the bottom of the article) that the attack was unprovoked murder.
The victim’s screams awakened Ruben Ceballos. “When I got outside,” says Mr. Ceballos, “I saw two officers beating a man with batons and they were hitting his head so every time they would swing, I could hear the blows to his head.”
Indeed, “Multiple witnesses have said deputies repeatedly beat and struck Silva with batons even as he begged them to stop.”
Our heroic Sulina Quair made the mistake of confessing to the sheriff’s office, “I got it all on video camera and I’m sending it to the news.” That catapulted deputies on a wild scramble to steal not only Ms. Quair’s phone but her boyfriend’s as well. In fact, when these incredibly brave patriots refused to hand over their property, the cops held them against their will in their homes for 10 hours, in direct violation of California’s law, until a search warrant arrived. “They were tired, scared, with a 9-year-old child there who was terrified,” according to their attorney.
As always, the sheriff’s office is “investigating” itself so it can whitewash its depredations while assuring the serfs that all is well in the police-state. Meanwhile, as Mr. Silva’s family grieves and the traumatized witnesses tremble, the cops request “patience” so they have plenty of time to erase the cell-phone’s footage and otherwise destroy evidence.
Says Ms. Sulina, “I have been crying a lot and [Mr. Silva’s] voice just plays over and over in my head … I sit there and I can still hear him choking in his own blood, trying to gasp for air.”
Mr. Silva leaves behind heartbroken parents who, two days after the murder, had still not figured out how to tell their four grandchildren that their father will never again hug them, and a younger brother, Chris, who cried, “”My brother spent the last eight minutes of his life pleading, begging for his life.”
How many more serfs must tragically, agonizingly die before we abolish police departments?
(Thanks to Jay Stephenson for alerting me to this story.)
7:51 am on May 14, 2013
