More than 30 community members gathered Friday at San Jose City Hall to demand justice for 20-year-old K’aun Green, who was shot four times and hospitalized on March 27 by San Jose Police outside of La Victoria Taqueria.
Green’s attorney, Adante Pointer, said Green disarmed a gunman during a fight at the restaurant, which is about a block away from San Jose State University, according to a Thursday NBC News article.
Mike Paradela, SJSU alumnus and member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a local advocacy group, said he believes the community should question police officers’ perceived mentality of “shooting first and asking questions later.”
“SJPD had no reason to shoot him,” he said before the rally. “Cops initially want to shoot people and not try to help, they should be defending the community not attacking the community.”
Police opened fire because there was a “struggle for the gun” and it was held by multiple people during the fight inside the restaurant, San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata said, according to the same NBC article.
Pointer said police yelled “drop the gun” without giving Green enough time to understand the police or drop the gun, resulting in him being shot multiple times, according to the same article.
Protesters at the Friday demonstration expressed concerns about the circumstances surrounding Green’s shooting and policing tactics in San Jose.
Kiana Simmons, event organizer and member of local advocacy group Human Empowerment, Radical Optimism (HERO) Tent led a moment of silence at the beginning of the rally.
“In this minute of silence, I want you to imagine the kind of young man K’aun Green is, someone who was brave enough to risk his own well being and safety to protect others,” she said. “He is the captain of his college football game. He is driven and thoughtful and he did not deserve to be shot four times by the police.”
Simmons said directly after the shooting, San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo released a series of tweets which she believes painted the police as “the real victims.”
“None of us want to be the person to decide—in a fraction of a second— whether to pull that trigger, but the burden of making that decision falls upon the police officer,” Liccardo said in a March 29 tweet.
Simmons said she believes the families of individuals shot by police are often left “in the dark.”
“When the police commit a human rights violation, the city inevitably participates in the cover up at the expense of the victims and their families,” she said.
Police accountability
Various attendees also called for change and accountability within the San Jose police department, chanting “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! If we don’t get it, shut it down!”
Sajid Khan, Santa Clara County public defender, said he believes the most vulnerable groups are marginalized by San Jose police.
“I actually spent a lot of late nights at La Vics, just like K’aun Green,” he said during the event. “I can't imagine going there to come out of there with gunshots at the hands of the very police departments that we’re purportedly paying to protect us.”
A protester, who identified herself as Kiran L., said she attended the event in support of Green and his family and because of her own personal traumas related to SJPD.
Kiran said her uncle, Demetrius Stanley, was shot and killed by an undercover police officer last year.
“[Stanley] was taken cold heartedly by two unmarked, plainclothes, regular ‘schmegular’ dudes, who were apparently police officers,” she said during the event. “I would just like to take a moment to focus not just on my tragedy, and my loss and my grief, but also on the pain of K’aun Green’s family.”
Stanley was shot and killed on May 31, 2021, unaware that he was being approached by undercover officers outside his home who were monitoring him for a prior suspected crime as he approached their unmarked vehicle with a gun in his hand, according to a Sept. 16, 2021 Mercury News article.
Santa Clara County released a report on May 31, 2021 identifying the officer who shot Stantley as Anthony Baza, who was later cleared of criminal liability by Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
Khan said “enough is enough,” in regards to the multiple police shootings, saying the DA has never prosecuted a police officer who shot individuals in the city.
“We've been represented by a DA that turns around and prosecutes the very survivors of police shootings,” he said during the event.
Khan said he is running for Santa Clara County DA this year because he believes the police department needs to be held accountable.
“I'm here because I'm tired, and tired of learning about the police department that we are paying to protect us,” he said after the event. “We need to have a DA that is willing to prosecute police officers who unjustifiably shoot and kill our fellow human beings.”
Crystal Calhoun, member of the San Jose Unified Equity Coalition, said she attended the event in support of the Green family and for others shot by the police.
She said oftentimes she is more worried about what one of the police might do to one of her grandchildren than “a supposed criminal” down the street.
“The main thing is just to hear and to support the families,” she said. “The call to action is that [the police] need to stand up and be honest.”
Tomara Hall, special education teacher and equity leader in San Jose, said she believes the trauma that Green and his family endured is also triggering for other families who have endured police violence.
She said the community should be looking for alternatives to policing and continuing to advocate for individuals shot by police.
Hall said whether that means showing up to city meetings, protesting, sending an email to public officials or sending flowers to families, community members should be “showing up every day.”
“Always show up, whatever that means for you,” Hall said. “Be a part of their community to see how you can help them not just seek justice, but also heal.”
