Justice for Pedro: Civil rights groups organize protest against CHP after unarmed Latino teen is shot by undercover CHP officers who fail to follow proper police procedure

Protestors take to the street and picket the CHP office in Santa Ana after the Villanueva shooting in Fullerton

Demonstrators gathered Sunday outside the California Highway Patrol office in Santa Ana, organized by local Latino civil rights groups, to protest last week's fatal shooting of an unarmed 19-year-old teen shot by undercover CHP officers.

The protest was organized by local Latino civil rights activist
Naui Huitzilopotchtli who is a part of the Mexica Movement

The dead Latino teen in question, Pedro Villanueva of Chatsworth, had merely attended an illegal street car "sideshow" organized near a Santa Fe Springs swap meet and was chased and cornered by undercover CHP officers, who never identified themselves as police officers, into a dead-end street on a residential Fullerton cul-de-sac.

When officers, who still failed to identify themselves as police officers, drew their weapons on Villanueva, he thought he was being assaulted by robbers and tried to get to safety through the only avenue of escape he had at his disposal through the narrow dead-end street he had mistakenly entered.

He tried to make a desperate attempt to make a U-turn to try escape from his unidentified assailants by driving out of the narrow dead-end street, where the suspicious unmarked car and officers in plain clothes were.

When Villanueva tried to run his truck past the unidentified assailants, the unidentified undercover CHP officer shot the young driver to death and wounded his 18-year-old passenger in the process. More than ten rounds were reported unloaded on the unarmed teenagers.

Protest march by Latino civil rights groups against the CHP shooting of an
unarmed Latino teen on Sunday

Villanueva never knew the undercover officers following him were police officers as they failed to follow proper police procedures to reveal themselves before trying to apprehend the teens.

There were no sirens, siren lights, voice commands from a bull horn, or call for back-up from uniformed CHP officers.

In fact, the unmarked CHP cruiser followed the teenager for several miles at nearly 90 m.p.h. on the highways of the Southland with their headlights suspiciously off, indicating they meant to do harm to the teenagers.

Neither Villanueva nor his passenger were armed at the time of the deadly CHP shooting. So no wonder Latino civil rights groups were up in arms over the deadly CHP shooting incident. Charges were not even filed against the surviving passenger of the shooting because it was apparent the only thing the two Latino teenagers did wrong was to attend an underground "sideshow" event as passive spectators.

"We're here to support Black Lives Matter and also to support Hispanic lives," said protest organizer Naui Huitzilopotchtli, who organized the protest and is a part of the Mexica Movement, an indigenous rights group. Also on hand at the protest was the movement's founder and director, Olin Tezcatlipoca, of the Los Angeles chapter of the Mexica Movement.

There are two written rules common in all police procedures and policies that were clearly not followed in the senseless Villanueva shooting: Identifying yourself as the police officers before making an arrest and giving the suspect a chance to voluntarily surrender before using deadly force.

Also on hand at the protest rally was the Mexica Movement founder and director
Olin Tezcatlipoca

Huitzilopotchtli pointed out what many who have followed the story are beginning to realize: Villanueva did not know he was being followed by undercover police and likely thought he was being followed by people meaning to do him harm, so he instinctively tried to escape from his assailants out of fear for his own safety.

"Why not wait for backup?" Huitzilopotchtli said. "It seems like police shoot first and ask questions later."

About 60 people carrying signs marched in front of the CHP office on Santa Clara Avenue, shouting, "Killer cops, get off my block."

Since the CHP's sting operation to crack down on illegal street racing events was conducted by the CHP Southern Division, and the "sideshow" in question originated in Santa Fe Springs, the CHP area office involved is believed to the Santa Fe Springs Area CHP office on 10051 Orr and Day Street in Santa Fe Springs—not in Santa Ana—so protestors may have picketed the wrong office.

But still their point was made as television news crews and local news media covered the story and broadcasted it to the world.

"An unmarked CHP car pulls out, how do you expect a guy to stop when he doesn't know who's in the car," Huitzilopotchtli told the O.C. Register. "If this would have been a guy from Newport Beach or Yorba Linda, they wouldn't have done this. This is another person of color, another unarmed man shot. We're here to stand up with people of color."

Point well taken. It seems the CHP has a lot explaining to do, but have thus far been tight-lipped in explaining any of their actions. Clearly, they have something to hide, and it's beginning to be very apparent to everyone that the CHP is covering-up what they know to save their own skins.

Latinos now make up the vast majority of the population in the Southland. Failing to rise up against and fight the largely-white minority making up the power structure and authority in our communities will only show the world that the new majority in Southern California is still powerless to fight back against social injustice and institutionalized tyranny and stand up against its racist oppressors.

The only way the government can maintain the status quo and preserve the power of the few in the ruling class is by brutalizing those they fear as a threat to their power, trying to suppress any discontent and uprisings among the masses whose only role is to serve their masters.

Our time is now! Rise up and let the powers that be know that we will not stand for oppression and tyranny by a government that does not serve its people. These are our streets and our neighborhoods now—not theirs! The government is not the master of our people, and we are not their lowly servants. Show them we will fight back to show them that we are now the masters and they are the servants.

Dump the "CHumPs" in our communities!