[Ppnews] Why Should you Die for a Transfer? SF Police Kill 19 Yr. Old

[Political Prisoner News]

SF police kill teen, Kenneth Harding, as he ran 
from them at T-train stop; crowds protest, rallies planned
By Willie Ratcliff

San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper

<http://sfbayview.com/2011/why-should-you-die-for-a-transfer/>http://sfbayview.com/2011/why-should-you-die-for-a-transfer/

When police stopped a teenager stepping off the 
T-train yesterday to show his transfer as proof 
he’d paid his fare – $2 at most – he ran from 
them. They shot him as many as 10 times in the 
back and neck, according to witnesses. For many 
long minutes, as a crowd watched in horror, the 
boy, who had fallen to the sidewalk a block away, 
lay in a quickly growing pool of blood writhing 
in pain and trying to lift himself up as the cops 
trained their guns on him and threatened bystanders.

This frame from a video shot by a bystander shows 
the teenager struggling to lift himself out of a 
pool of his own blood as a San Francisco police 
officer – one of several – aims his gun at the 
boy rather than trying to save his life. – Video 
frame: TheOneNonly457. The teen, Kenneth Harding, 
is loudly moaning in pain and crying out for help.

Having killed the boy [Kenneth Harding] at 4:44 
p.m., according to the San Francisco Chronicle, 
[1] in broad daylight at the main intersection – 
Third Street between Palou and Oakdale – in 
Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco’s last 
largely Black neighborhood, the police seemed 
eager to terrorize the community. They waited and 
waited and waited as the teenager stopped moving 
but continued breathing before eventually setting 
him on a gurney and taking him to the hospital, 
where the Chronicle reports he died at 7:01 p.m.

“Why should you die for a transfer?” asked a 
witness known as Tiptoe in the crowd of hundreds 
of residents that soon gathered in the plaza at 
the Oakdale/Palou light rail stop. “Justice will 
be brought!” hollered one man repeatedly in a 
booming voice as the crowd shouted at the long 
line of police in riot gear standing between them 
and the dying youngster. “I saw the riot squad 
fly by me on Palou yesterday – five trucks in 
all,” wrote Bayview resident Sherry Bryson on Facebook.

As night fell, firefighters washed the teenager's 
blood off the sidewalk and police and reporters 
talked. Rick Hauptman, who posted this photo on 
Facebook, noted: "The police seemed almost jolly. 
I saw many handshakes  among them; I couldn't 
figure that out. Were they solely being 
respectful to their colleagues and to senior 
officers, or was it something else?”

As usual following police murders, the San 
Francisco Police Department came up with an 
excuse. The Chronicle [1] relayed it: “As the 
officers tried to detain the man, he took off 
running and drew a gun, police said,” according 
to staff writer Joe Garofoli. “When the suspect 
shot at the officers, they returned fire, fatally 
wounding him,” he continued, quoting SFPD Sgt. Michael Andraychak.

None of the many witnesses I spoke with yesterday 
saw the young victim either holding or shooting a 
gun and firmly believe he was unarmed. ABC7’s 
Carolyn Tyler balanced the police claim that they 
shot the youngster in self-defense by 
interviewing Trivon Dixon, who said: “He was 
running. How could he be a threat in retreat? And 
he wasn’t running backwards, turning around 
shooting. He was in full throttle, running away 
from the police. I don’t see in any way how he 
could be a threat to the police.”

Go to 
<http://sfbayview.com/2011/why-should-you-die-for-a-transfer/>http://sfbayview.com/2011/why-should-you-die-for-a-transfer/ 
for remainder of article, video and much more!



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