Santa Ana addresses police reforms in wake of fatal shooting

Brandon Lopez, cousin of Santa Ana city councilman Johnathan Hernandez, was killed by police on Sept. 28, a week before the city was set to address police reform and oversight initiatives. MAYA BRAUNWARTH, Staff Photographer

Trigger warning: gun violence, police brutality

“Say his name.”

Johnathan Hernandez shouted those three words to the crowd Oct. 23 from a stage constructed at the corner of Bristol Street and Santa Ana Boulevard, where his cousin was shot and killed by Anaheim police nearly a month earlier. 

“Brandon,” the crowd chanted back. 

Hernandez, a Santa Ana City Councilman, witnessed the shooting of his cousin Brandon Lopez Sept. 28 when Lopez was experiencing what the councilman called a “mental health crisis.” At that time, the city was engaged in conversations around the establishment of a police oversight commission and was slated to discuss the implementation of police reforms for the week following Lopez’s death. 

“My goal with police oversight is to have subpoena powers (and) investigatory powers,” Hernandez told The Panther. “I think it’s important that people who sit on (a police oversight commission) should be folks that have been impacted by police violence or that have been impacted by the system. I want to make it clear that I will not support any law enforcement sitting on that (commission).”

The city council approved a program Oct. 5 providing the option to divert Santa Ana Police Department calls to mental health services as well as an ad hoc committee to oversee police reform. Hernandez serves on the ad hoc committee, along with fellow councilmembers Jessie Lopez and Phil Bacerra. 

In 2019, the Santa Ana police department was ranked 92 out of 100 California police departments based on criteria including police brutality incidents and taxpayer costs for funding, placing it among the worst police departments in the state. 

Hernandez said he’s felt the effects of living in a “hyper policed community” since he was young. He recalled his mother and uncles were beaten up by the police at a restaurant for smoking a cigarette outside when he was nine-years-old. 

“I remember my mom coming home black and blue,” Hernandez said. “I remember my aunt having to get surgery on her back, because the police beat them with their batons and lifted their dresses so that people (could) see underneath. I remember going through that as a kid, and I remember my mom having PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from officers — from cops.”

In honor of his cousin, Hernandez organized an event called “Roses from the Concrete” featuring several speakers and artists. Among the speakers at the event were Bridgett Floyd, sister of George Floyd — who was killed by police in May 2020, Daniel Lynem, a former member of the local Black Panther movement and Nellie Turtleheart LeGaspe, director of the American Indian Movement in Orange County. 

In honor of Lopez’ love of music, the event hosted performances by several musical artists. The lineup included Aloe Blacc, Mexican-Australian rapper Maya Jupiter, DJ Rhettmatic of the Beat Junkies and PJ Vegas — an indigenous artist and son of Pat Vegas from the band Redbone, among others.  

LeGaspe began the event with a Native American land acknowledgement and then addressed Lopez’s death. 

“I am sick and tired of seeing my brown brothers and sisters getting killed in the street,” LeGaspe said at the event.

She went on to urge the community to enact change by running for office and leading the way to represent themselves in governmental institutions. 

“We are the tapestry of this land, and when one gets lifted up, we lift everybody else up,” LeGaspe said. “We need people like us in city council. We need people like us to become police officers and walk the right way. We need people like us to run for Congress as senators; we need to see our faces in charge. And guess what? We have the power. It’s right there in front of us — all we have to do is take it.”

The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked protests and calls to “defund the police” across the country, including in Santa Ana. President Joe Biden, however, spoke in favor of providing law enforcement officers with “more resources, not fewer” at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service Oct. 16

“It’s so disheartening to hear that President Biden is blatantly disregarding what people have demanded,” Hernandez said. “(People are) demanding this, because we have been watching police murder lie still and get away with it in perpetuity for years — for decades.”

Minneapolis poet Mari Tadesse flew out to Santa Ana in support of Lopez and performed her poem, “Survivor’s Rage,” which was written in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, at the Roses in the Concrete event. 

“(There’s an) uncomfortable irony in reciting a poem that was meant for a different person that was murdered by police and now reciting that poem for somebody else that’s completely different,” Tadesse told The Panther. 

Tadesse, whose stage name is “Miss Mari,” said her poem speaks to the rage of a community after an event of police violence and she wanted to recognize that emotion.  

“I want to honor the anger that all of us also feel,” Tadesse said. “It's not just sorrow (or) somber, melancholy emotions that we’re all feeling. There is justified anger, and that can be useful, (and) that can be used as a tool.”

Blacc, one of the musicians who performed at the event, considers himself an activist and has promoted police reform through his career, particularly in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Blacc was approached by Hernandez to organize the memorial event for Lopez to both help heal the community through music and to stand in solidarity against police brutality. 

“The murder of Brandon Lopez is a tragedy,” Blacc told The Panther. “(The police) did not value his life, because he wasn’t a demographic they believe is worth value. Because he’s a brown man in Santa Ana, they deemed him worthless and they believed that they could take his life with no recourse.”

Hernandez believes that the police currently hold too much power and that an ideal future would involve law enforcement officers that live up to the motto of “to protect and to serve.”

“(The) police are killing members of the community and getting away with it,” Hernandez said. “The answer, for me, starts with dismantling (their) power.”