100 Attend Shooting Protest in Riverside

About 100 people Monday peacefully protested the police shooting of Tyisha Miller, including about a dozen who were arrested after symbolically blocking the entrance to police headquarters.

The march from City Hall followed a major protest last week that attracted about 1,000 people--including several nationally known civil rights activists--at which time police critics promised to stage additional demonstrations every Monday.

Except for the orchestrated arrests for civil disobedience, there were no disruptions and the remaining protesters left without incident, promising to return next week.

Given the smaller protest, far fewer police were deployed than last week, and protesters asking to be arrested were simply ushered inside the police building for processing on misdemeanor charges of blocking access to a public facility.

The final protester seeking arrest, the Rev. Rusty Fennell from the Vermont Avenue Baptist Church in Torrance, knelt in prayer on the police steps and was simply ignored by the police who filed back into the station by walking around him.

A Riverside Police Department spokeswoman said Fennell wasn’t arrested because officers didn’t want to interrupt his prayer. Fennell said afterward that he was disappointed.

Miller, 19, was shot and killed Dec. 28 by four Riverside police officers responding to a 911 call who found her unresponsive, inside a locked vehicle with a gun in her lap. They said that when they broke the window to grab the gun, she reached for it, prompting them to open fire. She was struck 12 times.

The Riverside County district attorney’s office criticized the officers’ tactics but concluded that their actions did not rise to the standard for criminal negligence. The Police Department is expected to decide within three weeks if the officers--who remain on paid administrative leave--should be disciplined. The FBI and state attorney general’s office are conducting separate investigations into possible civil rights violations stemming from the incident.

On Monday, police critics from Riverside, including local pastors, acknowledged the smaller turnout, but congratulated the protesters for showing up for the second consecutive Monday. “This is the dedicated group,” said the Rev. Jesse Wilson, “and we will be here until justice is done.”

The Rev. Jerry Louder challenged other organizations to show support, and singled out the National Organization for Women. “What’s wrong, women?” he asked. “Why doesn’t it matter when a black woman gets killed?”

As they had in the past, organizers criticized the district attorney’s office for not meeting with Miller’s family to disclose the decision not to prosecute the officers before the public announcement earlier this month. A spokesman for the office said that such an invitation had been made, but that family representatives declined to attend.