Death Claimed at The Hands of
The Oakland Police: What Happened?
Mohesha Raymone Owens
Two weeks ago, Mohesha Raymone Owens's girlfriend called for an ambulance through the City of Oakland's emergency services, 911, and that service came with the police as well. Owens was having an overdose of some type of narcotic, and by the time that ambulance arrived, he was going into convulsions.
Seemingly, the Oakland police was asked to help calm him down--at that time he was convulsing and shaking unconsciously, as he lay on the floor at his apartment home in Oakland, CA. Instead of helping the local ambulance services get him into the emergency vehicle his live-in girlfriend had called for, it is reported that the police beat this man who having convulsions at that time and placed their feet on his head, pending him to the floor of the apartment house runway. Finally, after he had stopped convulsing and shaking, the ambulance took him to the hospital.
The report is that by the time they had placed him into the ambulance, Owens was dead or probably dead. The ambulance drivers did not place him in the ambulance speedily; once in the ambulance, there was no emergency call ahead signaling the hospital that they were on their way with an emergency case, as is the standard practice in these cases. And when arriving at the hospital, Mohesha Raymone Owens was pronounced dead in the emergency vehicle.
The police department has already claimed that their officers acted within the legal boundaries of the law. But the loved ones of Mr. Owens called for an ambulance, not the police. And Mr. Owens was not a suspect for any crime; he was suspected of overdosing.
At his funeral July 28, a full house of the community gathered and mourned as well as spoke about his tragic death at the hands of the Oakland Police. Many called for an investigation into why Mohesha Owens died after calling for emergency ambulance services and had the police to come and subdue him. Some say that the police who subdued Owens thereafter went around to those who actually witnessed their beating him and tried to coerce a description of what took place to correspond to their reports, viz., that they acted properly.
The apartment manger where Owens lived was an eye witness to the events that took placed, and she stated at the funeral services that Owens was beaten and held down for no good reason by Oakland police, and that action probably did more to kill him than the drug overdose. She added that she is willing to testify of the misbehavior of the police on the scene. The parent of Mohesha R. Owens and his fiancé have already acquired the legal services of John Burris, noted legal analyst on the O. J. Simpson case and a local Bay Area attorney noted for his wrongful death at the hands of the police cases. Owens was only 33-years old when he died, July 19, 2006.
Nearby that area, in another case, the Oakland police took another young black man into custody in a most brutal way. It is reported that the young Thomas boy, in his late twenties, was beaten until he was swollen all over from police kicking and beating with their nightsticks and fists. That young man was not killed and is now in the County jail, having received no treatment for his wounds.
The black community is concerned about the return of police brutality to Oakland under the hands of Mayor Jerry Brown. Why was Mohesha Raymone Owens killed instead of having been taken to the hospital? Why did the attending police who beat and held Owens to the floor instead of taking him to the hospital go around to witnesses coaching them on what they saw the police do to Owens?
During the days that births the Black Panthers in Oakland, the Oakland police, according to an old book, The Police Establishment, written during that time, cited the Oakland police as one of the most racist, vicious, and ruthless of all police departments in the nation. There is a fear of many Oaklanders that since Jerry Brown became mayor, and in his effort to run for California Attorney General, the police department has been used to further his political advancement to that office. In his campaign literature, he states that he has reduced crime in Oakland by 30%. This claim, however, is scoffed at by his opponent, as he says that Brown is a fictional crime fighter and that Oakland's crime rate has gone up under Mayor Brown.
It is true that Oakland under Brown has seen a more vicious police department that has no tolerance for working and lower class people, as well as those who use the emergency ambulance services for assisting them in overdose cases. To the Oakland police, apparently, overdose cases are an arresting offense. One that may have cost Mohesha Owens his life.
