In December 2017, with support from the International Human Rights Clinic of Santa Clara Law, the ACLU and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Luis Poot Pat (representing the family of Luis Góngora Pat) and Adriana Camarena of Justice4Luis provided testimony to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights about Luis’s unjustified execution by SFPD and about the continued human rights abuses committed by the police department in San Francisco against people of color.
Our testimony informed the recently published IACHR report “Police violence against Afro-descendants in the US.” The conclusions and recommendations of the IACHR (see pg 157) state the many ways that police abuse of power in the US and discriminatory practices against minorities, particularly Afro-descendants, violates the US’s international commitments, and calls for strong decisive actions to reform laws so as to meet basic human rights to which the US has expressly committed.
For example: As a matter of urgency, take the necessary steps to reform
domestic law—both federal and state—and bring it in line with
international law in the area of use of force and use of deadly
force, observing the principles of exceptionality, necessity,
proportionality, and legality. p.162
We are very grateful to have been given the opportunity to contribute to the IACHR report and to have been heard.
Quote: “The Commission has also received testimony about cases of police killings at public hearings, including the cases of Rekia Boyd, Clinton Allen, Tesfaie Mokuria, Milton Hall, Luis Góngora Pat, and Dontre Hamilton. High-profile police killings continue to occur as of the writing of this report; for example, in March 2018, the killing of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old father of two while talking on his cellphone in his backyard, by police in Sacramento, California, sparked widespread public condemnation and protests.” p. 63
Hearing on December 7, 2017 on Youtube:
Justice for Luis Góngora Pat 