Anti-police brutality protest rally in US city of Long
Beach, where Cambodian immigrant parents of a suspect critically injured by
police were refused permission to visit their son
A protest rally against police brutality in western US city
of Long Beach has been waged after parents of a young suspect shot by police
were barred from visiting their critically wounded son.
A group of community activists in the California city staged
the rally outside St. Mary’s Medical Center on Sunday to protest police
brutality by Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) for refusing to allow the
parents of the 22-year-old Cambodian suspect, Sokha Hor, to visit their son,
who was shot and critically injured by LBPD officers on January 7.
Although the activists declared victory when the police
department finally allowed the Cambodian-born parents of the seriously injured
man to visit their son, they expressed extreme anger at the brutal manner in
which the police denied visitation rights to Hor’s parents for nearly two
weeks.
According to Hor’s mother, Yorn Eng, Long Beach cops gave
her contradictory information regarding her son’s condition and one cop told
her “We’ll contact you if he dies,” when she demanded to visit her reportedly
dying son.
The harsh police response, according to local news reports,
prompted groups such as the Long Beach Campaign to Stop Police Violence and
anti-war, pro-social justice ANSWER LA to launch an Internet campaign via email
and social networking sites as well as the protest rally on Sunday to press
police authorities to allow the Cambodian native’s parents to visit him.
The incident represents the latest in a string of cases of
excessive force by LBPD officers, who were involved in seven shootings last
year, four of which were fatal.