Archive for category: JUSTICE FOR ANDRES

 Allies Demand Independent Investigation and Justice on Six-Month Mark of LA Sheriffs’ Murder of Andres Guardado

Posada and Silent Caravan follow Action by Supervisors Exploring Options to Remove Sheriff Villanueva, and Sheriff’s Deputies Refusing to Cooperate in Coroner Investigation

Los Angeles, CA: On the six-month mark of Andres Guardado’s murder at the hands of Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) deputies, a coalition of civil rights and worker rights groups held a posada and silent car caravan to continue calls for an independent investigation and justice for the Guardado family.

Nearly a hundred cars participated in the socially distant procession which included costumed figures of angels, Joseph, and Mary, flower wreaths and large posters of Andres Guardado. The posada walkers were met on the corner of Grand and Temple with the lead car adorned by a wreath of flowers.

“My brother was a very bright student and a very good brother and son to my father and mother who did everything he could to provide for our family. I really hope there is justice in his name because what they did to him was unfair and no young man deserves what he got. We can’t bring him back so our pain will always be here but we demand justice and that would at least help our pain” said Jennifer Guardado, sister of Andres Guardado.

On June 18, while working as a security guard in Gardena, LASD deputies shot Guardado five times in the back, as reported by two independent autopsies. The eighteen-year-old had gotten the job to help provide for his family after his father, a hotel worker and UNITE HERE Local 11 member, was laid off due to COVID-19.

“When the deputies shot Andres they tore a hole in all of our flesh. When the deputies took Andres’s life, they stole a piece of all of our souls. When the Sheriff blocks an independent investigation of Andres’s killing, he violates all of our rights.” said Kurt Petersen, Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11. “Like others killed at the hands of law enforcement, Andres Guardado was not just a statistic. His family & our community deserve answers, not obstruction.”

LASD officials have thus far refused to cooperate with an independent investigation, stonewalling the Inspector General.  Recently, a Sheriff’s deputy who shot Guardado and two other LASD detectives involved have refused to testify in the coroner’s inquest into Guardado’s killing, the first of its kind in 30 years, stating they will invoke the Fifth Amendment. In November, the  Board of Supervisors directed County Counsel to explore ways to impeach and remove the sheriff.

The coalition has called for Villanueva’s immediate resignation. In response, the Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission unanimously passed a “vote of no confidence” resolution also urging Villanueva’s resignation.

LA Hotel Workers Union and Allies Demand Sheriff Villanueva Resign

Los Angeles, CA: Hundreds of community members, led by UNITE HERE Local 11, held a car caravan and delivered a letter demanding the immediate resignation of Sheriff Alex Villanueva because of his failure to reform the Los Angeles Sheriff Department.  Sheriff Villanueva’s refusal to cooperate with an independent investigation of last month’s killing of Andres Guardado by sheriff’s deputies is the last in a dreadful list of malfeasance. The list also includes calling Supervisor Solis a derogatory term and repeatedly blocking internal investigations of deputy misconduct.

UNITE HERE Local 11 was joined by Black Lives Matter – Los Angeles, ACLU SoCal, Justice LA, CLUE, and Check The Sheriff Coalition and more than 60 other labor unions and community groups in the call for Villanueva’s resignation.

“We know an abusive and unjust sheriff when we see one,” said Kurt Petersen, Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11. “Our union successfully unseated Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona in 2016 and we are ready to do the same with Villanueva.”

“Our communities are tired of the lies, abuse, misogyny, and racism that Villanueva consistently hurls at our communities and leaders, said Eunisses Hernandez co-executive director of La Defensa and a member of the JusticeLA Coalition. “It’s time he held himself accountable for his actions and for all the harm he has caused. It’s time he resigns. If not, we’ll make sure he’s out in 2022.”

In 2016, UNITE HERE Local 11 led the successful campaign to unseat the notoriously abusive Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona.   The campaign to oust Sheriff Arpaio was called #AdiosArpaio.  On Thursday, the coalition launched #AdiosVillanueva.

“From the time he was elected, the Sheriff has treated his office as an abusive dictatorship by reinstating an officer who had been fired due to domestic violence, exceeding his budget beyond that of his predecessors, and adding more trauma to the mourning families of murdered loved” said Pastor Cue Jn’Marie of the Check the Sheriff Coalition. “The murder of 18 year old Andres Guardado and the attempted cover up by Sheriff deputies was the last straw that broke our hearts and will break injustice’s back. Adios Villanueva!”

“The ACLU of Southern California calls for the resignation of an elected local official only in dire circumstances when that official presents a ‘grave and imminent threat to civil liberties.’ Sadly, we have reached that point with Sheriff Villanueva, who has turned his back on the people of Los Angeles County and is actively undermining efforts to rein in a department with a long history of abuse and an utter lack of transparency and accountability. He holds a position of the highest trust, and he has betrayed it,” said Hector Villagra, Executive Director of ACLU SoCal.

Andres Guardado was the son of long time UNITE HERE Local 11 member, Cristobal Guardado, who is a cook at the Downtown Grand Hotel.   Andres was killed while working as a security guard at an auto body shop.  Two autopsies – including one by the LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner – concluded that Andres perished after being shot five times in the back by a sheriffs’ deputy.

“Villanueva has proven himself to be the most corrupt sheriff in the nation. His brazen refusal to engage community or show even the most basic level of respect for County residents further emboldens the most criminal, violent and murderous elements within the ranks,” said Melina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter – Los Angeles. “In the names of Ryan Twyman, AJ Weber, Andres Guardado, Mitrice Richardson, Paul Rea, Anthony Varga, John Horton and hundreds of others, Villanueva must go.”

“Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice is appalled at the way that Sheriff Villaneuva has handled the investigation into the shooting of Andres Guardado. This, on top of his dismissive relationship with the Civilian Oversight Commission, his neglect of his legal responsibilities to answer subpoenas and be accountable to the people of Los Angeles bring us to call for the Sheriff’s immediate resignation. In the Jewish tradition, doing the work of justice in the world is acting as a partner of God. Similarly, perverting justice is the undoing of creation itself. Sheriff Villanueva has, unfortunately been perverting rather than doing justice and it is time for him to go home, to pave the way for justice for Andres Guardado, and to uproot the injustice in the LASD,” said Rabbi Aryeh Cohen.