NHL Player Playoff Game Boycott On Racial Injustices Sparked Difficult Conversation In Las Vegas

The letter mainly addressed the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which has left Blake paralyzed and fighting for his life.  While the details of the case are still emerging, what cannot be argued is that Jacob Blake was shot in the back, in front of his children.  What also cannot be denied is that Jacob Blake is a Black man – making him a target for police which has been shown in multiple evidence-based research, and supported by historical facts when one studies and understands the history and root of American policing.

The African American community, which makes up only 13% of the population but make up about a third of police homicide victims, has undoubtedly been at the brunt of police violence for centuries.  Countless testimonies from the Black community of all demographics – young, old, and all genders, spanning over several decades and generations display over and over again the racist and deadly practices of American policing and the U.S. government, which is undeniably intertwined with the culture of lynching, the culture of slavery, and the genocide of Native Americans.

What is not addressed in the communication from Grammas is the mounting injustices committed by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the organization he leads, the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, a powerful police union that has positioned itself over the decades making it near impossible to prosecute police who do crimes by lobbying for the increase of police secrecy and police power, with little if any resistance from the Nevada State Legislature, made up of several elected officials who publicly endorse the LVPPA.

To date, no on-duty officer has been prosecuted for taking the life of a civilian in the last thirty years in Las Vegas, yet the LVMPD has killed hundreds of our community members.  Many of these victims include cases extremely similar to the case of Jacob Blake, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other cases that have captured the attention of national media.

To bring light to a few of these cases:

-On August 22, 2007, Joseph Justin was identified as a burglary suspect and shot in the back by now-Captain Nichole Splinter, and former officer Timothy Nicothodes.  Despite eyewitnesses declaring they never saw a gun in Justin’s hands, Splinter and Nicothodes shot Justin stating that he held a gun to his temple and then pointed it at Splinter.  Facing no charges or repercussions, Splinter currently oversees the Office of Internal Oversight and Constitutional Policing, which handles the internal investigations of police homicides.  After killing Justin, Nicothodes went on to be convicted of a DUI in Montana in 2012, and received domestic violence charges in Colorado in 2015, and was able to secure a medical retirement paid for by Las Vegas taxpayers.

-On July 14, 2011, Alma Chavez called 911 and requested the support of LVMPD’s Crisis Intervention Team to help with her son, Rafael Olivas, who was suffering from an emotional breakdown.  According to Chavez who witnessed her son’s murder, upon arrival LVMPD did not voice any commands to Olivas and shot him, first with non-lethal rounds, then with multiple lethal rounds, killing him almost instantly.  Chavez was then arrested while LVMPD searched her house without a search warrant.  She was also denied witness testimony.  No one was prosecuted for the murder of Olivas.

-On December 31, 2015, Keith Childress, Jr., of Phoenix, Arizona was walking in a private neighborhood in broad daylight when he was gunned down by LVMPD officers Robert Bonahan and Blake Walford.  The officers claim Childress had a gun in his hand, but all he had was a cell phone.  The officers were not prosecuted.

-On May 14, 2017, Tashii Farmer Brown was experiencing a mental health breakdown at the Venetian where he asked for help from LVMPD officer Kenneth Lopera.  Rather than assist Brown, Lopera chased after him, tasing him seven times and punching him in the head over ten times, and then proceeded to place Brown in an unapproved martial arts chokehold for over a minute at which point Brown expired.  LVMPD stated that had Brown survived he wouldn’t have been charged with any crime.  Lopera was fired from the department, but Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson (who has allowed for well over 50 cases of police homicide to go unprosecuted) decided not to prosecute him.

-On March 31, 2019, Nicholas Farah was in Las Vegas for a long layover on his way home to Wisconsin after vacationing with his family.  Staying at a La Quinta hotel, Farah called the police because he had just discovered that his belongings had been stolen.  The officers on scene decided to arrest Farah for trespassing.  Farah died by positional asphyxia, the same way George Floyd and Eric Garner were killed, when he was placed in a restraint chair at Clark County Detention Center, and had his head forcefully held down between his legs for several minutes by four LVMPD officers.  Despite being ruled a homicide, no officers were charged for Farah’s death.

-In the early morning of September 5, 2019, Byron Williams was riding his bicycle when he was apprehended by LVMPD officers for allegedly not having a safety light on his bicycle, a misdemeanor crime.  Williams initially ran, but then surrendered outside a nearby apartment complex.  Two officers proceeded to handcuff Williams while he was face down, one with his knee pressing down into Williams’ back.  Williams uttered, “I can’t breathe,” at least 17 times, but the officers dismissed his pleas for help and instead made callous remarks and jokes.  Williams ended up expiring, but not before all officers on scene turned off their body cameras.  As of now, no officer involved has been charged for Williams’ death, which has been ruled a homicide by the Clark County Coroner’s Office.

These cases are just a glimpse of the violence that the Las Vegas community has been subject to by LVMPD, and the LVPPA plays a large role in making sure LVMPD officers are not held liable.  Last year, the LVPPA was behind the passing of SB 242, an amendment to the Nevada Revised Statute (NRS) 289, the Nevada Peace Officer Bill of Rights which allows for officers to avoid prosecution by qualified immunity, and keeps officer misconduct files away from the public eye.  The LVPPA also continuously intervenes in officer-involved homicide investigations, arriving at use-of-force scenes and taking the officers involved away from the scene for a 48-hour cooling period, keeping them from being questioned or tested for drugs or alcohol.

Again, what I have stated here barely scrapes the surface of the landscape of police violence and lack of transparency and accountability here in Las Vegas – but notice none of this was at all addressed in Grammas’ letter, which focused on a police-shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, avoiding completely any cases of police brutality by his own department.

We express our gratitude for the solidarity expressed by the Vegas Golden Knights, and the recent solidarity actions by the Las Vegas Aces, and Las Vegas Raiders.  However, we are asking our sports team, athletes, and local community to not only give attention to the national cases, but more importantly, give attention to the local cases here in our hometown.  Police violence has to be fought locally with national and global awareness.  Every case of police brutality is an opportunity for the community to participate in the pursuit of justice, which if achieved will set precedents for future cases.  It is upon the engagement of the community to pressure our elected officials to pass common sense and humane legislation – laws that protect the sanctity of life, and prioritizes public safety through increasing police transparency and accountability.

In solidarity with all survivors of police brutality and families impacted by police homicide, and in defense of Black and Indigenous life,

Nissa Tzun

Editor-in-Chief, Forced Trajectory Project