Justice for Angelo Quinto! Justice for all!
Anakbayan stands in solidarity with the family of Angelo Quinto, a 30-year-old Filipino-American who was murdered by the Antioch police in his own home on December 26, 2020. No family should ever have to spend the holidays in mourning, and more broadly, no one should be murdered by the police. Today, the day of his 31st birthday, we lament and stand for him against state violence, white supremacy, and U.S. Empire.
A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Angelo spent his time in service of a nation that refused to protect him, both in life and in his passing. Quinto, who experienced increased anxiety due to significant head trauma in the months preceding his death, was experiencing a mental health crisis when his sister called the Antioch police in hopes they would help. Instead, APD officers pinned him to the ground and dug their knees into his neck for over five minutes. The deadly knee-to-neck restraint was the same used by Minneapolis police to murder George Floyd, whose death reinvigorated the movement against police terror and for Black liberation.
This is another wake up call—no matter the sacrifice our people make, our lives are rendered disposable by a state that sees people of oppressed nationalities as both a threat and a labor source to do their violent bidding. The police do not care if we’re veterans, if we’re going through a mental health crisis, if it’s the day after Christmas, or if we’re in our own homes: the police will kill because they can.
Two days ago, we stood among hundreds demanding justice for George Floyd and indictment of his murderer Derek Chauvin for a national day of action by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR). The movements against state violence and for Black liberation teach us the necessity of community-based safety and defense and the dangers of increased policing in our communities. We realize that the police violence inflicted upon our communities as Filipinos in the U.S. is inherently rooted in the systemic white supremacy of the police, which is employed by the state to maintain the capitalist status quo. In order to confront state and police violence, we must strike at the root of the problem that is U.S. imperialism and the white supremacy it upholds.
The state violence perpetrated against Angelo Quinto, George Floyd, and all other oppressed people do not happen in isolation. Our kababayan in the Philippines are no strangers to state violence. The cycles of police crime and violence in the Philippines have material ties to U.S. imperialism in the destruction of indigenous communities, rural peoples, and the poor. This is evidenced through the growing number of casualties of the Duterte administration’s drug war, the continued terror-tagging and raiding of Indigenous communities and schools, and devastatingly, the damnable massacre and unjust arrests of activists and leaders in the Southern Tagalog region on March 7th, 2021.
Much of these police and military crimes are bankrolled by the hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid going to the Philippines. Moreover, the Philippine National Police has also received training from programs like the San Francisco Police Department’s Filipino American Law Enforcement (FALEO) program. Just as our tax dollars in the U.S. should not be used to fund the murder of our siblings in the United States, neither should they be used to carry out the murder and suppression of our kababayan by the Philippine police and military.
With this analysis, Anakbayan joins Angelo Quinto’s family in demanding that the City of Antioch:
End the Knee-to-Neck Restraint/Carotid Hold used on George Floyd & Angelo Quinto (which was ALREADY ILLEGAL per AB1196 in CA)
Hold all Officers Accountable for Excessive Use of Force, including those who killed Angelo
Require Antioch Police Department to Wear Body Cameras and Use Dash Cameras
Invest in Mental Health Response Teams - Establish and fund 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Response Teams for the City of Antioch
Cut the police budget by an amount commensurate with the work they will no longer perform
We also call on the public to support:
The indictment of all four of George Floyd’s murderers; Including Derek Chauvin who currently stands trial.
The immediate passing of the (Phillippine Human Rights Act) PHRA to end U.S. security assistance to the Philippines until such time as human rights violations by Philippine security forces cease and the responsible state forces are held accountable.
Campaigns for community control of the police that put power in the hands of impacted communities and give them the ability to defund the police, among other reforms.
Angelo joins other Filipino people killed by the police, including Bernie Villegas, AJ Devillena, Mylene De Leon Scott, Mahrloan Vendejo Saycon, Warren Ragudo, some killed for their mental illnesses or disabilities. This list of names must come to a stop, and so must the list of Black folks killed by the police, including Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless others. We as Filipinos must link arms with all struggles against racist police and state terror, especially that of the struggle for Black self-determination that has been directly confronting the violence of U.S. imperialism here in this country and around the world. It is only militant struggle and genuine solidarity that will defend all oppressed peoples against state violence and defeat U.S. imperialism as the #1 perpetrator of violence across the world. It is only the way we will ensure that what happened to Angelo Quinto and so many others will never happen again. We hold time to call Angelo to Rest in Love and in Power. We fight for you and a world where the forces that took everything from you are impossible.
