From The Michael Slate Show
Interview with Sal Silva, Father of David Sal Silva—Victim of Police Murder
June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
This is the transcript of an interview on The Michael Slate Show on KPFK Pacifica radio on May 24 with Sal Silva, whose son David Sal Silva was killed by sheriff's deputies in Bakersfield, California on May 8. David was a 33-year-old Latino man and father of four young children. Michael Slate's questions have been slightly edited for publication.
Michael Slate: Can you tell the listeners the story of your son? What happened to him?
Sal Silva: Well, the facts as we know them are pretty much out in the open as far as he—I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but he had some kind of an altercation or verbal argument with his longtime girlfriend. He had left the house and I think he was heading over to Kern Medical Center. I believe he was trying to get some kind of help. I don't know exactly what it was.
He was turned away from there and asked to go somewhere else which was right across the street from the Kern Medical Center. At some point I guess he was drunk, and he passed out on the ground. I believe before that he was sleeping on the grounds of Kern Medical Center and a guard had come up to him and told him, "Hey, you can come here, but you can't sleep here." He wandered across the street and I guess he passed out, according to one of the witnesses that I talked to, like he just fell down, straight on the ground. After that point, I believe the guard or someone had called 911, saying that there was a drunk man sleeping on the ground. After that, I believe the first responder was a canine officer, and he responded by I believe trying to rouse him up. At some point he got the dog out of his car and the dog was mauling David, and from everything I could see, it looked like at some point there were several officers just whaling away at him with batons. It looked like they were doing batting practice basically. Like you said, they murdered him on the street, basically. They murdered him on the street.
I don't condone the fact that my son was drunk, or passed out. But in what world does that kind of crime meet that kind of punishment? And then, where—who, whether the sheriff or anyone can say that that's justifiable. Now they're trying to say that my son had high blood pressure, that he had meth in his system, that he was depressed. I don't know. "He died of natural causes," that's what they're trying to say. I mean, really?! How can anyone say that, after what they saw on the video? They're essentially saying, don't believe your lying eyes or your lying ears because we did nothing wrong here. He died of natural causes. He's 33 years old.
Slate: I saw just yesterday where they came out and they ruled David's death to be "accidental." And they said that he had a heart attack. And the first question you're looking at, it's, "Well, what the hell brought on that heart attack?" even if that was true. The man was being beat to within an inch of his life. What would bring on a heart attack? Something like that? And they're doing a big effort to demonize David all that they can—and people have to be clear about this—none of these things that they talk about David having done are, as you said, in what kind of world would you get the death sentence for that?
Sal Silva: According to them, that's justifiable. Honestly, I pretty much, everyone in our family and anyone that has any information or has any knowledge about this case, I don't think that we are surprised whatsoever, by what the sheriff said. Under any circumstances—there are no circumstances where they have any liability in this matter, although they murdered my son. They say, "Oh, he died of natural causes." Really—don't believe your eyes. Don't believe your ears. Don't believe the witnesses. Don't believe anything, but believe what our good sheriff has to say. As far as I'm concerned, he is an accomplice to murder.
Slate: Absolutely. I agree with you 100 percent. Let's talk about what you said about the witnesses. There were a number of witnesses to what was going on. Let's talk about that, because they also—the demonization—suddenly [the police] were finding all these things in their backgrounds and accusing them of having committed crimes or being charged with things in the past, as if that should then undercut, as you said, their eyes and what they saw, and in fact what many of them had recorded. Can you talk about the witnesses and how you found out about this whole scene?
Sal Silva: Well, as soon as it happened, we went over to the area where the altercation took place, and we met people pretty quickly that said, yeah, they saw things and they recorded it. We actually talked to several people, two or three people that had the videophones taken away from them. They told us how they were held in their apartments without even being able to move away from the phone or go to work or anything, for 12 hours. They were held hostage so [the police] could retrieve those videos on the phones. And the phones hadn't been returned for several days. I don't understand why in this day and age someone couldn't have just asked the people for a copy of the videos that were on the phone and taken that. I don't understand why one of the phones mysteriously didn't have any video on it. I had spoken to the lady that took the video and she told me that not only did she take the video, she saw the video on the phone. So obviously there was video on the phone, but they don't have any video on the phone anymore.
The sheriff is saying that the press and the media are all trying to sensationalize it. I don't know what planet this guy's from. How can anyone say that someone being passed out drunk on the street justifies being beaten to death like a dog? Screaming! You can hear it on the video. You can see the baton strikes, even though the video is pretty grainy, there's no question as to what happened. But according to the sheriff, he died of natural causes because he was overweight and had a heart attack. Really? I just can't believe anybody that could believe that. It's like they're murdering us when they come up with this stuff every day. There's no liability on their part. Basically the police can do whatever they want to whoever they want.
The sheriff also said several things on the television when he made his press conference that were just down and outright lies. He said that this case would be handled no different than if it were any civilian case. Well, I'd like to ask the sheriff, if I were involved in an altercation like that, and I was suspected of beating someone to death, or being involved in any kind of incident like that, would I be able to go home, investigate myself and then tell you that I could get back to you? Would I be able to do that? Would you be able to do that? Well, they can do that. It's preposterous.
Slate: Yeah. It's preposterous; it's enraging. Every time they murder someone, one, you always know what's going to be at the back end of their investigation. It's going to be "justifiable homicide," or their actions were justifiable. But they also murder our people twice. They murder the people once when they actually carry out the act, and then they proceed to murder them by attacking their reputation and trying to make it seem like the person did something to deserve it.
Sal Silva: You're right. You're absolutely right. And the only thing that they could find, my son's total "criminal history," was public intoxication or something like that. I mean, really, is he some kind of mastermind criminal, a murderer? I couldn't even believe that they would come up with that. And then the people that had the videos, of course they're demonizing them because they had some kind of criminal history and things like that, so you can't believe anything they say.
However, one thing I don't understand. They have obtained records stating that my son had methamphetamines in his system, which I really don't believe he did. My son had ADHD, and he did take medication for it. And in some cases, I've heard that that could come up as some kind of meth or some kind of—I'm not really that familiar with these drugs. But I'd like to find out if they drug-tested any of the officers that were there. Did they do that?
Slate: Good point. One of the things that the sheriff said was, well, you know, we didn't do any head blows. And of course, all the witnesses said they saw these eight cops...
Sal Silva: I saw his head. There were definitely head blows. His head was just purple in the back of his head. I saw him. That was a lie. But he says it, and he's sheriff. I think that that statement was being prepared the day the incident happened, regardless of what the outcome was going to be. Maybe some of the small facts could have been changed around, but that was already set up. There is no way that the Sheriff's Department is at fault for anything here, according to the sheriff.
Slate: One thing I want to know, because what happens is exactly what you say, the demonization of David. And as I said, murdering you twice. I want you to tell people, what was David like?
Sal Silva: David was—and everyone would say this—David was a big teddy bear. He was a big guy, but he smiled, and he could just light up a room. He had four kids that love him to death, went everywhere with them. He basically took care of all his kids, had four kids. He was a loving father.
I think one of the things that I can remember, I guess the best, and I think his mother mentioned it to me the other day, and it reminded me of how kind he was: David didn't have much money ever. He wasn't really working. He was just barely squeaking by. On Father's Day, I can remember—my ex-wife said the same thing about Mother's Day. My ex-wife said every Mother's Day he would buy her some peanut brittle, buy her some candy from the 99¢ store and get a good card, and how much that meant to her. Well, he did the same thing for me. It was just stuff that you would never think of being very important or certainly not expensive, stuff from the 99¢ store, but it's something that came from his heart. Because he wanted you to know that he was thinking about you and he loved you, and that's the kind of person that David was.
Slate: One of the things that your other son, I think Chris is his name?
Sal Silva: My youngest son is Chris.
Slate: He's been speaking out a lot. He made a point that he never thought that much about what the police do until David was murdered, and then he went and investigated it. And he made a statement about this has to stop. What about in your case? Were you aware of the history of the Bakersfield police?
Sal Silva: Just like many people, unless it affects you personally, you hear about it, you read about it. You kind of think, well, they must have deserved it, or—you know. But I certainly, just like my son Chris, have a whole different perspective on this now. There's absolutely no justification for something like this, to a human being: any human being, much less a son that is loved and has kids, a family that loves him. Perhaps he had a drinking problem. There's no justification for something like this. In my whole outlook on the system, the system is broken.
Slate: I want to ask you two questions. One, this is your moment to say completely what you think about the murder, and to the police about what they did. And then I want to ask you what you say to the people who are listening now.
Sal Silva: I would just say that anyone that has seen or heard anything about this story and was listening to what the Sheriff's Department has publicly stated, you can make up your own mind as to what happened. I think all the facts are pretty much out there: the way that they have tried to demonize my son, they way that they take absolutely no responsibility for anything. My son actually died of natural causes because he had a heart attack. I mean, really!
And to the people out there that are listening to this that were just like me just a few weeks ago, that thinks every time that something like this happens, it must have been justifiable, the people must have—they must have asked for the beating or being killed, or whatever the police officer did: I hope you never have to walk in my shoes. I hope that something like this doesn't happen to a loved one in your family. Because then you would understand what's going on and how wrong it is.
People do have to stand up. We have to get justice. We have to change the system that obviously, if there's eight police officers involved, if there's a sheriff involved, and not one person, not one, says we could have done something differently. We shouldn't have done this; we shouldn't have done that. No. They have no responsibility. And that is just—it kills me.
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