The most documented genocide in history continues as Palestinians are slaughtered everyday by Israeli forces who drop bomb after bomb on schools, refugee camps, homes, hospitals, and aid facilities with the full backing of the U.S. The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal and one of the highest-impact academic journals in the world, estimates that Israel has killed more than 186,000 Palestinians since October 2023. Its July 5th study found the actual death toll is higher than 40,000 because the UN’s toll doesn’t count the thousands of bodies buried under rubble, nor the deaths caused by Israel’s destruction of health facilities in Gaza.

So-called “evacuation orders” force surviving Palestinians into tiny concentration zones where deliberate starvation and disease spread are rampant. Others face torture and sexual abuse in Israeli prisons where systemic assaults by soldiers are well-doucmented, just as they were decades earlier.

On July 19, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank is illegal, and its laws are “tantamount to the crime of apartheid.” However, that hasn’t stopped pro-Israel groups like AIPAC from pumping $100 million into U.S. elections to force out anti-genocide lawmakers and install their candidates.

As part of the genocide, Israel has also killed record numbers of aid workers and falsely accused the UN agency, UNRWA, of employing terrorists. Israel has never provided proof of its claims, and an international investigation on April 22 found no evidence of terrorism with UNRWA workers. Still, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 284 total aid workers, including 212 from UNRWA.

Please consider giving to this vital UN aid agency – especially as the U.S. funds Israel’s genocide, no matter how many “red lines” it crosses.

Donate to UNRWA

Iconic Individuals

Issues

LGBTQ+

US History

Survivors

World

SEO Services

About Shari

Eric Rivera: Shot to Death and Run Over By LAPD Car in 2017

Crime scene of Eric Rivera's killing by police

Eric Rivera’s body remains trapped under a LAPD vehicle hours after he was shot to death by two Los Angeles police officers on June 6, 2017. (Source)

September 6, 2021 ~ By Shari Rose

Rivera, 20, was walking down the street when LAPD officers jumped out their car and shot him 7 times

Eric Rivera in an undated family photo. (Source)

On June 6, 2017, Eric Rivera was walking down the street, near the corner of Wilmington Blvd and Denni St in Los Angeles when a patrol car sped up to him. Two officers with the LAPD Harbor Division, Arturo Urrutia and Daniel Ramirez, jumped out of their vehicle while it was still moving and started firing.

They shot Rivera 7 times, and then their patrol car rolled on top of his body.

A total of 7 seconds passed between the cops spotting Rivera and then firing. He was holding a plastic green and black squirt gun when he was killed. Rivera, 20, was pronounced dead at the scene.

His body was left on the street for hours. Eventually, police called in a crane to lift the patrol car off him so the coroner could take his body.

LAPD won’t release body cam footage, family files lawsuit

Officers Urrutia and Ramirez were wearing body cams during the shooting, but the LAPD will not release the footage. The dashcam on their car was not turned on.

Eric Rivera’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit a few months after their son’s death. They also regularly attended the weekly meetings of the Los Angeles civilian oversight board to demand justice for their son. Eric Rivera’s father, Phillip Malik, said he learned of his son’s death while watching local news.

Valerie Rivera, Eric’s mother, spoke about her son in a press conference related to the lawsuit. “I’m never going to be able to get him back, but I can stand here today and fight for him,” she said. “I can speak for him.”

Eric’s mother, Valerie Rivera, speaks to reporters after her son’s death. (Source)

In March 2018, Valerie Rivera posted a livestream to Facebook that showed LAPD officers handcuffing Eric’s brothers and friends at the place where he died for a makeshift memorial. The police eventually released them without charges.

Toy water gun in Eric Rivera's hand when shot

A close-up of the green fluorescent toy water gun in Eric Rivera’s possession when he was killed. (Source)

On April 10, 2018, the Board of Police Commissioners cleared Arturo Urrutia and Daniel Ramirez in Eric Rivera’s killing. No charges or reprimands for the officers who killed the 20-year-old and let their vehicle roll over his body.

This story about Eric Rivera is part of a larger project that looks at recent police shootings of Latinos in Los Angeles.

Shari Rose

Owner of Blurred Bylines 💖💜💙

I created Blurred Bylines in an effort to bring stories from marginalized perspectives into the national conversation. As a former copy editor at the largest newspapers in Arizona and Colorado, I’ve seen first-hand the potential of accurate and accessible information to change minds and affect national policy.

My stories focus on individuals fighting for justice and their own rights as Americans, survivors of violent crime who rebuilt their lives after tragedy, shifting political trends that seek to strip the LGBTQ+ community and other minority groups of their freedoms, and forgotten figures in U.S. history whose fights for equality persist today.

Through writing these articles, I stumbled upon the power of search engine optimization (SEO) to attract interested audiences to my writing. In addition to the ad-free and paywall-free stories I write at Blurred Bylines, I also perform SEO services for businesses, nonprofits, and fellow freelancers around the country so they can grow their organizations through search engines.

About

Contact

Explore More Stories

SEO Services

Did you find this story on a search engine like Google or Bing? Search engine optimization, or SEO, allows websites to be found by users who are looking for exactly what they offer.

SEO Services