Amid its ongoing starvation campaign in Gaza, Israel is continuing to carpet bomb Palestinian families in refugee camps, schools, homes, and hospitals, while forcing hundreds of thousands to flee for their lives in the world’s largest open-air prison.

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 far higher than 38,000 because the UN’s death toll does not account for the thousands of bodies still buried under rubble, nor does it account for deaths caused by Israel’s destruction of health facilities and food distribution systems in Gaza.

As part of its genocide efforts, Israel has also falsely accused UNRWA’s employees of terrorism and killed more than 197 of its aid workers. Israel has never provided proof of its terror claims, and a massive international investigation on April 22 found no evidence of terrorism with UNRWA workers.

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

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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.

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