Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
By John Coleman
Tyisha Shenee Miller, (March 9,1979-December 28, 1998) was an African American woman from Rubidoux, California. She was shot and killed by police officers called by family members who could not wake her as she lay, unconscious in a car.”.
The press and the public don’t know whether the shooting of young Black men by police officers was less usual in 1998 than it has become; only in 2018 have laws begun to require, instead of forbiding record-keeping and reporting of on-duty shooting or other forms of ‘use-of-force’ by police officers….BUT, the shooting & killing of a 19-year-old, teen-age GIRL (who several days after Christmas, was celebrating with other young female relatives & friends, but stopped at a gas station for help with car trouble,) was ‘outrageous!!!
The black community came close to erupting.
In the months (and years) that followed a lot happened.. but a lot did not immediately happen. Voices were raised at the local, state, & national levels…Impacts originating in the Tyisha Miller death continue to emerge in American law, policy & practice.
In Riverside and surrounding Inland Empire communities the Riverside Coalition for Police Accountability (RCPA) as part of it’s program, & in concert with it’s partners: the American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU-IE); the Inland Congregations United for Change (ICUC); & the Environmental Justice Committee of the Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside co-sponsored their (‘second’ first was held, December 28, 2008) memorial service, in memory of “the Death of Tyisha Miller, 20 Years Later: SAY HER NAME”: focused on keeping her alive in our & the communities hearts & minds.
