![](https://davisvanguard.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Nakia-Porter-10-765x510.jpg)
By David M. Greenwald
Executive Editor
Sacramento, CA – Supporters of Nakia Porter—the 33-year-old woman beaten and knocked unconscious as she pulled over off I-80 last year with her father and three young children in the car, to switch drivers—gathered to push for authorities to act. However, the strongest voice was Porter by far as she delivered tear-filled but powerful spellbinding advocacy on her own behalf and on behalf of others in her place.
Yasin Almadani, the attorney representing the family, explained last month that Porter, age 33 and weighing all of 125 pounds, “had done nothing wrong” when she was approached by the deputy, explaining that they were simply switching seats.
She was beaten so badly in the incident that she was knocked unconscious.
Almadani said on Wednesday that “anyone who took the time to actually watch the video was horrified by the injustice and terror that was inflicted on Ms. Porter by the Solano County Sheriff’s Office.”
He said that excessive force experts, former law enforcement officers, who saw the video believe that these deputies should be criminally investigated.
Almadani had hoped that Solano County Sheriff Ferrara when he saw the video and the “lawlessness of his deputies, even he would not be able to deny that they should be criminally investigated.”
But that’s not what happened.
“When the sheriff saw the video, what did he do?” Almadini asked. “He turned a blind eye and supported his deputies’ criminal acts. So now we know that the sheriff believes that he and his deputies are above the law.”
J.B. Powell, the father of Nakia, said, “I don’t have much to say other than we did nothing wrong. My grandchildren should not have witnessed what happened to that mother.”
But it was Nakia Porter herself who found her voice and delivered—at times tear filled, but also defiant and angry.
She started with tribute to those who have been killed by police, like Stephon Clark, Brianna Taylor, George Floyd and others.
“So many other names of people that are dying daily,” she said. “SO many others that you do not know their stories because they sink down and they’re afraid to stand up against oppression.”
“We say that this shouldn’t happen to adults, but this shouldn’t happen to youth either,” she said. “It should not be normal.”
“We have made it normal,” she continued. “That’s because we wear the mask. We wear the mask that grins and lies that covers our miles and shades, our eyes, the debt we pay to humankind with torn and bleeding hearts. We smile.”
She quoted Paul Barnes Dunbar from 1892.
She said, “So many of us are covering our faces, hiding, not speaking about the pain at which we go through, because we’re afraid to make people uncomfortable because there’s guilt and there’s pressure, and there’s pain that doesn’t belong to us. That that burden belongs to those that are doing these heinous acts to de-humanize people so they can feel good about them not loving themselves.”
Porter noted that everyone gets tired driving on the road and everyone has gotten jolted by almost hitting something because they are too sleepy to drive safely.
“The best thing to do is pull over to a safe spot,” she said. “That’s what me and my father were doing because we have three children, we were being responsible, right?”
Porter said, “As we were trying to switch our seats, a normal trip (during COVID) to have a good time, turns into a horror story.”
The police came and she said, “I don’t have anything to hide. I’m not doing anything wrong. We’re just switching drivers. Can I continue? Can we keep doing that somewhere?”
But, she said, they escalated the situation.
“I’m utterly confused,” she said. “I’m compliant. You want me to get back into the car? Okay, let me do that. I don’t make it.
“How terrifying is that?” she said. “Then all of a sudden hands are put on you. Whether in uniform or not, if you were going somewhere and somebody puts hands on you and you are not expecting for anyone to lay hands on—you is fearful. What is about to happen to my life?
“Now I have to explain that to my children,” she said. “I hadn’t been able to talk to my daughter, my oldest daughter, about what happened for over a year.”
She finally did, she said: “She said, mommy, I was so scared. She was scared. Three children under the age of six had their mother taken away, have their grandfather taken away and doors wide open for anyone to come around. No security.
“This is what I’m talking about. Systemically oppressed youth.”
She said, “That’s why we’re all here to put the pressure on those that have the position to make the changes. So I don’t have to explain to my children why their mother was assaulted and abused when she was just switching drivers with her father.”
Meanwhile, the NAACP’s Betty Williams is calling Solano “the new Mississippi.
“If you’re going through Solano county, black people be aware because if you have to stop for anything late at night, early in the morning or during the day, and you are approached by a Solano sheriff, you need to be aware,” Williams warned.
She pointed out that this was a mother, a wife and a daughter who had to endure this.
“What I thank God for is that they lived to tell the story,” she said. She noted that the Sacramento NAACP is investigating the death at Travis Air Force base of another young woman found dead, hanging in her closet. “The family believes that their daughter was murdered.”
Williams said their famed Legal Defense Fund “is not just looking at this case, but all the cases that we have brought to their attention in Solano County.
“She did nothing wrong,” Williams added. “The only thing this family did was stop. They did the right thing when you get tired, you change seats.”
Reverend Decoy Porter voiced his support for “an independent and transparent investigation of the Solano County Sheriff’s Office for this brutal beating.”
Revered Porter, no relation, said “unfortunately such acts of police brutality continue to happen to people who look like us.
“I am outraged, tired, disappointed, but mostly I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed because it is obvious that even after a George Floyd, after a Brianna Taylor and here in our own Sacramento, I see Stephon Clark (whose family was there) and the landmark police reform laws that our legislature has passed in response to these tragic and unnecessary deaths that we still have a problem, even after all the marching and protest against this very issue of police violence and the overuse of force, our beloved California still has this issue.
“When is enough, enough?” he said. “When we start to admit that there are just not some bad apples in our law enforcement system, but that there is something wrong with the tree, man, especially when it comes to the policing and use of force practices for Black and brown Californians.”
Yasin Almadani, following Nakia’s remarks, said, “You guys can see why it’s such an honor to represent this young woman and this family.”
He added, “You’ve seen Nakia, how polished, well educated, thoughtful she is. You saw this side of her championing the rights of others. She’s taking such a negative experience and turning it into something as productive as it can be.”
Alamdani said, “We call upon the attorney general and the department of justice who have more recently shown to be open, to bringing the change that we need to hold these deputies accountable and change the culture of permissive violence that’s being promulgated in Solano county.”
From article:
This is a press conference, intended to influence. You repeatedly cover this type of thing as if its accepted fact. It’s not really journalism at all – it’s functioning as a mouthpiece for this:
Did he say who these experts are, how they were approached/solicited for their opinion, and the reason that they’re reportedly providing their opinion?
Who are they sharing that opinion with, at this point? And, what (if any) was the result of that (or of the video, itself)? (I have not watched it.)
How long ago did this incident occur? (I see that it was last year, but is there anything more specific?)
August 6 2020
Video link: https://youtu.be/MVPvMffLIh0
Looking at the words used, all of the video, etc., someone ad their lawyer(s) are looking for a settlement/payday.
“Reform” is the guise. Yet, that is what is crucially important, not the $$$,$$$.
This article seems to imply that the $$$$$ will trigger the reform… BS… two separate issues…
Unless you believe the settlement will come from de-funding law enforcement… if you believe that, say hello to the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa, etc., when you next meet them…
Gone. OK, I’ll try again, without insulting DG/DV:
There is nothing, zero, in this or the previous article that gives the other side of the story. With George Floyd, there was excessive force because George Floyd did something and resisted, and we all agree and the court agrees the force used was excessive. As written here, am I to believe the sheriff supports his deputies stopping people and beating the sh*t out of them for no reason? He must be claiming there was a reason for the force, no? So what is it? Then the issue is – was the reason valid and was the force excessive? This seems like an outrage and a affront to any sensible person. But I have to recognize that no information is put forth except that of the defense. I am asking for what the sheriff’s office claimed happened. Otherwise, this is a fancy press release from the defense. As anyone who’s sat through a trial knows, you here one side and you are pretty convinced of what you hear . . . and then the other side gives their story.
OK, I found the Sheriff Statement and posted it below. As anyone who knows me knows, I do not take the police word for it (such as at a trial), have seen police escalate situations (personally) and am very glad our video-in-every-pot era has exposed transgressions that would have been lost. However, I’ve also seen police de-escalate situations (personally), don’t demonized automatically, and don’t take the word of a lawyer and press conference as the whole of the truth. I just wanted to hear what the sheriff had to say, for context. So here it is (dang, after all that I did have to Google it #doh!#):
Solano County Sheriff’s Office
August 23 at 5:20 PM ·
The Solano County Sheriff’s Office is aware of a video released to the media from an August 6, 2020, traffic stop. On August 18, 2021, the driver’s attorney released edited versions of both the in-car and body-worn camera videos. We understand the video, as released, has left our community with questions regarding what happened.
The Sheriff’s Office is releasing the full-length videos as a vital means of maintaining transparency with the community we serve. The videos are available on the Solano County Sheriff’s Office website, with only required redactions of personal information.
Below is a summary of the incident.
Deputies were parked at the dead end of Chevron Way, Dixon on an unrelated call for service when a silver SUV turned onto Chevron Way driving towards them. The SUV made a U-turn in front of the deputies’ patrol vehicles. Deputies initiated a traffic stop using their overhead lights after observing license plates from two different states on the vehicle. Both the driver and the passenger got out of the vehicle. The driver stated they were switching seats. Deputies told the driver to get back in the vehicle multiple times which she refused to do. As the driver was being detained, she resisted the deputies, slipped her right hand out of her handcuffs, and struck a deputy in the face. The driver was re-handcuffed following a brief struggle. After being evaluated by paramedics the driver requested transport to the hospital where she was examined by medical staff and cleared for transport to the jail.
To view the in-car and body-worn video of this incident:
https://www.solanocounty.com/…/august_6_2020/default.asp