And justice for all?
p. 38 · Read in the full issue
Most Americans were too traumatised by the recent devastating riots in Los Angeles to notice an eerily similar racial flashpoint involving an other ethnic group in the same city Samoans.
Shortly after parts of Los Angeles erupted in flames following the exoner ation by an all-white jury of four white police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King, police were again put on alert because of an emotionally charged case involving the fatal shoot ing last year of two unarmed Samoan brothers.
A 44-year old police officer, Albert Skiles, who had responded to a dom estic dispute, killed Pouvi Tualaulelei, 34, and his brother, I tall Tualaulelei, 22, by shooting them a total of 19 times, mainly in the back.
Skiles said that the men attacked him and tried to take his gun. But a third
brother, led, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, testified that he heard Skiles order the men to kneel before shooting them.
Charges were dismissed against Skiles after a jury deadlocked 8-4 in favour of acquittal. A judge has since refused to re-try the case.
This has enraged the 112,000-member Samoan community in Los Angeles, which is one of the least known or understood ethnic groups in the sprawling Californian metropolis, and raised fears of rioting by Samoan gangs.
“We are just absolutely devastated,” said June Pouesi, the regional director of the Office of Samoan Affairs, a private social welfare group. “There is a sense of loss, a sense of confusion. Nineteen shots, 13 of them in the back how could wrong be made into right?”
Despite their anger, Samoan leaders have been working overtime to avert a violent clash.
“We are using the matai system to talk to the young people and get them to listen to their elders and be calm,” said Papaliitele Alailima, a local clan chief.
But local leaders warn that the traditional system is being severly tested. While the Samoans have so far managed to channel community anger into peaceful protest marches, they point out that one of the officers in the Rodney King case will be re-tried despite the rioting.
“This sends a very dangerous message to society,” said Pouesi. “What is the difference in the two cases? One had a riot and one had a peace march. It seems that the message going out is that non-violence is not the way to go.”
The prosecutor in the case against Albert Skiles, Richard Healy, said he believes that the jury was made more sympathetic to police by the Rodney King riots.
The Tualaulelei family, which is related to the royal family
Washington
of Western Samoa, is now pressing for federal charges to be brought against Skiles aand has filed a $ 100-million civil suit.
“You can’t find justice in the Ameri can system,” said Chief letitaia Tualaulelei, an uncle of the dead brothers. “Someone can commit murder and get away with it.”
Terry Toomata, a spokesman for the Western Samoan Embassy in Washing ton which is helping the family petition the US State Department on the case, described the ruling against a new trial as “the worst travesty of justice.”
“We’re very disappointed. The whole thing is a joke,” Mr Toomata said.
Officer Skiles, who is a Filipino- American, broke down and wept upon hearing that he would not be retried. He retired from the police earlier this year on medical grounds citing the emotional
turmoil of the shooting and its aftermath.
Until the shooting, Samoans have rarely been in the public spotlight in the United States. The 12,000 Samoans in Los Angeles is the biggest US enclave, although 32,000 Samoans live throughout California almost as many as remain in American Samoa. In the last decade, the state’s Samoan population has jumped by 59 per cent.
The vast majority are at the bottom of the American economic and social ladder. Samoans are more likely to be poor (21 per cent live below the poverty line) and have high unemployment and school dropout rates.
But the community is proud that while they suffer many of the same economic disadvantages as black Americans, they have maintained strong family, religious and traditional links.
A Samoan millionaire may be hard to find, they say, but ) is a Samoan homeless person.
Increasingly, however, the vagaries of life in America are encroaching on traditional Samoan values. Samoan youths are getting into more frequent trouble with police who say that ethnic gangs, which already grip large sections of the black and Latino populations, are becoming more active and dangerous.
Samoans also lack an effective political voice to fight their way into the system. Even though they are considered American citizens, they are not allowed to vote.
But the shooting and its aftermath have galvanised a community which is traditionally loathe to question authority.
Samoans protested initial decisions not to prosecute officer Skiles and have continued to protest for justice at each turn of the legal process.
Former congressman, David Cohen, who is a Samoan of Jewish descent, has put it this way: “What you are seeing is an awakening of the Samoan community.”