Hello everybody: The OC Weekly published today a letter I sent out to them about two weeks ago regarding an experience I had with a Santa Ana police riot squad on the night of Monday, March 27th, the day that city experienced a series of huge student walkouts in protest of federal legislation that would criminalize undocumented workers.
For people who may not know what happened, I was standing with a small crowd of Mexican residents who were doing nothing but watching honking cars go by along Bristol Street in Santa Ana when we were attacked without warning by a riot squad. A friend and I brought up this issue at the last meeting of the Santa Ana City Council; I also filed a complaint about it with Chief Paul Walters. I doubt anything will come of it, however: elected officials in that town turn a blind eye toward these abuses. Nevertheless, I feel it's very important that people stand up and speak out against these attacks on our civil liberties and civil rights when they do occur. Public exposure of this kind of misconduct is one way of keeping our rulers in check. Please check out the following links for more details about this matter: http://www.ocweekly.com/news/news/the-gilchristification-of-oc/24818/ http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/151994.php My letter to the OC Weekly is at the end of this message. Sincerely, Duane J. Roberts [EMAIL PROTECTED] OC WEEKLY Letters to the Editor, April 14, 2006, Page 7 Although I agree with much of Gustavo Arellano's analysis of last month's high school walkouts ["The Gilchristification of OC," March 31] I want to set the record straight on an incident he cites. On the night of walkouts, I was hanging out with a small crowd of Mexican residents who were doing nothing but standing peacefully on a public sidewalk and quietly watching honking cars drive by along Bristol Street, when we were suddenly attacked by several Santa Ana police officers dressed in full riot gear. None of these officers gave an order to disperse or explained why we needed to leave. They just drove up in their patrol cars, jumped out, and started yelling for us to "get the hell out of here." When some people didn't react immediately, the cops began violently pushing and shoving them with their night sticks. I saw one man fall. They then began herding us out of the area like cattle. One policeman angrily kept shouting "move faster" to a young man who wasn't running fast enough; he shoved him hard. A cop directly behind me pressed his night stick on my back, but fortunately didn't push me. Had he done so, I might have fallen on a small child in front of me. After the cops pushed us deep into a local neighborhood, they left us alone. Although nobody was arrested or appeared to have been seriously injured, people were mad about being treated this way; some cursed the officers in Spanish as they walked away. Although the Santa Ana Police Department would like you to believe this kind of behavior is an anomaly, my prior experiences dealing with this force have taught me their cops have a long and sordid of history of trampling over the civil liberties and rights of that town's working class Mexican residents. The elected leadership of Santa Ana is too beholden to the police union for campaign funds for it to do anything about this problem. Perhaps the first step toward dealing with cop abuse in that community is for voters to oust them from their seats and replace them with candidates who haven't been bought off. Duane J. Roberts Anaheim __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
