Californians protest brutality against immigrant workers

by Evelina Alarcon

This article was reprinted from the April 13, 1996 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

LOS ANGELES - "We demand respect and justice," "Justice for Alicia and Enrique" and "Sheriffs go to jail," were the messages on hundreds of placards as more than 6,000 demonstrators carrying U.S. and Mexican flags, marched through downtown Los Angeles on April 5 to protest the beating of two Mexican immigrants by members of the Riverside County Sheriff Department.

The March for Dignity and Pride came in reaction to the brutal clubbing of Enrique Funes Flores and Alicia Sotero Vasquez by Riverside County deputy sheriffs Kurtis Franklin and Tracy Watson. The beating, which was videotaped from a TV news helicopter flying overhead, shocked viewers around the world.

The outrage and sorrow of the participants grew as news of the deaths of seven immigrant workers, killed when the truck in which they were riding ran off the road during a high- speed chase by federal agents, spread through the ranks of the demonstration.

The determined faces of the marchers, many of whom carried babies and pushed children in strollers, reflected the anger, frustration and hurt felt by millions of Mexican Americans and Latinos who are the victims of increased racism and chauvinism directed against immigrants and all Latinos.

Consuelo Morales told the World she had come to show her support for the human rights of all people. "I am a citizen but my parents were immigrants from Mexico," she said, shifting her six-month-old to her left arm. A young woman named Maria told the L.A. Times, "All they wanted was work. That's all, just work."

A demonstrator told the World she was carrying an American flag "because this is my country. I was born here, my family lives here and we deserve equal rights."

Although Latinos were the largest group in the April demonstration, African Americans, Asian Americans and whites also participated. That protest, the third in less than a week, was organized by Coordinadora '96, a coalition of elected officials, labor unions and community organizations.

Following the march, Dr. Juan Gomez Quinones addressed the crowd. "The right wing is attacking immigrants, women, racial groups, labor and others in a way we absolutely oppose." Quinones called for an end to police brutality and for quality education and health care for all. In a speech often interrupted by applause and cheers, he emphasized the need to defend unions and organizing drives as part of the fight for immigrant rights.

Steve Nutter, district director of UNITE, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, related the struggle for immigrant rights to the fight of the Livable Wage Coalition to increase California's minimum wage. "What took place was not an isolated act. This is part of the same abuse we take when our paychecks are less than we need and when we don't have jobs," he said, adding: "That's why we have to vote in November and organize unions."

Speaker after speaker blamed the anti-immigrant tirade of right-wing Republicans for creating an atmosphere where sheriff deputies and other law enforcement officers feel free to brutalize immigrants and all Latinos.

"Gov. Wilson wants to turn back the hands of time to when you could just lynch Mexicans and police brutality went unpunished," State Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigoza told demonstrators. "We are here united with unions to say 'Ya Basta' ("Enough is enough"). We help create the wealth of this country and we want democracy," he continued, his words drowned out by shouts from the crowd of "Justicia, Justicia."

State Senator Tom Hayden agreed. "Gov. Pete Wilson created the climate that led to the swinging of those batons," he said and blamed NAFTA for destroying the jobs of Mexican workers. He said the agreement had helped create "the kind of human desperation that makes people leave their homelands and risk their lives for little pay and less dignity in America."

Richard Alatorre, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, drew cheers when he demanded prosecution of Franklin and Watson. "We will not accept anything else," he said, demanding a "swift and just" trial and that they be subject to the "full force of the law" if found guilty. "Immigrants have as many rights as anyone else," Alatorre later told the World. "And we are going to defend those rights," he said firmly.

Both Franklin and Watson have records of using excessive force. In 1994 Watson was accused of battering, false arrest and civil rights violation in a suit filed in behalf of Salvadore Garcia, a 15-year-old Latino.

When asked to comment on the attack, Renee Saucedo, spokesperson for El Centro Legal de la Raza in San Francisco, said, "When you have hate laws that add to violent and immoral incidents ... the rhetoric that surrounds them, sets the tone that [immigrants] don't deserve protection ... "

Saucedo said anti-immigrant violence by law enforcement agencies is nothing new. "They have been happening ever since there was a Border Patrol -- back with the Texas Rangers."

Marilyn Bechtel contributed to this story.