Annotations for Subject-headings: Arrest

In Los Angeles, the Latino community suffered heavily and has still not recovered from the effects of the disturbances of April of last year. Latinos are half of those who live in the areas most affected by the disturbances. A third of those who lost their lives in the violence were Latino. Hispanic men made up more than half of those arrested and 40% of the businesses damaged in the riots were Latino owned. Reporter Alberto Aguilar recently visited one of the hardest hit Latino neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles. He prepared this report.

In Los Angeles, the Latino community suffered heavily and has still not recovered from the effects of the disturbances of April of last year. Latinos are half of those who live in the areas most affected by the disturbances. A third of those who lost their lives in the violence were Latino. Hispanic men made up more than half of those arrested and 40% of the businesses damaged in the riots were Latino owned. Reporter Alberto Aguilar recently visited one of the hardest hit Latino neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles. He prepared this report.

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Very little has changed in Pico-Union, west of downtown Los Angeles in the last year, since hundreds of small and large businesses were looted. Here at the swap meet, the radio may be playing happy rhythms, but to the residents of the mostly Latino neighborhood, the road to recovery has been anything but happy.

Very little has changed in Pico-Union, west of downtown Los Angeles in the last year, since hundreds of small and large businesses were looted. Here at the swap meet, the radio may be playing happy rhythms, but to the residents of the mostly Latino neighborhood, the road to recovery has been anything but happy.

Nosotros perdimos todos los negocios que teníamos. Teníamos tres negocios en la Union y todo fue perdido…[transition to English dub] We lost all our business. We have three little shops here and everything was lost, and we haven't really been able to recover anything.

Nosotros perdimos todos los negocios que teníamos. Teníamos tres negocios en la Union y todo fue perdido…[transition to English dub] We lost all our business. We have three little shops here and everything was lost, and we haven't really been able to recover anything.

María Elena Mejia sold children's clothes at the swap meet. The single mother of two teenage girls lost her life savings when the old theater, that housed dozens of swap meet stalls, was set on fire.

María Elena Mejia sold children's clothes at the swap meet. The single mother of two teenage girls lost her life savings when the old theater, that housed dozens of swap meet stalls, was set on fire.

Lo que a nosotros nos ayudaron de parte del gobierno de la ciudad solamente fueron tres meses de renta. Lo que nos quedó a nosotros de eso solo fueron como… [transition to English dub] What the city government helped out with was three months’ rent, and after that, all we had left of our investment of five years was something like 14 or 10 dollars. I don't even remember now. We suffered so much because you know, being without work in this country is hard, and we were left without work and without anything… [transition to original audio] trabajo, porque nos habíamos quedado sin trabajo y sin nada.

Lo que a nosotros nos ayudaron de parte del gobierno de la ciudad solamente fueron tres meses de renta. Lo que nos quedó a nosotros de eso solo fueron como… [transition to English dub] What the city government helped out with was three months’ rent, and after that, all we had left of our investment of five years was something like 14 or 10 dollars. I don't even remember now. We suffered so much because you know, being without work in this country is hard, and we were left without work and without anything… [transition to original audio] trabajo, porque nos habíamos quedado sin trabajo y sin nada.

This was a gift by a student, but it's called The Day that Los Angeles Cried, and you have an angel trying to turn off the fires and slow down the riots and above the Angel…

This was a gift by a student, but it's called The Day that Los Angeles Cried, and you have an angel trying to turn off the fires and slow down the riots and above the Angel…

Mike Hernandez is a member of the city council. His district includes Pico-Union, the area hardest hit by the riots of '92.

Mike Hernandez is a member of the city council. His district includes Pico-Union, the area hardest hit by the riots of '92.

Pico and Alvarado, for example… it’s one corner where we had the four corners demolished by fire. And so, in terms of intensity, it was the hardest hit area in the city.

Pico and Alvarado, for example… it’s one corner where we had the four corners demolished by fire. And so, in terms of intensity, it was the hardest hit area in the city.

What has happened since then? And a lot of people are now saying that perhaps the City does not have the leadership to bring the city of Los Angeles to where most people want it to go?

What has happened since then? And a lot of people are now saying that perhaps the City does not have the leadership to bring the city of Los Angeles to where most people want it to go?

I think if you talk about community leaders, if you talk about the organization leadership, they very much want to bring the city together and start improving. If you talk about the political leadership, I think the political leadership hasn't displayed that well. They're out of touch with what's really going on in the city. See, the city of Los Angeles is not just the buildings. A lot of the buildings destroyed were empty. What the city of Los Angeles is, it's people from all over the world, and what we got away from is building people.

I think if you talk about community leaders, if you talk about the organization leadership, they very much want to bring the city together and start improving. If you talk about the political leadership, I think the political leadership hasn't displayed that well. They're out of touch with what's really going on in the city. See, the city of Los Angeles is not just the buildings. A lot of the buildings destroyed were empty. What the city of Los Angeles is, it's people from all over the world, and what we got away from is building people.

The building involves encouraging people to become citizens. Hernandez estimates this process can take as long as 10 to 15 years. He also says the City has to improve the educational level of city residents.

The building involves encouraging people to become citizens. Hernandez estimates this process can take as long as 10 to 15 years. He also says the City has to improve the educational level of city residents.

Over the age of 25, we have 2.1 million people. 900,000 cannot claim a high school diploma, and of the 900,000; 600,000 cannot claim a ninth-grade education. So that's 150% of the entire student body of the LA Unified School District. So, we have a tremendous amount of building of people to do.

Over the age of 25, we have 2.1 million people. 900,000 cannot claim a high school diploma, and of the 900,000; 600,000 cannot claim a ninth-grade education. So that's 150% of the entire student body of the LA Unified School District. So, we have a tremendous amount of building of people to do.

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Those who work with the residents of Pico-Union agree with Hernandez about the work that remains undone.

Those who work with the residents of Pico-Union agree with Hernandez about the work that remains undone.

We're seeing families with multitude of problems… economic, social, relationship problems…

We're seeing families with multitude of problems… economic, social, relationship problems…

Sandra Cuevas works with battered Central American women in South Central Los Angeles. She has seen a decrease in the social services available to people in the area's hardest hit by the destruction. Despite all the publicized good intentions, little action and little resources are being allocated to the solution of the root causes of poverty and unemployment.

Sandra Cuevas works with battered Central American women in South Central Los Angeles. She has seen a decrease in the social services available to people in the area's hardest hit by the destruction. Despite all the publicized good intentions, little action and little resources are being allocated to the solution of the root causes of poverty and unemployment.

There seems to have been a lot of lip service. Little committees forming coalitions, but when you look at Rebuild LA, you have people that are coming from outside the community, very removed from the reality of Los Angeles and particularly of South Central and Pico-Union, that have excluded Latinos, by and large.

There seems to have been a lot of lip service. Little committees forming coalitions, but when you look at Rebuild LA, you have people that are coming from outside the community, very removed from the reality of Los Angeles and particularly of South Central and Pico-Union, that have excluded Latinos, by and large.

Cuevas is not the only Angelino critical of Mayor Tom Bradley's effort to bring back the city from massive destruction. His Rebuild LA has been described as a misguided effort to create job opportunities according to county supervisor Gloria Molina.

Cuevas is not the only Angelino critical of Mayor Tom Bradley's effort to bring back the city from massive destruction. His Rebuild LA has been described as a misguided effort to create job opportunities according to county supervisor Gloria Molina.

Very frankly, I don't want to be critical. I think they're doing their own thing, but I think that the mayor missed the boat in the beginning. I think he could have called many of us together to sort things out because it isn't just in South Central, it's throughout the community. And it isn't just a corporate effort and isn't about giving. It's about putting together a lot of institutions that have been unjust to minority segments of our community. And it isn't going to happen by a corporation coming together and putting together programs. It's about making the system much more responsive to the needs of people in this community.

Very frankly, I don't want to be critical. I think they're doing their own thing, but I think that the mayor missed the boat in the beginning. I think he could have called many of us together to sort things out because it isn't just in South Central, it's throughout the community. And it isn't just a corporate effort and isn't about giving. It's about putting together a lot of institutions that have been unjust to minority segments of our community. And it isn't going to happen by a corporation coming together and putting together programs. It's about making the system much more responsive to the needs of people in this community.

I’m a member of the board, but it's hard among 80 people. A lot of those are corporate people and I’m… I guess, the only immigrant, it's really hard sometimes.

I’m a member of the board, but it's hard among 80 people. A lot of those are corporate people and I’m… I guess, the only immigrant, it's really hard sometimes.

Carlos Vaquerano is one of a handful of Latinos on Rebuild LA's board.

Carlos Vaquerano is one of a handful of Latinos on Rebuild LA's board.

We need to not only to rebuild LA physically, but to rebuild the soul of the city, the soul of people here. We need to make changes in terms of our morality, political changes, because that's one of the main issues in the city. Not only the city, but in the country.

We need to not only to rebuild LA physically, but to rebuild the soul of the city, the soul of people here. We need to make changes in terms of our morality, political changes, because that's one of the main issues in the city. Not only the city, but in the country.

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Police helicopters assist uniformed officers on the ground in the search for gang members in the Pico-Union district. Longtime resident, Raúl González has been in this blue-collar neighborhood for 20 years.

Police helicopters assist uniformed officers on the ground in the search for gang members in the Pico-Union district. Longtime resident, Raúl González has been in this blue-collar neighborhood for 20 years.

It's kind of scary going out lately. Plus what you hear on the news and people… after the rioters start getting guns and bigger guns and you know what's going to happen in the street. Now you have to carry your own gun for protection… and you have to be careful lately…you know. And it's terrible, it is terrible because we are not supposed to be like this.

It's kind of scary going out lately. Plus what you hear on the news and people… after the rioters start getting guns and bigger guns and you know what's going to happen in the street. Now you have to carry your own gun for protection… and you have to be careful lately…you know. And it's terrible, it is terrible because we are not supposed to be like this.

Um…but if everybody's armed and everybody's afraid…um…. what are you going to do?

Um…but if everybody's armed and everybody's afraid…um…. what are you going to do?

Well, you know…to tell you the truth, if you're carrying a weapon, you have to know how to use it and when to take it out.

Well, you know…to tell you the truth, if you're carrying a weapon, you have to know how to use it and when to take it out.

In Los Angeles, I'm Alberto Aguilar, reporting for Latino USA.

In Los Angeles, I'm Alberto Aguilar, reporting for Latino USA.

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May I present Gloria Romero: She played a vital role in the police reform movement in Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King beating. The title of her talk is Todavia Ando Sangrando: A Chicana's Perspective on the Fires This Time…Gloria.

May I present Gloria Romero: She played a vital role in the police reform movement in Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King beating. The title of her talk is Todavia Ando Sangrando: A Chicana's Perspective on the Fires This Time…Gloria.

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April 29th, 1992, less than three hours after the verdicts were released, I stood at the intersection of Adams and Hobart in South Central LA. In reality, I stood at much more than the intersection of Adams and Hobart. I stood at but one of many intersections of race, class, and gender in America. Breathing in all I saw, even as light dimmed on America, the reaction in my guts at the intersection of life in America in the shadow of lies of an afterlife as light faded out on America, felt like the full velocity of the bricks hurled through the pane of that liquor store, which on an hourly basis, markets pain to Black and brown men and women in south central LA. Addiction, alcoholism, unemployment, a 50% dropout rate, incarceration, but a chance to win the lotto.

April 29th, 1992, less than three hours after the verdicts were released, I stood at the intersection of Adams and Hobart in South Central LA. In reality, I stood at much more than the intersection of Adams and Hobart. I stood at but one of many intersections of race, class, and gender in America. Breathing in all I saw, even as light dimmed on America, the reaction in my guts at the intersection of life in America in the shadow of lies of an afterlife as light faded out on America, felt like the full velocity of the bricks hurled through the pane of that liquor store, which on an hourly basis, markets pain to Black and brown men and women in south central LA. Addiction, alcoholism, unemployment, a 50% dropout rate, incarceration, but a chance to win the lotto.

We stood at the intersection on April 29th in an America that has bled for too long, from too many unjust verdicts that Simi Valley merely symbolized, any one of which could have sparked fires at any intersection in America. And I believe a riot takes place on a day-to-day basis in LA, but nobody notices. Todavia ando sangrando, even as our trial continues.

We stood at the intersection on April 29th in an America that has bled for too long, from too many unjust verdicts that Simi Valley merely symbolized, any one of which could have sparked fires at any intersection in America. And I believe a riot takes place on a day-to-day basis in LA, but nobody notices. Todavia ando sangrando, even as our trial continues.

It's been two years since disturbances broke out in Washington DC's Mount Pleasant neighborhood, where most of the city's Latino population lives. At the time, Latino leaders blamed the violent outburst on neglect by the local city government of Hispanic residents. In the past 10 years, Washington DC's Latino community, mostly Central American, has grown rapidly. Since the violence of two years ago, the DC government has taken action to address community concerns, but Latino leaders say there's still much more to be done. From Washington, William Troop prepared this report.

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A music vendor sets up shop at the corner of Mount Pleasant and Lamont Street, the heart of Washington's Latino community. He's one of at least a dozen Latino merchants doing business near Parque de las Palomas, a small triangular park at the end of a city bus line.

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Just two years ago, the worst riots the nation's capital had seen in over 20 years started right here. On May 4th, 1991, Daniel Gómez, a Salvadoran immigrant, was stopped by an African American police officer for drinking in public. There are differing accounts about what happened next. Police say Gómez launched at the rookie officer who shot him in self-defense, but many Latinos heard a different version, one that said Gómez was shot after being harassed and handcuffed by the officer. Gómez was seriously wounded and as news of the incident spread, outrage poured from the community.

…sangre fría frente a demasiados latinos. Eso no lo llevan todos porque en realidad esta es una comunidad latina. ¿Me entienden? y la discriminación ha ido tan lejos de que si alguien…

During the riots, these men looted a 7-Eleven store because they were angry at police for mistreating Latinos. The looting and burning in Mount Pleasant lasted three days. To calm people down, DC Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly arrived on the scene and promised to address Latino concerns as soon as the violence ended. It was a victory of sorts. Latino leaders had long complained that city officials ignored charges of discrimination and police brutality. The riots changed that.

To a certain degree, we had the best disturbance that we could have ever had. Although you had the destruction of public property, you had the destruction of private property, you had some injuries, nobody was killed. And overnight…Latinos were an issue in Washington DC.

Juan Milanés was a law student at the time. Today, he is legal counsel for the Latino Civil Rights Task Force, an organization created after the disturbances in Mount Pleasant.

Prior to May 5th, 1991, the Latino population of Washington DC, although it was 10% of the population, was unrecognized…just invisible…just a bunch of people who get on the bus in the evening to go clean buildings, but you know... There are just a few people here and there. Most of them are illegal anyway. Suddenly, we're there and there was now this group of people that were demanding that they be there.

A few months after the riots, the Latino Civil Rights Task Force issued a blueprint for action, detailing 200 specific steps the city could take to address Latino concerns. Task Force executive director Pedro Aviles says the city has not done enough to stop discrimination and police insensitivity.

The problems have not been solved yet. The police brutality cases, they continue. Certainly, the fact that we've been complaining, and we've been shaking the tree kind of thing…it's brought about little change, but I would say that it's a lot of stuff that needs to be done.

What has been done has been done slowly according to task force officials. One example, the city hired bilingual 911 operators a year and a half after the task force recommended it and only after a Latina who had been raped had to wait two hours for assistance in Spanish. Carmen Ramírez, director of the Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs, says the city has taken significant steps to address community concerns.

The recommendations, in many instances, are not recommendations that can just be met by one concrete action, although some of them are, but rather, it's a matter of putting into place policies and in many instances, mechanisms by which problems can continue to be addressed.

To do that, the city has created bilingual positions in almost all departments of DC government. Ramírez adds that DC's police department has hired more bilingual personnel and sent hundreds of police officers to Spanish classes and sensitivity training. But last year, Latino leaders complained they were excluded from developing the initial sensitivity training program and they say there are still plenty of police brutality cases. In January, the US Commission on Civil Rights agreed when it issued its report on the Mount Pleasant disturbances. Commission Chair Arthur Fletcher called the plight of Latinos in DC appalling.

Many Latinos in the third district have been subjected to arbitrary harassments, unwarranted arrests, and even physical abuse by DC police officers.

The commission also found that the District of Columbia still shuts off Latinos from basic services because it lacks bilingual personnel. Many DC Latinos feel that in a city dominated by African Americans, it's often hard to get a fair distribution of resources. BB Otero is chair of the Latino Civil Rights Task Force.

There is a prevalent feeling among the African American community, not just the leadership but the community at large that says, “we've struggled hard to get where we are, to have control of some resources in the city to begin to play a powerful role in the community.” And its um…“if we open it up to someone else, we may be giving something up.”

They still wanted them to be citizens of their own country and not registered to vote in the United States and still have the same measure of power and the same measure of participation as somebody who was a citizen. That, in my view, is a naive expectation and certainly is not something that the civil rights movement ever talked about.

African American council member Frank Smith represents Ward 1, the area where most DC Latinos live. He says, the struggle for civil rights is about citizenship and voting.

I think that the Hispanic community has got to work harder at getting their people registered to vote. If they want to win elections, they're going to have to get people registered to vote and get them out to the ballot boxes on election day in order to win. Nobody's going to roll over and give up one of these seats.

Civic activity comes once you have gained some sense of security of where you are or where you live. You still have a community that doesn't have that sense of security.

Over half of Washington's estimated 60,000 Latinos are undocumented, many of whom have fled war and unrest in El Salvador and most recently, Guatemala. BB Otero who ran unsuccessfully for a school board seat last fall says she's hopeful a Latino political base will develop as time goes by and as the community matures.

If they can survive the struggle that it is to be able to fight the odds basically and build that political base, then we will see, I think by '96, some other candidates in other areas beyond myself.

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Change, however slow some may consider it, seems to be happening at Parque de las Palomas, where the disturbances erupted two years ago. There are now more Latino officers walking the beat. Merchant José Valdezar says, even those stopped for drinking in public are now treated with respect by police.

First, they say hello to you, and I start to speak and they explain to you what's going on. Sometime, the person who own any store around here say, you know, they don't like drunk people around here. You know, that's why they say no. Just keep walking and everything will be okay.

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Daniel Gómez, whose shooting sparked the disturbances in Mount Pleasant two years ago, recovered from his wounds and was later acquitted of assaulting the police officer who shot him. For Latino USA. I'm William Troop reporting from Washington DC.

This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture.

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I'm Maria Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA, Hispanics and the Catholic Church.

People with a different culture and different values and a different way of expressing wonderful and beautiful Catholicism.

A standoff at the border over aid to Cuba.

We've told them that they will not be arrested, they will not be prosecuted. We will release the bus, that people can go freely. They refuse to budge.

Also, keeping the mariachi musical tradition alive.

It's the most addicting music of all. Once it's in your blood, you'll never get it out.

That's all coming up on Latino USA. But first Las Noticias.

A drama has been unfolding for more than two weeks now in the border town of Laredo, Texas. On July 29th, a group known as Pastors for Peace defied the US trade embargo against Cuba by taking dozens of vehicles carrying food, clothing, medicines, and other aid to Cuba across the US border. But one of those vehicles, a yellow school bus, was stopped by the customs service. Today that bus sits in a federal compound in Laredo. It's occupants refusing to leave the bus and now starting their third week of a hunger strike. From Laredo, Latino USA's Maria Martin reports.

I see a whole bunch of semis waiting in line to go to Mexico, and in the middle of all that mess, there's this little school bus and I feel sorry.

Retired Laredo social worker, Manuel Ramirez sits on a sidewalk near the border wearing binoculars. He's trying to get a better glimpse of the scene across the street, there off to the side of the Lincoln Juarez Bridge. in an enclosed lot where semi-trucks wait to be inspected by the custom service sits a yellow school bus with a sign which reads ‘End The Embargo Against Cuba’. Inside the bus, 12 people ages 22 to 86 wait out the blazing hot August days. They've refused to leave the vehicle and to take any solid food, since the bus was seized by the customs service on July 29th. Among them is Pastors for Peace leader, the Reverend Lucius Walker of Brooklyn.

We see a nation that is threatened, a nation that is not our enemy, with which we are not at war. We were asked by the churches in Cuba to take this mission on and having responded affirmatively to their request, we have come to see for ourselves the importance of what we are doing.

What the Reverend Walker and Pastors for Peace hope to accomplish by their hunger strike and their attempt to take aid materials to Cuba is to call into question this country's 32-year old prohibition against trade and travel to that island. Pamela Previt of the Customs Service says her agency tried to help the aid caravan get through the border smoothly, but that this bus clearly violated US Law.

Customs detained 29 boxes of prescription medication, four computers, and five electric typewriters, which are prohibited items according to the embargo. The group specifically claimed that it was the vehicle itself that was to be exported. And because of that customs seized the bus.

The Reverend Walker says he was actually surprised when the bus he was driving was seized. Even though the group stated they were making the trip to challenge the embargo against Cuba.

They simply were not able to stop it because this was a human wave and a vehicular wave of people who were determined that this is a law that can no longer be enforced.

The law Walker refers to is the Trading with the Enemy Act enforced by the Treasury Department. So far that government agency has not responded to a proposal from the Pastors for Peace to allow someone from the World Council of Churches to escort the yellow school bus to Havana. On the 10th day of the hunger strike, there was a rally, in Laredo to support the hunger strikers and an end to the embargo against Cuba. A microphone was passed across the fence and the strikers told the crowd they were prepared to stay indefinitely.

We are all determined to stay on the school bus until the school bus goes to Cuba.

Cuba is not perfect, the government's not perfect, but it's way better than what they have in Latin America. And I realize that…

That among the 12 people on hunger strike is 32 year old Camilo Garcia who left Cuba four years ago.

And I decided that I will do everything I can to help the revolution to survive, and I will stay in here as long as it take no matter what it take, even if it take my life. So what?

The 100 degree heat, the exhaust fumes and the liquid only fast are taking their toll on the health of the hunger strikers. Doctors brought in by the Customs Service and by Pastors for Peace are monitoring the group's health condition regularly. For Latino USA, I'm Maria Martin reporting.