Large-scale protests break out in Anaheim after two Latio men were shot, capping off many years of tension between the two disparate populations of Anaheim.
The deaths of two men who were killed in officer-involved shootings in the city of Anaheim, California are sparking nation-wide protests over police brutality toward Latino men.
The LA Times tells the history of the class divide that exists just next door to Disneyland’s “Happiest Place on Earth”:
The shootings of Manuel Angel Diaz, 25, and Joel Acevedo, 21, have laid bare the economic divide between the city’s pockets of glitz and affluence and the less-prosperous Latino neighborhoods, where residents have voiced outrage over police conduct.
That anger has struck a chord from from Oakland to New York, where solidarity protests are planned for Friday and into the weekend. The events are being organized on Facebook and Twitter. Activists are sharing posters for the actions and information on topics including defending against tear gas.
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune elaborates upon the protests that have been rocking Anaheim since the killings of the two men, and building on top of a long history of the two widely variant demographics leave “a large segment of the population feeling like second-class citizens.”
Two fatal police shootings last weekend – one of an unarmed man police say was a known gang member- roiled the city and exposed its divisions. Demonstrators took to the streets four nights in a row.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeTuesday’s was the largest and most violent protest, with some of the nearly 600 demonstrators hurling rocks and bottles at police, who made two dozen arrests. About 20 businesses were damaged.
…The city, about 90 percent white in 1970, now has a population that is 53 percent Hispanic.
Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city, alleging that Anaheim’s at-large elections have weakened Latinos’ voting power. The suit claims only three councilmembers in the city’s history have been Hispanic. Most of the City Council currently hails from the city’s upscale neighborhoods to the east.
“So much attention has been paid to building up the resort district and somehow those resources would trickle down to the rest of the city and we’re just not seeing it,” said Jose Moreno, president of Los Amigos of Orange County and a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “A lot of us are saying enough is enough and this police shooting is really just emblematic of something more systemic in the politics of the city.”
The mother of one of them who who was shot, however, condemns the violent protests in her son’s name. The Washington Post quotes grief-stricken mother, Genevieve Huizar:
“I watched as my son took his last breath. I watched as his heart stopped beating for the last time,” Genevieve Huizar said, breaking into sobs. “Please, please, please stop the violence. It’s not going to bring my son back, and this is the worst thing any mother could go through.”
What do you think of the nationwide show of solidarity for Anaheim’s Latino population?
How do you think racial and socioeconomic tensions can best be healed when the community believes police brutality is an issue?
Will you attend any of the protests this weekend? What can be done to keep more blood from being shed?
Lead photo of Genevieve Huizar: AP/Damian Dovarganes
Thanks Joanna. I guess a word to the wise is that when a police officer tells ya to stop and drop, then it’s a good idea to do so. Even a regular traffic stop, if the officer tells me to do something, ohhh yeah, I’m gonna do it. I watch the TV show COPS and I shake my head thinking “what on earth are they thinking?” After their investigation, in the event it’s found that the officers acted poorly, I’m sure/hope they’ll get what’s warrented. I firmly believe that multiculturalism can and does work. An area just west of Chicago,… Read more »
I’m gonna have to be careful here because this is a topic that is near and dear to me on several levels. But before I go into my rant I have to say that no police officer is perfect, that things happen that shouldn’t but they do. I have a close friend who is on the gang unit in the city of Chicago so perhaps my view may be somewhat tainted. But then again, I deal with gang bangers and their families on a daily basis so perhaps my views may also be balanced. As a counselor, the only time… Read more »
Tom, I think this rant of yours is really interesting, thank you for sharing it. I think the issue of whether it’s more okay to shoot someone who has a criminal record is a tough one because of the young man you mentioned whose heartbreaking story exemplifies just how much we don’t know about any particular person. That young man you mentioned had a criminal record and was a gang member, right? So if police shot him for reaching for holding something in his hand that looked like a gun or for any other reason than he was threatening the… Read more »
“What do you think of the nationwide show of solidarity for Anaheim’s Latino population?”
It shows that multiculturalism is a complete failure. It shows the emergence of two “nations” within California. It shows demographic change that will yield a future very different then the Utopia projected. It shows a racial solidarity that is surprisingly accepted by even Liberals, as long as the person is not European, with the an apologetic argument justifying its existence based upon class struggle and oppression rhetoric.
I live in California (San Francisco) and I don’t believe what you are claiming to be true.
Multiculturalism can work, and does work, and I see this in my every day life.
If anything, this is a barrier to the growth of multiculturalism, not demonstration of its failure.
I live in California as well (LA area). This is in California, not to mention Anaheim, of all places. If Multiculturalism can work anywhere it should be here, not like some rural town in the redneck South. Yet, Latinos are showing solidarity based upon race. Not only in Anahiem, but according to the paper, across the entire country. I don’t call that a barrier. It doesn’t work. Two different cultures will have different values, languages, belief systems, ideology, etc. It takes the ability to supersede your own culture to have some sort of compatibility. That takes a certain level of… Read more »
I actually agree with Mike here about multiculturalism. I live in LA, too and have seen many communities here integrate cultures really well. Is it tough? Yeah. And not only do liberals/conservatives have different cultures, even families do. Ask anyone who struggles with their in-laws. However, empathy is usually the first step to overcoming those problems with differences. I STRONGLY disagree about any culture being “better” than others. I’m not even going to debate that, however, as it’s off topic here and VERY STRONGLY borders on racism. To say that cultures that are more “Tribal” aren’t as intelligent is simple… Read more »
So, te editors are asking how socioeconomic tensions can be healed when police brutality becomes an issue.
I guess that means these shootings were completely unjustified and the victims weren’t known gang members or anything, and certainly they didn’t both already have criminal records.
Oh wait…nope,they were both gang members with criminal records, and the protest is based on allegations made by one of the victims’ families. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/us/after-night-of-protest-and-arrests-anaheim-vows-to-crack-down.html?_r=1) Welp, let’s go ahead and side with the grieving mother without really knowing anything about how two gang members with criminal records wound up getting shot.
You know what, Mike L, the Anaheim police and the Latino population have been clashing for longer than just the last week. This isn’t a singular problem, but the killings of these men just set off a powder keg. And for the record, the mother that I quoted is actually begging the people who are protesting/rioting to stop. Even if someone has a criminal record, and may have been gang members, that doesn’t mean that the shooting was necessarily justified. We don’t make any claim here about whether the shooting was justified or not, we merely say that for this… Read more »
So…you’re not even going to try and justify your characterization of the police actions as “brutality”? That’s what earned you the “Welp.” Maybe you have so little respect for the men and women who protect our communities as to classify all of their actions as “brutality,” but I know the vast majority of police officers to be honorable people who do the right thing more often than most of us would. If you want to make pretend that any shooting of gang members with criminal records is automatically “brutality” then go ahead, but don’t expect others to be drawn in… Read more »
Listen, I’m a HUGE fan of police officers. HUGE. However, we must not forget that this nation is absolutely PLAGUED with examples of police brutality against men of color, in particular. You drive Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Barbara to San Diego and see who gets pulled over… An unbelievable proportion of them are Latino men. This has been brewing. That doesn’t mean ANY riots or violence are EVER justified. It just means that it is a complicated issue and needs further examination. Sun, here, disagrees with the riots and expressed it clearly, without shaming anyone (me or other editors)… Read more »
What you don’t seem to be seeing is that the use of the word “brutality” is, in and of itself, a shaming.
You shame the police and then claim that it’s wrong to shame people.
Strawman.
I do not feel it is a strawman because the piece above juxtaposed comments about the shooting with a line about “police brutality getting in the way.” Comparing two ideas in such a manner is incredibly powerful and often results in the audience drawing a specific conclusion. The saddest example of this that I ever saw was during my first year as an undergraduate. One night, a girl in my dorm, just 5 doors down the hallway, passed away in her sleep. An autopsy showed later that she had a previously undetected heart defect. This was, I hope you can… Read more »