BY JOHN EVENHUIS
LOS ANGELES - The videotaped clubbing of several Mexican workers by police here April 1, shown on television throughout the United States and Mexico, has caused widespread indignation.
The next day, 100 protesters outside the Federal Building angrily chanted, "We want justice" in English and Spanish.
"We will not rest until these people [the cops] are arrested," said Héctor Brolo, president of the Mexican American Political Association.
The videotape, shot from a helicopter by a KCAL Channel 9 television crew, "captured on tape the true illegals in our midst," remarked José de Paz, executive director of the California Immigrant Workers Association. Demonstrators carried signs building an October 12 national march in Washington, D.C., in support of the rights of immigrants.
Roberto Martínez of the American Friends Service Committee compared the assault to the 1991 police beating of Rodney King, saying both "show the level of police brutality in the department." The graphic video of the King beating sparked a wave of protests demanding prosecution of the cops involved.
Some 150 people rallied April 3 in front of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department demanding prosecution of the cops. The protesters included Chicano students from Riverside Community College and area high schools. "Protests like this are needed to fight cop brutality and racism," said Lisa Ramírez, a student at Riverside Community College. María, another student, added, "It didn't matter whether they were undocumented, the cops should not have beat them and should be thrown in jail themselves."
Two demonstrations were planned for April 6. One action was set in Los Angeles, and the other in Riverside in front of city hall.
The incident began in Temecula, southeast of Los Angeles, when Border Patrol cops began to pursue a pickup truck carrying 19 immigrant workers near a police checkpoint on an interstate highway. The border cops called the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, which dispatched patrol cars to chase the truck along a 70-mile stretch of highway.
The pickup stopped on the side of the freeway at South El Monte, where some of the workers tried to flee the gun-toting cops. The videotape shows three cops clubbing, kicking, and arresting three workers who offer no resistance.
One deputy, swinging a baton with his two hands like a baseball bat, was taped beating Enrique Funes, 30, on the back and shoulders, even after he fell to the ground. The worker's leg bled profusely.
Funes was clubbed as he tried to aid Leticia González, 32, who was struggling with the jammed passenger door. When González got out through a window, the same cop beat her on the back with his baton, slammed her face into the pickup's hood, yanked her by the hair, and pulled her to the ground. At least one other cop clubbed her. Turned over to the immigration cops, she was treated at a hospital by a nurse, who reported she suffered severe bruises. González was released after being treated for her injuries.
Adrián Flores Martínez, 26, suffered bruises and a hairline fracture of an elbow. He was briefly treated at a hospital and then jailed.
The cops arrested 19 workers. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) began proceedings to deport them.
Cops from several agencies were at the scene of the beating, including the Los Angeles County sheriff's department and California Highway Patrol, in addition to the Riverside County sheriffs and INS.
González, originally from Xocheca, Mexico, said she had come to the United States to seek a job. After being released by the INS, she told the press, "I thought they were going to kill me." She added, "I'm hurt and almost can't walk. I was seen by a nurse, but I want to be examined by a doctor."
In response to the public outcry, officials put two of the cops, Kurt Franklin and Tracy Watson, on paid administrative leave. The FBI opened a civil rights investigation of the assault.
Much of the media commentary of the beatings has focused on whether the cops used "excessive" force and how normally reasonable police officers became emotional as a result of "high-speed pursuit syndrome." A Los Angeles Times news article remarked, "During the chase, ways to relieve stress and anger are few."
Mexican workers in the area, however, reported that Franklin, the 20-year police veteran who bashed González's head into the truck, has a reputation for racist brutality in the neighborhood he patrols. "He's known for roughing up Mexican Americans and harassing the hell out of them," said Gilbert Chávez, director of the Centro de Aztlán.