Thread: Latino Activists document deputies activies

Latino activists in Vista planning to document deputies' activities

By Kristina Davis
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 26, 2006

VISTA – Latino-rights activists concerned about increased sheriff's patrols in the city called the community to action last night by asking people to document law enforcement activity in their neighborhoods and to watch for excessive use of force.

Rapid response teams, which will be started at the end of June, will also record when Customs or Border Patrol agents are in the city and are to observe the now-common face-offs between anti-immigrant groups and day laborers.

“We will document, photograph and videotape the situation and see if there are patterns,” said Tina Jillings, co-founder of the Coalition for Justice, Peace and Dignity, a human rights group.

The documentation campaign was well-received at a community forum held last night at the Vista Library by the coalition and the Vista Human Rights Committee.

The forum, which drew about 30 people, was organized after extra sheriff's deputies and federal immigration agents began “zero tolerance” enforcement details around the city, especially in the predominantly Latino Townsite neighborhood.

“We feel there is more enforcement going on, and we want to be sure the community understands what's happening,” Jillings said.

Coalition leader Yesenia B. Savela said she answered several phone calls from residents who were concerned and confused by the patrols.

Vista sheriff's Capt. Ed Prendergast said Tuesday that the enforcements were in response to an increase in the city's crime rate during the past year. He said several other high-crime areas of the city are being targeted as well.

In the three enforcement details so far, deputies made contact with 188 people in the city, arresting many of them on drug violations, warrants, traffic violations and gang-injunction violations, sheriff's officials said.

Alicia Mendez Gonzales of Vista defended some of the young people contacted by sheriff's deputies.

“The youth have no voice, no other way to express themselves,” Mendez said. “More community services need to be channeled to the kids so they have things to do.”

Mendez, who lives near the Townsite neighborhood, said she is growing tired of the patrol cars that she said race up and down her street.

The documentation campaign will run from the end of June through August, which will mark the one-year anniversary of when sheriff's deputies shot and killed three Latino men in Vista within a five-day span.

Roque Orozco, 45, said the tensions are nothing new in Vista, where he has lived for 40 years.

“The Sheriff's Department has improved,” he said. “The dynamics of this community are very difficult.”

The coalition will offer training on June 11 to those who want to join the documentation campaign this summer. For more information, call (760) 216-1046.





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Kristina Davis: (760) 476-8233; kristina.davis@uniontrib.com









Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nort ... forum.html

Geez, most Americans complain that they don't have enough police patrols. It's unbelievable...they don't want ANYTHING enforced....just let them run free and sell drugs, commit crimes....after all they are entitled to do so! My blood is boiling!

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Geez, most Americans complain that they don't have enough police patrols. It's unbelievable...they don't want ANYTHING enforced....just let them run free and sell drugs, commit crimes....after all they are entitled to do so! My blood is boiling!

Mine too! I'd like to see somebody video tape what life is like living around these ......people.

What they need to do is run down to the south of Mexico and tape how horrible those Mexican soldiers treat the South Americans when they cross their border.

Originally Posted by gofer

Geez, most Americans complain that they don't have enough police patrols. It's unbelievable...they don't want ANYTHING enforced....just let them run free and sell drugs, commit crimes....after all they are entitled to do so! My blood is boiling!

I thought the same thing.


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http://www.alipac.us/article1256.html

I guess our police need to be qualified Mexican police with Mexican badges? :P

Yes, I guess if our police were “qualified Mexican police with Mexican badges” it would add credence to the use of excessive force. But then it would make them corrupt dregs just like the Mexican police and the Mexican military, AKA: the Mexican Mafia!!! And the sadist part of this whole thing is “They have no rights”!!! They are illegal and criminals!!!! They have no protection under US law or the Constitution of the United States!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This bill will be crushed in the house of representatives’. “Let us pray”!

AMEN!

Maybe they're just mad that they can't bribe their way out of trouble like they do in Mexico. Actually, Vista is becoming a real problem. It was the scene of the worst rioting following the MayDay protests. The DA has tried some interesting tactics to break up the gangs there, including using injunctions to prohibit gang members from associating with each other. Now they're installing some video surveillance around town that they will move from place to place to observe current hot spots. In any event, my favorite quote was this:

“The youth have no voice, no other way to express themselves,” Mendez said. “More community services need to be channeled to the kids so they have things to do.”

Translation: you Americans figure out a way to spend your money to entertain our kids that we don't feel like raising or else they'll grafitti the place up. Charming!