Thread: MEChA Group blamed for PCC Courier theft

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_
Article Launched: 05/20/2006 12:00:00 AM PDT

Group blamed for PCC Courier theft
By Kenneth Todd Ruiz Staff Writer


PASADENA - Each week on Thursday, Kris Calnon roams Pasadena City College and distributes its student newspaper, the Courier.

He had just finished doing so this week when he was struck by a drastic surge in demand for the weekly paper.

"I'm coming back from distributing the paper, and I'm noticing the stands are already empty," said Calnon, 19, who also takes pictures for the paper.

It turned out the papers were not snapped up by eager readers.

Although people are often angered at what a newspaper prints, Thursday's theft of nearly all 5,000 copies may have been motivated by what the Courier didn't run.

PCC's campus police said Friday they had no suspects yet in their investigation into the theft, despite a brazen claim made by a group of students identifying themselves as members of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztl n.

According to Courier staff, a group of four students piled up trash bags inside and outside their newsroom and left a note saying it was in retaliation for the Courier's coverage of the group - or lack thereof.

"MEChA came up to the Courier with, like, four trash bags full of newspapers with a note attached and said we weren't covering them properly, so this is what we get," said News Chief Dean Lee.

Lee said a Courier reporter covered a MEChA event for Friday's edition of the paper, but because of space constraints, the paper could only run a photograph and caption.

"They said it was racist and biased," Lee said.

The previous two editions featured articles about MEChA activities.

James Aragon, a professor and counselor, is one of the club's advisers. He was not on campus Friday and said he had no knowledge of the group's alleged involvement.

With the investigation still under way, he said, it was too early to blame MEChA, a frequent target for accusation.

"No adviser would ever condone any type of behavior that is illegal," he said, adding that the students in the club "have been outstanding."

The college is waiting for police to conclude their fact-finding before releasing any further information. Lt. Brad Young of PCC's Police and Safety Services said their report would be finished next week.

"If any student, club or organization violated any education code or the law, PCC would support any action taken," said Juan Gutierrez, PCC spokesman.

College trustee Geoffrey Baum, who also works at USC's journalism school, said he was deeply concerned that someone might have destroyed copies of the paper.

"I think the Courier has done an excellent job and has been recognized as one of the best college papers in the state," he said.

MEChA, created in 1969 at UC Santa Barbara, has been criticized by some as a racist organization with a stated goal of returning the American Southwest to Mexico.

MEChA members, or Mechistas, say the group is like

other campus clubs, and peacefully promotes Latino identity and empowerment.

Its purpose, according to PCC's Web site, is to "bring awareness about Chicano issues to the public, and to promote community solidarity."

There are 15 to 20 members at PCC, according to the college's student association.

On the campus club's Internet homepage, it lists principles including the promotion of higher education, implementing MEChA's national plan, mutual respect and a "struggle for the liberation of our \ throughout \."

The constitution also pledges to denounce anyone who "attempts to wrongfully use or manipulate M.E.Ch.A. de Pasadena City College for his or her own personal interest."

On Friday afternoon a male student entered the Courier's office and, without identifying himself, took responsibility for the thefts and said it had been wrong to use MEChA's name, according to Courier staff.

With fewer than half of the 5,000 copies returned to the office, the Courier suspects another unrelated group might also have been responsible.

It's not the first time MEChA has been implicated in interfering with the press.

In two separate 2002 incidents, MEChA was accused of stealing thousands of conservative newspapers at UC Berkeley and UC Davis after they ran articles critical of the group.

At the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley, MEChA members were accused of stealing 7,500 copies of the student paper and returning them in garbage bags to the newspaper's offices.

Student newspapers are frequent targets of theft or destruction, with 30 to 40 incidents each year, said Mike Heistand, legal consultant at the Student Press Law Center.

"What once started as something of a college prank has become a genuine problem for student media," he said.

He added that people see stealing student papers, which are typically offered for free on unsecured stands, as "a quick and very efficient means of preventing the message from getting out they don't want to get out."

Even if a paper is free - the Courier advertises the first copy as free with subsequent copies costing $1 - people have been prosecuted for stealing them.

A bill criminalizing the theft of college papers was passed by the state Assembly earlier this month and is expected to also find support in the Senate.

todd.ruiz@sgvn.com

Sounds like a hate crime doesn't it?

This fine and upstanding group has been

added to the home page

http://www.alipac.us/article1261.html

http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1276&year=

Student journalists still waiting for answers on newspaper theft

© 2006 Student Press Law Center

June 7, 2006

CALIFORNIA — Student journalists at Pasadena City College are currently waiting for the release of a police report detailing the May 8 theft of nearly 5,000 copies of their newspaper, the Courier.

The afternoon of the theft, four people entered the Courier’s office and dropped off garbage bags filled with torn up copies of the newspaper, Courier News Editor Dean Lee said. The bags had a note attached taking responsibility for the theft with a signature claiming to be from the campus Hispanic group MEChA, he added.

The note expressed disappointment in the paper’s coverage, claiming the newspaper failed to report on an event sponsored by MEChA the week prior, Lee said.

“The end of the note said, ‘we see this as a representative example of the attitude the campus Courier has toward higher education and towards MEChA. As students of PCC we cannot accept this issue of the campus Courier,’” he said.

Shortly after the bags were dropped off, staff members called the campus police and filed a report. However, the investigation is still underway, and members of MEChA claim the group as a whole was not responsible for the theft, Lee said.

Brad Young, interim director of Pasadena City College's Police and Safety Services Department, did not respond to several messages seeking comment.

The Courier staff, with the help of adviser Mikki Bolliger, predicted the theft cost the paper more than $2,000.

“It’s going to be $1,200...that’s what the police have estimated, but they didn’t take into account the advertising that was in there and lost. [The advertising] by itself was just under $1,000,” said Bolliger, who has been the Courier’s adviser for more than 30 years.

The paper’s staff is not concerned with money at this point.

“It’s not really the money we’re after as far as the paper. We’re working more toward an academic solution...that somebody is held responsible for doing this,” Lee said. “We’re more interested in the fact that [those responsible] are basically denying the school the newspaper. They’re saying that they have the right to steal newspapers, which they don’t.”

Bolliger agreed saying, “[the students] wanted something done so that everyone on campus is aware that you can’t go around destroying newspapers. They don’t want the college to say, ‘OK, well let’s just negotiate and find out what was bothering these people when they did it.’ It doesn’t matter what was bothering them, destroying papers is wrong.”

Juan Gutierrez, director of public relations at Pasadena City College, declined to comment on the newspaper theft during a pending investigation, but said that if students are charged with the theft, they will be punished.

“The Pasadena City College follows the [education] code of California and complies with all federal, state and local laws. If there have been violations, those that committed the violations will be held accountable,” Gutierrez said.

Bolliger said she hopes that a precedent set forth the last time the Courier was stolen will prevail.

“I think the last time [there was a theft] was in the 1990s, and at that time, the student was prosecuted,” she said. “He paid for the run of the paper and we reran the paper because all the copies had been destroyed...so he paid for the initial run, the rerun of the paper and the advertising.”

The Courier staff has had some contact with the group they believe took their papers, Bolliger said.

“The president of MEChA came in last week and he said that the group is not responsible for this. He said, ‘we are about education...some of our members may have done this, but it is not the group,’” she said.

—by Suzanne Bell, SPLC staff writer

Looks like the got their media mention now. Now insead of a peacful, nice group we see they are thiefs and intimidators.