by Russell Contreras
The first time I saw the tape, I really thought it was taped in another country, or from another era. My television was on, but the sound was off, so I could not make out what was happening. Probably another drug bust, I thought.
Then I saw it again, on CNN Headline News late at night, and it became clearer. Law enforcement agents chasing suspected "illegal aliens" ending in a beating that was taped by a Los Angeles television news crew who just happen to be flying overhead when they got word a story was breaking.
After what appeared to be a long chase, a truck full of Mexican workers stopped, giving those inside a chance to flee. Over three fourths of the workers in the truck jumped out and ran, while a few decided to stay and give up. What I saw next hit me, angered me, frustrated me but not did surprise me. No, this tape was not from another country.
The images of two white cops beating on a group of Mexicans (one was a woman who had to be rushed to the hospital afterward) for no apparent reason other than pure anger and hatred stuck in my head, and I replayed it over and over again. I knew sooner or later I would see it on television, and that it was just a matter of time before the built-up hatred would result in violence.
What happened in Riverside County, Calf.-- aside from the fact that suspected "illegal aliens" were "endangering motorists" in a high-speed chase with law enforcement agents -- was a clear and vivid example of the climate Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Pat Buchanan, Pete Wilson and the rest of the conservative posse have created. For the past four years, (well, ever since Anglos colonized the Southwest) Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have been enduring incidents such as the Riverside one, in this climate of hatred and racism. Whatever the arguments one may have about immigration, or so-called illegal immigration, this never justifies human rights violations and brutality. Cops who stop a truck packed with Latino workers should not have to beat them -- especially when they give up.
Alicia Sotero Vasquez, the woman who was beaten by one of the white officiers (ain't he a man?), told reporters from her hospital bed that she "could feel their hate." She didn't understand what they were saying, nor did she know what was going to happen when the truck stopped, but she did feel the blows and the painful brutality, as the rest of the Latino community did in the United States when watching those tapes.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting tough on illegals and would be the first person to give money to the government when they start mass deporting people back to England, France, Switzerland, Germany, etc. But I would never beat them. No matter how much I disagree with my conservative pals, I would never ship them back to Europe (after I beat them, of course) because of someone else blaming them for corporate downsizing and job loss. I would be wrong if I did this. Yet, in my case, I would probably go to jail.
Contreras is a senior history and English major.