Shooting Deepens Bitterness Toward Westminster Police

The hand-printed signs lining the streets of the Westminster barrio where 18-year-old Frank Martinez died carry an angry message of frustration and distrust.

It has been more than a month since a Westminster police officer shot Martinez in his own back yard during an attempted arrest, but the memory is still vivid in the minds of his friends and neighbors.

Norma de Leon, 31, is a lifelong resident of the area. Like many of her neighbors, she has attached a large sign to the fence bordering her front yard. “Not All Hispanics Are Gang Members,” it says. “Rest in Peace, Frankie.”

Other signs describe police as “murderers” and “trigger-happy liars” who should be chased out.

The death of Martinez has galvanized this neighborhood, arousing a simmering undercurrent of resentment toward police. Residents say Martinez was gunned down unnecessarily, and they say it happened at least partly because of bigotry--because police believe all Latinos in the neighborhood are gang members. On the night of the shooting, they say, the officers involved were yelling ethnic slurs.

Today, residents say, police harass those who refuse to put the shooting behind them, shining spotlights through windows of homes at night, driving slowly by the Martinez home, stopping teen-agers on the street without reason.

$110-Million Claim Against City

Police have refused to comment on the alleged slurs, or on any aspect of the shooting, until an Orange County district attorney’s investigation has been completed. And even then, it is unlikely that police will respond to specific charges because of a $110-million claim alleging police misconduct that the Martinez family has filed against the department and the city.

Police officials deny, however, that officers are under orders to harass residents or the Martinez family. They point out that city transportation facilities, including gasoline pumps, are nearby and that a lot of police cars routinely drive through the area on their way to and from those facilities.

And patrol officers “are also curious,” said Sgt. Andrew Hall, explaining that perhaps officers have driven by residents’ homes and used spotlights to illuminate and read the signs.

Exactly what led up to the July 15 shooting is in dispute, but everyone agrees that three Westminster police officers chased Martinez into his own back yard, where a birthday party was being held for his mother. A scuffle ensued, and Martinez was shot once in the chest.

The police had been called to the neighborhood in connection with a reported gang attack earlier in the evening. But residents say Martinez was not a gang member, and they accuse the police of overreacting because they were in a Latino area.

“Would they have acted the same if we were white people and this was a white community?” de Leon asked.

Since the shooting, candlelight vigils have been held in Martinez’s memory. Neighbors have formed Manos Unidas, a group organized to raise funds for projects, such as community watch programs, and to help pay funeral costs. The group has held car washes and menudo breakfasts and is selling bumper stickers and T-shirts bearing Martinez’s name. A community potluck picnic is planned for today at nearby Sigler Park from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Martinez family and many residents of the area are hoping that a criminal charge will be filed against the officer who shot Martinez. Police have refused to identify him, but residents of the neighborhood who saw the shooting and have had personal contact with the officer in the past say he is in his 20s and has been on the police force only two years.

Seeks Exoneration

Police Chief James I. Cook, who became chief just weeks before the shooting, seeks exoneration for the three officers involved in the incident and has said he believes they acted within their authority, “based on preliminary reports.”

“The officers felt that they were honestly going to die--they said they were in great fear of their lives,” Cook said three days after the shooting, defending the officers’ actions as legal.

But for Amanda Martinez, the dead man’s mother, the loss of her son and the Police Department’s silence have been a nightmare.

“They haven’t even said they’re sorry, that they made a mistake and killed my son,” she said. “I’ve lived here in this city all my life. I’ve raised good children. Frankie was a good boy. But this . . . this is too much for us to bear. Too much for us to understand.

‘Hard to Explain’

“My smaller children keep asking me, ‘Mommy, why? Why did the police do this? How come they’re not sorry, Mommy?’ All the trust we had (in the police)--it’s, it’s so hard to explain to them.”

During an interview at her home last week, a visibly nervous Amanda Martinez continually interrupted the conversation to say “here they come again. They’re watching our house. They drive by all the time.”

As she spoke, a car with two men in it drove slowly by and then parked opposite her home.

“There,” she said. “See what I mean? We’re under surveillance.”

When asked about the car, Chief Cook acknowledged it was an unmarked police car. The men in it, he said, were a police lieutenant and a lawyer from the city attorney’s office who had asked to see the neighborhood and read the homemade signs in view of the recent multimillion-dollar claim.

The Olive Street neighborhood is an enclave of older, wood-frame homes in the west end of Westminster, mostly occupied by working-class families. The homes are well kept, the lawns freshly mowed. The smell of cocido , or Mexican soup, boiling on kitchen stoves often permeates the air, as Latino families talk on their front porches and in their front yards.

The community was not always so quiet, however. A few years ago, a gang known as West Trece, made up of youths age 13 and older who were involved in drug use and sales, took over Sigler Park. Complaints of gang harassment of both Anglo and Latino residents grew until the city spent money on a gang prevention program this year. Now, residents say, the gang situation has improved.

“We want to improve our community relations there, and we’ve been working very hard, especially at Sigler Park,” Westminster Mayor Charles V. Smith said. The mayor declined, however, to make any comment on the Martinez shooting, citing the claim filed against the city.

“Our attorney has told us not to say anything,” he said. “You can understand my position. Anything I say at this point, under any circumstances, can be used in a court of law.”

Grumblings of Revenge

On the street, the residents’ current anger toward police is almost palpable. A patrol car driving down Olive Street one day last week provoked stares from longtime residents and grumblings of revenge from the young, street-tough Latinos.

The situation in the neighborhood has grown so tense that a federal mediator from the U.S. Justice Department’s Community Relations Service has been called in to try to defuse it.

“I think the community is saying that we’ve put up with a lot,” de Leon said. “But now, we’re not going to back away on this incident.”

“Several years ago, we had no problems,” said Rodney Burge, a 29-year-old resident who helped form Manos Unidas. “When we were growing up, we all would talk to the older cops. They were our friends. They knew us.

“Then about three to four years ago, it all changed. They brought in these younger guys, rookies with attitudes. They’re the ones who called us beaners and wetbacks the night Frankie was shot.”

Some police officers, like Hawthorne Police Sgt. Don Jackson, believe that part of the solution to the neighborhood’s problems is better police training.

Comforted Family

Jackson, who chairs the police practices committee on the board of directors for the Los Angeles chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, has comforted the Martinez family and has spoken at Manos Unidas rallies. He says police in many cities routinely mislabel black and Latino neighborhoods as “gang dominated.”

“It dehumanizes people and sanctions police abuse,” Jackson said.

He said the use of racial slurs by Westminster officers--if that allegation is true--indicates improper training and a lack of cultural awareness.

Though there is a great deal of dispute over exactly what happened the evening of July 15, there is general agreement that the incident began when police stopped Martinez’s brother, Joel, near his parents’ home. They were searching for gang members suspected of battering a car and abducting two girls from a rival gang.

Police have stated that Joel Martinez was positively identified by a teen-age girl who witnessed the gang attack, though an investigator hired by the Martinez family has said the girl told him that her identification was vague and tentative.

Based on the identification, police questioned Joel Martinez. Police said he appeared to be hiding something behind his back and that, when they tried to grab him, a scuffle ensued. Frank Martinez rushed to help and, at about the same time, two more police cars arrived.

Police then chased Frank Martinez back to his parents’ house, where the scuffle spilled into a back yard birthday party for Martinez’s mother. According to police, Frank Martinez was shot as he threatened a fallen police officer with a beer bottle.

According to family members, police were verbally abusive when they first stopped Joel Martinez. He refused to answer questions posed by an officer who insulted him. When the abusive officer tried to put an arm lock on him, family members said, Martinez pushed him away, and a scuffle broke out. Family members contend the shooting was unprovoked, and they deny that Frank Martinez menaced the officer with a bottle. They note that no beer bottle was ever found by police after the incident.

Presented with this general scenario, police officers and sheriff’s deputies from other departments in Southern California questioned the use of lethal force by Westminster police. None of them, however, wanted to second-guess the actions of a fellow officer.

‘2 Victims’

“There are two victims here,” said one officer. “The guy who died and the policeman who really didn’t want to kill someone but who was overly concerned about who he was chasing.”

Several officers, however, saw inexperience as a likely factor in the Westminster shooting.

The Westminster police force has a large number of relatively new officers. Last year, about 40% of the department’s patrol officers had less than 18 months of experience, according to police officials.

If witnesses to the shooting are correct, the officer who pulled the trigger had been on the force about two years.

“You’ve got to understand that with only two years on the force, this kid is still filled with the macho line they hand out at the police academy,” a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy said. “He has already been briefed to death about the danger of gang members, and he’s got an almost paranoid belief that someone, anyone, who is sneaking around the next corner is going to waste him.”

Sgt. Phil McCrae, a firearms instructor for Golden West Police Academy and a 23-year veteran of the Huntington Beach Police Department, said the public must understand that there are thousands of different bits of information pouring through an officer’s mind in a shooting situation.

Split Second to Decide

“His adrenaline is running,” McCrae said. “He just chased a kid up a driveway. Things quickly turn bad, and he only has a split second to decide on what action to take.

“It’s easy for a police review board to analyze the situation over a cup of coffee and doughnuts. But they have to put themselves in the officer’s situation.”

Members of the Martinez family say the three officers involved in the shooting ran into their back yard and started pummeling Frank Martinez with their batons. And they say that, before the shooting, the officers indiscriminately swung their batons and struck Martinez’s aunt, an uncle and other Latino adults who had attempted to stop the fracas.

But Westminster police have said that is not true. Rather, police say, the party-goers at the Martinez home jumped the three officers, who feared for their lives.

“All the officers lost their batons,” Cook said shortly after the shooting. “People were tugging at the officers, trying to get their weapons. With one officer they tugged so hard trying to get his gun they ripped his pants leg.”

Experience is the key to handling a volatile situation such as the one at the Martinez residence, said many of the law enforcement officers interviewed for this story. One explained it by saying that officers with less than three years of experience are only “getting their police eyes.”

“You need time on the streets to realize that not everyone is a hard-core gang banger,” said Sgt. Don Blankenship, a 16-year Santa Ana police veteran. “When you go into the good barrios you learn fast. There are good people out there, but you have to treat them like a human being.

“Experienced cops in Santa Ana know that you just don’t do certain things, like go to a Mexican wedding reception with an attitude, you know? Because if you do, watch out! The next thing you know, you’re saying, ‘Oh God.’ Windows are being busted, tamales are all over hell, and you’re calling for backup real quick. . . .

“But it takes experience to acquire an ability to size up people. . . . You got to ask yourself, ‘Do they really want to hurt us?’ And the majority of them really don’t, and you have to learn to adjust to that.”

Some officers, such as Los Angeles Police Sgt. Emilio Perez, say there is an increasing need to bridge cultural gaps between police departments and the populations they serve through the hiring of more minorities. Perez is a member of La Ley, a group of 700 Latino Los Angeles police officers.

Police departments, he says, have to realize that California’s ethnic makeup is changing and that there is a need to hire more minority officers.

Not Kept Pace

The ethnic makeup of Westminster’s population has changed markedly in recent years, but the makeup of the Police Department has not kept pace. The minority population has grown until, today, about 15% of the city’s 74,500 residents are Latino. By contrast, the Police Department, with 90 sworn officers, has only four Latinos--slightly more than 4% of the force.

But police officials in Westminster, a city hard hit by budget problems, say it will take time to increase the number of Latino police officers there.

In the meantime, Rodney Burge said, he and his Latino neighbors will keep tabs on the department, monitoring police with civilian patrols of their own “if we have to.”

“We want a say in who gets hired here,” he said. “Whatever it takes, no matter how much pressure we have to bring, we’ll do it. We’re not going to let Frankie’s memory die in vain. We won’t stop until injustice is stopped.”