Latinos Attack Flyers in Rancho Bernardo

Latinos charged Wednesday that Rancho Bernardo residents are heightening racial tensions by passing out handbills to citizens urging them to “be safe at home” and fight crime by displaying signs aimed at discouraging migrants from soliciting day labor.

The controversial flyer was distributed earlier this month as an insert in the Bernardo News, a community weekly newspaper with a circulation of 17,000. The bottom message is written in Spanish and English and reads: “No Hay Trabajo! No work available! Please do not disturb us.” Residents are encouraged to display the sign “on your front door.”

“This should discourage those people seeking employment from disturbing you,” says the handbill. The flyer’s message also says that “recent criminal events in Rancho Bernardo have given each of us cause to change our habits. That’s why we’re providing you with this sign.”

Real estate agents Jim Abbott and Bill Opie authored and paid for the flyer. Abbott, who said he has a degree in Spanish literature and speaks Spanish fluently, defended the flyer and denied that it is racist or aimed specifically at migrant workers.

“I don’t see anything racist with the flyer,” Abbott said. “I had no idea that it was going to raise such controversy. I see this as being no different from receiving a ballot written in two languages or signs at the airport written in two languages.”

However, Bea Estrada, president of the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, and other activists in the Latino community complained that the flyer is lumping hundreds of migrant workers who live in camps around Rancho Bernardo in with criminals.

“It is racist. We have enough problems between both communities up there already without someone stirring up the pot like this,” Estrada said.

Al Ducheny, of the Harborview Community Council near Logan Heights, charged that the flyer is “stigmatizing all Hispanics as criminals and (intended to) run them out of the community.” He scoffed at claims by Abbott that the signs are meant to reduce crime by discouraging people from applying for work.

“The logic is really sinister. Do they really think that, by putting up a sign that says no work available, you’re going to keep criminals away,” Ducheny said.

Bernardo News Publisher Barbara Warden said she saw nothing wrong with the flyer.

“That was my best call. It didn’t come across to me as racist,” Warden said.

Abbott and Warden pointed to three incidents that occurred late last year, when residents were allegedly approached by people posing as day laborers and robbed. The victims were tied up while their homes were ransacked, they said.

“Crime problems are increasing. We’re seeing an emerging MO (method of operation) from people posing as day laborers who would knock on the door and proceed to go inside the house,” Abbott said.

However, Lt. Mike Gillespie of the San Diego Police Department’s Northeast Division said migrants have not contributed to the crime problem in Rancho Bernardo.

“I cannot recall any cases where we have arrested a migrant, or have been looking for migrants as suspects. . . . Any characterization that migrants are involved in crime is untrue, unfair and extremely unfortunate,” Gillespie said.