Latinos’ Plan to Trace ’70 March Stirs Outcry : Anniversary: So far, permission for the event has been denied. Officials fear that businesses would be disrupted.

Raul Ruiz is an angry man. Give him a moment, and the Chicano studies professor at Cal State Northridge will rail against the gross injustices he says Latinos have suffered over the years at the hands of the Establishment.

Mention the death of newsman Ruben Salazar, who died at an East Los Angeles anti-war protest march on Aug. 29, 1970, that turned violent, and Ruiz hits new levels of indignation. He is among the many marchers that day who have never accepted the verdict of a coroner’s inquest that Salazar, a Times columnist and news director for Spanish-language television station KMEX, was accidentally killed by a tear-gas projectile fired by a sheriff’s deputy.

“He was assassinated,” said Ruiz, who took photographs outside the Silver Dollar bar, not knowing that Salazar had just died inside.

The passions and controversy of that hot, smoggy Saturday afternoon along Whittier Boulevard are being recalled as organizers prepare for a march this summer to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the protest that attracted 20,000 marchers and ended in Salazar’s death.

Los Angeles members of the 1990 National Chicano Moratorium Committee have petitioned the county for a permit to hold a march for about 10,000 people on Saturday, Aug. 25, along the same route the protest followed two decades ago. Then they plan to rally at Salazar Park, named after the slain newsman, where officers broke up what they said was an unruly crowd bent on violence. That was followed by rioting and looting on the boulevard.

The request for this year’s march was rejected by the Sheriff’s Department because of claims that it would disrupt business along the boulevard, particularly on a Saturday, and would cost too much to police. Many merchants fear a reoccurrence of violence.

The county Board of Supervisors is reviewing the decision and has the power to overrule the Sheriff’s Department.

The march organizers said their purpose is to mark what some activists and historians believe is a significant event in the history of U.S. residents of Mexican descent. The 1970 march is believed to have been one of the largest gatherings of Chicanos anywhere in the country.

Salazar, whose bitter columns about the desperate state of Chicanos enraged leading politicians of the day, became a martyr of the Chicano movement. Numerous parks, public buildings and monuments in Los Angeles and throughout the Southwest are named for him.

“We equate Aug. 29 to Cinco de Mayo or Sept. 16 (Mexican Independence Day), but it’s a more indigenous historic event,” said Eastside activist Carlos Montes, one of the co-chairmen of the proposed march.

Salazar, who was 42 at the time, was one of three people who died during the chaotic events that day. More than 200 people were arrested, 60 others were injured and $1 million worth of property was damaged. In 1974, Salazar’s widow received a $700,000 settlement from the county but no admission of wrongdoing.

There is still disagreement over whether sheriff’s deputies acted properly that day. Many critics, including Ruiz, believe the march was peaceful until deputies provoked marchers by their use of tear gas and nightsticks.

That, coupled with the unsatisfying verdict about Salazar’s death, Montes said, galvanized many disinterested Latinos to support the Chicanos’ fight for political power and equal opportunities.

“We’re still fighting for the same things now that they were protesting about 20 years ago,” he said.

Most of the merchants, on the other hand, wish that the proposed march, as well as the events 20 years ago, would just go away.

Business plummeted because of the publicity surrounding the violence and the lengthy investigations. The customers have since come back, and the merchants want to keep it that way.

“We don’t want to take the chance for another riot on Whittier Boulevard,” said James Wenger, president of the 200-member Whittier Boulevard Merchants Assn. “No way.”

He added that the proposed march also would disrupt business.

The Sheriff’s Department cited the loss of business as one of the reasons for rejection of the parade application. It also cited the disruption of public transportation and an estimated cost of $37,000 to pay deputies to patrol the event. There was no mention of the possibility of violence in the recommendation.

“We don’t have objection to them having the event,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Van Morris, who recommended denial of the permit. “But it’s difficult to justify this for such a small group (the committee). It’s questionable whether they have general community support.”

Organizers say they have widespread support. But the merchants and others are doubtful, particularly about the projections of as many as 10,000 marchers.

County Supervisor Edmund Edelman, who represents the area, has followed the lead of sheriff’s officials, who have suggested an alternate parade route to ease the concerns of merchants.

So far, the march organizers have resisted any change of route, contending that history requires them to march on Whittier Boulevard and, for a few moments, stop in silent tribute in front of the bar where Salazar died.

March co-chairman Montes threatens to go to court for permission to march on Whittier Boulevard.

An appeal of the sheriff’s rejection has twice come before the county Board of Supervisors, but it has been delayed each time while Edelman tries to mediate the dispute. The matter is scheduled for reconsideration March 29.

Some on the boulevard are philosophical about the events 20 years ago.

Murray Baiz remembered standing in the doorway of his barber shop and watching the violence.

“My wife saw the stuff on TV and called to tell me to come home, but I didn’t,” he recalled. “I think it’s OK if they want to have a march. But they have to have people there to control things.

“If they don’t, it’s . . . goodby Charlie.”