SANTA ANA : 20 Protest Mailer From Police Group

About 20 protesters held a peaceful candlelight vigil on Thursday outside the new headquarters of the Police Officers Assn., demanding an apology for a campaign mailer they called racially offensive.

“There’s no glory in what we’re doing . . . but if we don’t stand up for our rights, we’ll get run over every time,” said Rueben Martinez, spokesman for the Committee Against Ethnic Bashing for Political Gain, before the meeting.

The cover of the mailer, which was sponsored by the Santa Ana Police Officers Political Action Committee in November’s election, showed Latino children holding rifles. Inside, the flyer showed older Latinos, described as gang members, also holding rifles. The texts states: “When their baby pictures look like these . . . this is how they grow up.”

Martinez said that the flyers were “stereotyping our children, and that is very upsetting to me as a parent and a grandparent. It just so happens that we know a lot of good kids that probably want to grow up and be police officers.”

“We’re not against the Police Department. It’s that we haven’t got a response from the leadership of the community.”

Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr., one of the candidates supported by the flyer, said before the meeting that he was also unhappy with it and had nothing to with its creation or distribution. “I was not a party to any of this. I have nothing to apologize about,” he said.

The Police Officers Assn. refused to comment but issued a statement which read: “As you’re well aware, the Police Officers Assn. is and always has been an organization that respects the rights of all members of the community, whatever their race, religion, creed or national origin. Never has the association in any of its activities acted with the purpose of intentionally causing offense to any group or individual.”