PERSPECTIVES ON POLICE BRUTALITY : A Challenge to Latinos : This literal case of immigrant bashing demands leadership in securing justice in this year of political brutality.

Not surprisingly, the beating of the Mexican immigrants by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies has become an international embarrassment for the United States and for California. Locally, it touched a nerve in its resemblance to the Rodney King beating, and the Latino community throughout Southern California is up in arms; it wants justice now. How will Latino leadership respond?

The Latino establishment should look to the King case. After the videotape of King’s beating was made public, it was Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) who brought together African American leaders and civil rights organizations to carry forth the banner for justice and police reform. Today, there are enough Latinos in state, city and county elected office to constitute a potentially powerful pressure group. Shouldn’t the four Latino congressional representatives from Los Angeles County convene them in a powerful community coalition to oversee the FBI’s investigation of this incident? Or even go the distance of an independent investigation themselves? And more so, isn’t this the opportunity to finally take the offensive against the tide of immigrant bashing that has now engulfed the country?

This last point is important because it highlights the fact that the political environment in the United States is a different one than existed in 1992. Today, because of economic insecurity exploited by political strategists, the country’s angry mood is being expressed politically against immigrants, affirmative action and crime. And all this in the context of a presidential election. The majority of Latinos, I sense, believe that Monday’s savage beating of the undocumented immigrants is part of the unprecedented immigrant bashing mood that has been encouraged by politicians on the campaign trail.

Since early 1993, when the tide against immigration began rising on the national scene, the Latino establishment has banked on a single strategy: Become a citizen, register and vote. Although this approach has reaped some benefits, it was not enough to stop California’s Proposition 187 nor did it stop the draconian anti-immigrant legislation passed last month by the House of Representatives, which the Senate will approve and President Clinton will sign.

I am not a dreamer. I don’t expect the moderate Latino establishment and politicians to suddenly engage in massive civil disobedience, hunger strikes or targeted economic boycotts to dramatize the plight of their constituents. But for starters, they might collectively participate in this Saturday’s march in Los Angeles against police abuse. Along with the new generation of Latino labor leaders, clergy, intellectuals and community activists, their presence would definitely be a welcome contribution. For the Latino community to see this historical milestone, it would fill the streets with pride and joy and signal a new beginning. What are they waiting for?