Beating Case Spotlights Larger Issues

“I felt that they were killing me.” This is how Leticia Gonzalez (now revealed by her true name, Alicia Sotero Vasquez), described the beating by deputies of the Sheriff’s Department of Riverside County. The front-page headlines highlight the drama of events.

We are filled with repugnance and disgust. Without exaggeration, these were inhumane police acts of terror. But it is not enough to denounce the acts of two police agents who apparently have antecedents of acting outside the law and against the will of other humans whether these had legal documents or not.

While these bestial acts are denounced by many during these trying days, we should not lose sight of who are the real culpable and responsible parties for creating the political climate and fanning the flames of anti-immigrant sentiment, which has produced not one or two similar such beating incidents, but literally thousands of cases and incidents along the full length of the U.S.-Mexican border and in the interior of the country wherever large concentrations of Latino immigrants reside.

Our disgust of the moment should give cause and motive to a prolonged civic participation without equal. It is not enough to organize protest marches and issue assertive denunciations. We must do all this--and more.

We currently have the future of California in our hands and don’t even realize it. Our most fervent protest must be the act of becoming U.S. citizens and in turn convince 10, 20, 50 persons more--our family, our entire neighborhood, our complete parish or congregation, every one of our work mates--to do the same. And this step must immediately lead us to the next significant civic act of defense of our people--the act of registering to vote and making use of the franchise in the November elections.

The Latino vote statewide has the possibility of overturning the state Assembly against the Republicans, led by their conservative nativist assemblyman, Curt Pringle, which has unleashed a powerful current of sentiment, legislative proposals, laws, acts and racial hate vented against immigrants, Mexicans and Latinos generally.

The case of Sotero Vasquez should become our cause and banner to motivate our community to become fully conscious of the present state of affairs and take stock of what is at stake--the very humane existence of our families in this state and country.

We must also call upon President Clinton and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to publicly and categorically condemn the acts of the Riverside deputies and call for their immediate removal (without pay) and prosecution. They must additionally take effective and immediate steps to eliminate the 300,000 citizenship-applicant backlog, significantly increase the budget for citizenship assistance instead of augmenting border patrol enforcement, and unabashedly oppose the Simpson-Smith immigration legislative proposals currently being debated in Congress.

These are the most relevant measures that will have true long-term meaning to curb physical abuses of which immigrants are repeatedly victims.