Posted on 01/26/2006 10:19:11 AM PST by MillerCreek
"Whether posing as protesters or cutting off speeches, OC police clamp down on immigrant-rights activists"
Coyotl Tezcalipoca wanted to wrap up his speech with a dramatic flourish, and a police chokehold helped him get there more quickly.
On Jan. 3, Tezcalipoca, a 25-year-old from Santa Ana, stood before the Costa Mesa City Council and berated them for approving a motion that would allow the city's police to check on anyone's immigration status. Proponents and other opponents of the ordinance also spoke that night. Most used the full three minutes Mayor Allan Mansoor allowed for public comments.
But just a little over two minutes into Tezcalipoca’s speech, Mansoor cut him off. "I’m not finished," Tezcalipoca protested. Three officers quickly surrounded the podium; Tezcalipoca turned to leave but stopped short when one of the officers grabbed his arm. "Don’t touch me!" Tezcalipoca told the officers. The stand-off lasted briefly, until Costa Mesa Police Chief John Hensley, dressed in something like a baby blue Hollywood Suit Broker ensemble, leaned into the little circle and said something to his men. The three officers suddenly, forcefully grabbed Tezcalipoca and removed him from the council chambers. KABC-TV video shows they placed him in a chokehold and dragged him into the Costa Mesa Jail (conveniently located next door) as an officer kneeled on Tezcalipoca’s back (see video of the incident here; link courtesy of immigrationwatchdog.com). Officers booked him on suspicion of disturbing an assembly, interfering with a council meeting and resisting an officer.
Tezcalipoca faces a Feb. 3 court date in Orange County Superior Court. That same day, Los Angeles resident Hugo Sarmiento will appear for a trial-setting hearing. He’s charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor for allegedly throwing a full Shasta Cola can at police officers during a May 25 protest in Garden Grove following a speech by Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist.
Local activists and the Orange County chapter of the ACLU are monitoring both cases closely. They fear that a conviction in either will chill the growing number of young Latinos who counterprotest anti-immigrant groups like the Minuteman Project across Southern California. But it may be too late: as the stories of both Sarmiento and Tezcalipoca show, law-enforcement officials are already working hard to squash the movement before it blooms.
The evidence that such an effort is under way includes police statements. On Dec. 12, Garden Grove police officer Charles Loffler appeared in Orange County Superior Court for his deposition. He was there to testify against Sarmiento as the district attorney's sole witness.
Under oath, Loffler told the court he "watched [Sarmiento] and stayed with him" throughout the protest. "I was his shadow," he boasted. Loffler even ran alongside Sarmiento when police officers chased protesters.
How did the six-year veteran cop escape the notice of the protesters? He was masquerading as one of them that night.
"I was in the crowd dressed in plainclothes along with several demonstrators that were there that day," Loffler told Deputy District Attorney Marc Lebreche. Five to 10 other Garden Grove officers were also undercover, according to Loffler. Loffler justified his department's actions by noting his department was briefed on a May 14 demonstration in Baldwin Park where someone allegedly threw a water bottle at an elderly white woman.
Under cross-examination, Sarmiento's lawyer, Tom Stanley, asked Loffler if he engaged in any protest activities -- if he chanted, for instance, or raised his fist in the air or held signs. Deputy DA Lebreche objected. Judge Nho Trong Nguyen overruled. Stanley asked Loffler again. Lebreche objected. Judge Nguyen overruled.
"I think if the officer tried to enrage the crowd and entice the crowd to participate in what the officer did as a demonstrator," Judge Nguyen told Lebreche, "that is entrapment."
Stanley asked Loffler again.
"I believe at one point [protesters] were chanting or saying 'No justice, no peace,' and I think I did actually say that in my role in an undercover capacity," Loffler admitted.
"How did you speak?" Stanley asked Loffler. "Did you speak with the same tone of voice as the demonstrators?"
"As everybody else," Loffler replied.
"As everybody else?"
"Yes."
“And the same words and same conduct, basically?"
"Correct."
It's believed to be the first time an Orange County police department has admitted to its officers posing as activists, a revelation that doesn't surprise Duane Roberts.
Roberts, a longtime county activist, helped organize the May 25 protest and acted as a liaison between demonstrators and the police. He's used to dealing with undercover cops at rallies. "In a lot of demonstrations that I’ve organized, we've been able to root out individuals on clothing, appearance and behavior that we've determined to be police officers," says Roberts. "I think in many respects the police overreact and they tend to go overboard and they have these illusions and fantasies that people involved in these demonstrations are terrorists."
Roberts was also the liaison between activists and police officers at the Jan. 3 Costa Mesa City Council meeting. The police response still has him shaken. "During the past decade, I've been to more than 200 meetings of city councils, school boards and other public bodies, and I have never seen anybody so forcibly removed," he says. "Never. It's clear to me that Mayor Mansoor felt threatened by Coyotl's presence. I get the impression that Mansoor doesn't like if people oppose the policies that he put forth. He took personal offense at this."
Tezcalipoca declined comment, citing his pending court date. Mansoor returned a call but refused to say whether he agreed with the actions of the Costa Mesa Police Department. Mansoor did say he couldn't remember "off the top of my head" if he knew any other speaker being accosted by cops during a council meeting.
But Jan. 3 wasn't the first time Mansoor stopped Tezcalipoca from speaking. On Dec. 7, when the Costa Mesa City Council approved the police-immigrant ordinance, Mansoor ended the public comments section after Tezcalipoca called him a "f**ing racist pig." Tezcalipoca was about halfway through his three minutes.
Tezcalipoca isn't alone in thinking Mansoor, whose day job is deputy sheriff for the county, is a bigot. In 2002, the Orange County Human Relations Commission criticized Mansoor for posting anti-gay articles on a Costa Mesa Internet chat room whose main contributor was Martin Millard, a columnist whose favorite conspiracy theories include Mexico's takeover of the American Southwest and the dangers of intermarriage, which he has said will lead to a universal genotype, "The Tan Man." ([BARF ALERT] See Nick Schou's "Mr. Clean," Oct. 10, 2002.)
"I think the people in power are feeling a bit threatened by the movement that’s emerging in Orange County
"Indiginous people"?! I think that great indian warrior, Ward Churchill, would beg to differ.
Well, good for them.
I have no problem with legal immigrants. I have yet to ever know an American who does.
These people in Costa Mesa (and elsewhere) are mostly illegal aliens who are protesting even being asked to substantiate their presence in the country.
And laying nasty labels on any American who isn't "of their race" and wrongly correlating race with homosexuality, as weird as that is...
I'm wondering if these are just crazy people acting crazy, at this point. Break the law, go to court, get a citation, go to jail...those are the usual recourses for breaking laws.
Illegal immigration is a crime. The social programs that taxpayers pay for that enable many illegal aliens to remain in the country are objectionable and that's what Mansoor is generally saying. That's his right, and I agree with him.
I dunno. I don't see how illegal aliens have a leg to stand on in these ongoing objections...they object to legaliities of all types and sorts. Why are they, then, even in the country that they then revile? And, worse, costing taxpayers so much time and grief in the process.
Not telling you anything new, I realize, nor anyone here anything new, just writing.
Yes, agreed, it is very, very creepy. The Mayor is a conservative but I'd hardly label him a problem in how he reasons what he does. Many people seem to agree with him. And, as to enforcing existing laws, Costa Mesa is just catching up! Now if we could just get the rest of the cities and states and Senators to do so, too...
LOL! But he would find a way to get Americans out of America anyway.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mansoor17jan17,0,2617169.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
Link, can't post the story here.
LA Raza = "The Race". Nothing more needed.
This whole "we were here first" thing just wears me out.
These fools need to be told that if that is their sole argument, then everyone in the U.S. better get out and leave it to the rattlesnakes, jackrabbits, horned toads and buffalo. Oh yeah, and the cockroaches. They were probably here before anybody.
Jim Inhofe said this about the MM when he introduced Bill 2117 in December. This is the only repub we have in the senate worth keeping.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-16061.html
Enforce Act ends Anchor Babies/enforces Border- S. 2117
" Border Neighborhood Watch Program will have the same effect in reducing illegal border crossings as the Neighborhood Watch Program has had in reducing crime.
I also believe that the BRAVE Force will provide significant assistance to the Minutemen, who are sacrificing their time and energy as they work to preserve our liberties and enforce our laws.
Through the creation of the National Border Neighborhood Watch Program, NBNW, retired law enforcement officials called the Border Regiment Assisting in Valuable Enforcement, BRAVE, Force agents, will come and work alongside Border Patrol agents. Civilian volunteers, much like the now well-known Minutemen, will be able to report immigration violations to assigned BRAVE Force agents."
Yes, there is much support for this, removing the 'anchor baby' current manipulation of the 14th Amendment language.
Thanks for that link and information.
Thanks!
Regardless of whether that's some "manipulation" that can be solved short of a Constitutional Amendment, you do realize the current state of the law is that American-born persons are U.S. citizens, right? I didn’t know until recently here that was even a controversy, but apart from that, there's no "manipulation" about the 14th Amendment continuing and prohibiting the State from “depriv[ing] any PERSON (not just citizen) of life, LIBERTY, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any PERSON within its jurisdiction the EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS.” (Emphasis added) Am I right there too? Illegal immigrants have every right under the First Amendment that American citizens enjoy - so you'd better get working on taking that away too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.