Posted on 12/18/2012 3:19:18 PM PST by Altura Ct.
A California school district is defending its decision to name a new elementary school after an infamous murderer – by calling him a hero and a role model to children. The decision has infuriated many parents and law enforcement officers.
The Alisal Union School District in Salinas agreed to name the new school in honor of Tiburcio Vasquez – who was eventually hanged for killing at least two people in the nineteenth century.
Superintendent John Ramirez defended the board’s decision telling Fox News that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
“Tiburcio Vasquez, along with others, was an individual who was a revolutionary,” Ramierz said. “He was not okay with the oppression.”
Vasquez “was probably the most notorious bandit California ever saw,” according to the University of Southern California library. He was 14-years-old when he committed his first crime – stabbing a constable.
In 1875 Vasquez was convicted of two murders and subsequently hanged. Other historical records indicate he may have killed as many as six people – including a law enforcement officer.
“He took from the rich and gave to the poor,” Francisco Estrada told KION. “He was your inspiration of Zorro.”
Estrada sat on the naming committee for the new elementary school and said the convicted murderer was a good man who should be a model to the youth of East Salinas.
He said Vasquez was simply misunderstood.
“Mr. Vasquez, number one, was not a murderer,” he told the television station. “He was framed by the system at that time.”
“The history was written by mainstream whites,” he said. “It wasn’t written by Californians or people of Mexican descent. When do we have our history written by us? When do we stop having our heroes branded as villains?”
(Excerpt) Read more at radio.foxnews.com ...
Ain't diversity grand?!
Did he use guns to kill people? If so, it probably didn’t have high cap mags, so it’s okay.
Mexicans should stop and think about why they prefer to name their schools after murduring thugs.
Vasquez Rocks!
does anything that happens in that banana Republic without bananas surprise anyone??
I can’t remember the last time(in the last few years) I heard about a school or Navy Ship being named after someone who WASN’T a “Revolutionary” (Read: Thug)
He took from the rich and gave to the poor?
Wow. Just like Soros and Buffett, but their money wasn’t offshore.
This is insanity - the man was a clod blooded killer.
It is either one or the other - either he is a revolutionary who killed people - or he was ‘framed’ and innocent of the killings - and therefore not much of a revolutionary.
Sort of like how the Arab world celebrates Hitler with one breath, while denying the Holocaust with the other. So why do they like Hitler?
I seem to remember a “Wagon Train” episode in which the characters meet up with this Vasquez bandito. I think there’s an old movie or two out there as well. Presented as a sort of romanticized good/bad guy, like Jesse James often was. I always figured in actual history, both were very likely real rotters.
Okay, why not name the school after Osama bin Laden then?
Yep. Quite a role model.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiburcio_V%C3%A1squez
Allegedly, Vásquez seduced and impregnated his own niece. Either the girl’s family or Greek George’s wife’s family betrayed Vásquez to Los Angeles Sheriff William R. Rowland. Rowland sent a posse to the ranch and captured Vásquez on May 14, 1874. Greek George’s adobe was situated near the present day Melrose Place in West Hollywood. This was coincidentally very close to where the movie industry would, in a few decades, set up shop.[14]
What next! A school named after Joaquin Murrieta?
Maybe then one named after Juan Corona!
Just like Bonnie and Clyde. They had a cult following but were out and out scumbags.
Well, at least they didnt call it Che Guevarra Elementary........
One can watch the local newscasts for only a few mornings or evenings to conclude that a bandit and murderer is apparently already the “role model” for most of the youth in any part of Salinas.
Why is it considered okay to steal from the rich?
Stealing is theft, regardless of their wealth.
If I go to a high class neighborhood and steal their stuff I cant claim that I am an innocent hero because I want to give the stuff to the poor. No lawyer on earth, even a liberal one, would dare make such a claim in a court of law.
As for the claim that he was the inspiration for Zorro, that is just plain stupidity.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorro
“The history was written by mainstream whites,” he said.”
!Los gueros diablos Hombres keepin’ em down!
Let’s re-name every town in America `Chicago’ and every state ‘California.’
Then we all can become Eloi, at least until the Morlocks slaughter us all.
Bonnie and Clyde High LOL
Charlie Manson University
KKK Trade School
This is all too much but typical of the changing mental and cultural attitudes here in what once was a great state. Salinas, Watsonville, Gilroy (one murder per day), Greenfield and more are sliding into one big Tijuana. Viva Zappata!
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