10 year anniversary of the death of David Viera. 

Be ready to take the streets! 

Five Points Plaza 

July 20th, 2014,  2pm

11980 Valley Blvd.

Jail Killer Cops!

Another police killing sparks protest


By Adrian Garcia


El Monte, Calif.


In a summer that has witnessed police shootings of unarmed Brown men and beatings of subdued Black men caught on videotape, a militant march of several hundred demonstrators made its way through the working-class neighborhood of El Monte, Calif., on Aug. 28 2004. The protesters demanded an immediate end to police brutality in their community and throughout the world.


The demonstration was prompted by the July 20 death of David Viera at the hands of El Monte police. Viera, a young Chicano father of three, was shot to death after police stopped the car he was riding in. Police said Viera and the driver, Raul Moreno, were suspects in a "gang shooting."


Police claim that Viera failed to obey orders to vacate the vehicle and attempted to retrieve something from beneath the passenger seat--possibly a weapon. The police riddled the car with bullets, mortally wounding Viera.


No weapon was recovered. Viera and Moreno were exonerated as suspects in the earlier shooting.


Among the Aug. 28 demonstrators were many family members of people victimized by police brutality.


Norma Martinez spoke about her two-year struggle to bring the Downey, Calif., police to justice for the killing of her son, Gonzalo Martinez, in February 2002. Gon zalo Martinez was shot 34 times with an automatic machine gun after a minor police chase. When he exited the vehicle, police supposedly confused a cigarette he was holding for a weapon. The incident was videotaped and sparked international outrage.


The Friends of David Viera Committee, family members and the Brown Berets organized the march and rally that concluded in Arceo Park in El Monte.


A strong contingent from the Inter national Action Center also took part in the spirited demonstration, prominently displaying placards that read "!Justicia para David! Justice for David!" and a banner reading "Stop police brutality!"


http://www.workers.org/ww/2004/killingla0909.php

To give a bit of the context of the situation that led to the murder of David Viera, we would like to recognize the life of Bryesha Limbrick, a victim of a senseless act of violence:





EL MONTE – Authorities were seeking two people Monday for the fatal shooting of of a 7-year-old girl and the wounding of an 8-year-old girl and her father outside a convenience store.

Bryesha Limbrick, known to her family as Chily, had just stepped outside a 7-Eleven store Sunday evening and was eating an ice-cream cone when she was struck by gunfire, her mother Anna Pulido told KCAL-TV. "She was just coming outta the store eating her ice-cream – and she got shot" Pulido said, breaking into sobs. The bullets also pierced the car of Phu Ho, wounding him and his daughter Ashley, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Tania Plunkett said. All three victims were taken to a hospital, where Bryesha was pronounced dead. Phu Ho and Ashley Ho were treated and released, Plunkett said.

Authorities were seeking two men in their 20s who had apparently been seen in front of the store shortly before the shooting and fled in a black compact vehicle, Plunkett said. Bryesha's uncle, Gustavo Ramirez, described the attack as family and friends gathered to mourn the little girl with bouncy braids and a wide smile. Ramirez said he went to the store with his niece and a friend to buy candy and something to drink. "I turned back and the guy takes out his rifle and he shoots about 10 rounds," he told KABC-TV. "The first round hit my niece and took her down. You could tell she was dead on the spot."

Ramirez said he knew of no reason for the attack but that his friend may have exchanged words with the shooters.

The shooting shocked residents of El Monte and pushed authorities to launch a manhunt. Authorities held a community meeting Thursday asking for the public's help in finding Bryesha's killer.

ASSOCIATED PRESS 4:43 p.m. July 19, 2004

Life in all its forms should be respected and cherished. The cowardly act of violence that caused the death of Bryesha led to the conviction of Eric Andrew Odell. However, the manhunt led to the wrongful killing of David Viera. There is more to the story than what is told in the newspapers.


In Memory of David Viera on May 20, 2009 at 6:13 pm said:


El Monte Police have been harassing El Monte Residents as far back as I can remember. I first moved to El Monte in 1973, moved out for 7 years and then moved back. I am the sister in law of David Viera. El Monte Police shot him in the back seven times in July 2004. The papers and news made him out to be a gang member when he was not. They made him out to be a violent man and he was not. He was coping in the death of his father and turned to drugs. That was his only crime. EMPD would harass his family including my husband. This happened over many years. One officer told David and one of his other brothers that the Viera men would either end up dead or in prison. Out of eight boys, only one has been incarcerated and one is now deceased. I believe that EMPD covered up the shooting. The outcome was “Justifiable Homicide”. It was never reviewed on why he was opened fire like a shooting range.
http://www.insidesocal.com/sgvcrime/2009/05/18/tuesdays-column-memories-of-el/

For this reason, we call the people to take to the streets!

More info to come…

Smash Patriarchy

What is patriarchy?

Patriarchy is an ideology that has existed for many years throughout history. It manifests itself in different ways dependent on the economic system. Capitalism is an economic system where monetary gains and machinery production belongs to a small group. Many people work for this group and can only survive by selling their labor power. The general ideology of patriarchy is about power and control; it benefits the masculine gender, giving less equality to women. In the capitalist system the patriarchal ideology is expressed by the following ways:
The gender-female / female is related as an object.
-The domestic labor is exploited because no work is created in the system.
The patriarchal state commits femicide, eraticating women to maintain order with the ideology and to stop the overcoming of women.
-Sexism
-At the same time, men are damaged by the system through a dominant hierarchy. Institutions like the police, the military, and the government criminalize men of color and working class.

The current context of multiple crises has shown that today more than ever, the terrible sexual and racial economic inequality, gender, interact and interrelate, giving rise to new patterns of structural impoverishment affecting women worldwide ( Intersecting oppressions, Central America Women's Network)

Decolonize El Monte

Week of the Summer Solstice

June 15, 2012

Noon-5p

Zamora Park 

3800 Penn Mar Ave.

music, poetry, workshops and street theater

In celebration of our Grandfathers and Padres, you are invited to a family orientated event to help raise consciousness and build community.  Our collective would like to recognize the hermanos locked up and who cannot be with their families due to the criminalization of men of color. Understanding that many homes are ran by single parents, we also want to celebrate all our mothers and sisters as well. In bringing a critical perspective to this day, we are working to smash patriarchy in all its forms through art, education and direct action. The institutional violence perpetuated in our neighborhoods traces back to the violence of the state and the prison industrial complex. This day of resistance and celebration will be filled with fun and informative activities including music, poetry, workshops and street theater. The solstice signifies the change in seasons and a new arising filled with the fire fueling our quest for justice, dignity and equality. 

More details to come...

Commemorating the life of Khoa Anh Le

killed June 14, 2012 by EMPD

When the yelling match between Diane Le's schizophrenic brother and their father escalated into shoving, Le did what families of the mentally disabled are repeatedly advised to do. She called the police. At about 11 p.m. on June 14, two El Monte police officers responded to a family disturbance call in the 2700 block of Caminar Avenue in El Monte.

Hours later, Khoa Anh Le was dead. Investigators said the 37-year-old had been beaten, choked and tazed by the El Monte police officers whom the family had called for help. "If I could go back in time, I wouldn't call for help," Diane Le said. "Because of my call, my brother is now gone”. It was reported that Khoa was handcuffed on the floor apologizing and pleading with officers as they continued to beat him, using a Carotid Restraint, also known as a blood choke or sleeper hold, on him. Paramedics were called to the scene and Le was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/khoa-anh-le-kelly-thomas-beating-el-monte-schizophrenia-police-159668315.html

Smashing Patriarchy
El Monte police officer accused in federal lawsuit of raping transsexual woman while on-duty

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Brian Day

A transsexual woman has filed a federal civil rights claim alleging she was raped by an on-duty El Monte police officer last year.
The complaint, filed Oct. 18, seeks unspecified damages and lists the City of El Monte and an unnamed police officer as defendants. It also named up to eight additional unidentified defendants.
Court documents indicate the alleged attack took place between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. Oct. 23, 2012, as the victim was walking at the northeast corner of Central and Garvey avenues.
The uniformed officer is accused of pulling up alongside the transsexual woman and ordering her to lean into the driver-side window of his marked patrol car. Fearing for her safety if she refused, the victim complied, according to the complaint.
“El Monte Police Officer John Doe groped her breasts,” the complaint alleged. “He then asked plaintiff if she was a ‘nasty she-male.’ Plaintiff responded that she was transsexual.”
The complaint goes on to allege that the officer ordered the victim into a nearby alley, then ordered her to follow him to a deserted and poorly lit loading dock area in the 10000 block of Garvey Avenue.
Once there, “El Monte Police Officer John Doe got out of his car and ordered plaintiff to perform oral sex on him.” according to the complaint.
“After a few minutes, El Monte Police Officer John Doe told plaintiff to stand up and bend over the trunk of the police car,” the complaint stated. The officer allegedly told the victim in course language that he was going to rape her.
The officer called the victim by a pejorative name and told her, “you like this, don’t you,” as the assault continued, court documents claim.
Once the assault was over, the officer allegedly told the woman to “get out of here,” before leaving the area himself in his patrol car.
After walking away from the area, the woman returned to the scene and collected a condom discarded by the officer during the alleged attack, according to the complaint. 

http://www.insidesocal.com/sgvcrime/2013/10/24/el-monte-police-officer-accused-in-federa-lawsuit-of-raping-transsexual-woman-while-on-duty/




Throughout our program we will have interactive workshops on gardening and the importance of composting. The City of El Monte is promoting an Urban Agriculture program to convert empty lots into edible gardens. We are taking the initiative by reaching out to our neighbors in order to learn and share our collective knowledge and build a strong healthy community.

EL MONTE RESIDENTS VICTIMS OF ‘CAR THEFT’ BY POLICE’S CONTRACTED TOWING COMPANY

SHAME ON ALBERT'S TOWING

BY OCELOYOTL X | MARCH 12TH, 2014 11:50 PM

EL MONTE, CA

Residents and community supporters have taken up a battle with a towing company and its predatory practices in a local El Monte shopping plaza. Albert’s Towing Company has reportedly been preying on customers of the Valley Blvd and Ramona Blvd intersection plaza. According to witnesses, the towing company has especially been targeting low-income, and presumed undocumented shoppers.

“They are taking paying customers’ cars,” explained local resident, Nicolas Tomas. Tomas explained that numerous victims presented their store receipts, but were still forced to pay Albert’s Towing for their impounded vehicles.

Tomas attempted to help one of the victims last week by filming a towing in progress just before being assaulted by tow truck driver, Warren Eugene Ellis.

During the assault, “Nic” had his phone snatched by Ellis, who would end up confessing his actions after he put the phone in his pocket without turning off the recording device. As Ellis continued to confess to the assault, he acknowledges knowing Nic and his mother from a previous encounter.

“Hey that bitch on YouTube, what’s her last name, Tomas? - that filmed me?” questions Ellis as the phone remained in his pocket, “I’m out here [inaudible] cars, right? And her motherfucking kid gets in my face. I fucking picked his phone out of his hand - so I got his phone in my back pocket. So he grabs some other guy’s phone and he starts filming me, so I just fucking grab him, and say ‘you don’t understand’, so I fucking toss him. He fucking hit the ground went flopping like a little [inaudible]…so I might be going to jail, I’ll let you know.”

Ellis was not arrested, despite being cited for Penal Codes 242 and 487.2, simple assault or battery and theft or “purse snatch” respectively.

Albert’s Towing Company is on contract with El Monte Police and are frequently used to tow unlicensed drivers’ vehicles during city checkpoints. It is during one of these checkpoints that Nic’s mother, Veronica Tomas-Castro, recorded footage of Ellis charging at her for recording towings during the checkpoint.

DUI or “sobriety” checkpoints have been a topic of debate for many years, especially since they are seen as a disproportionate burden on “undocumented” drivers who are unable to obtain a driver’s license. In recent years, this would lead to many unlicensed drivers losing their vehicles to mandatory impounds and exaggerated storage fees..

According to El Monte police Lieutenant, Eric Stanley, at least three cars were impounded and fifteen people were cited for driving without a license during their last scheduled checkpoint.

After the assault by Ellis, another officer who was called out to the plaza questioned Nic.

“How close were you to him that he had to push you?” asked the officer on scene, whose only response to the Tomas’ complaints was, “That means you’re here causing a problem and you’re not here for any other reason.”

Nic proceeded to describe vehicle code violations on behalf of the towing company to which the officer crudely replied, “I don’t think you’re interpreting it correctly. This parking lot is for parking of customers of the store.”

Albert’s Towing impounds had continued through the week and the tactics were more apparent for community supporters who started watching over the plaza parking lot. They reported that the towing company uses watch people, or “spotters,” who claim to be sent by property management and who label vehicles by placing simple sticky-notes on their windshields once they’ve deemed the vehicle “tow-able.”

As numerous victims continued to have their vehicles towed, most of them plaza customers, more of them had stories to share in regards with their relationship to Albert’s towing. One victim had resorted to walking the two-mile stretch to retrieve his vehicle, with market bag still in hand.

Tomas-Castro would begin documenting victims’ misfortunes as they shared their testimonies:

“They fuckin took my truck because they didn't see me walk into AutoZone on their so-called camera. My lady had a dentist appointment and we were only in there twenty fuckin minutes. Come out and its gone. I pulled it out the same day $275, fuck Albert’s." 

"...My plan was to go to AutoZone, but instead decided to go to 99-cent store first. I parked by AutoZone and when I tried to pay I realized I didn't have my debit card so I couldn't buy any thing. When I got back to my car, it was gone! They towed my car and said some off duty officer saw me crossing the street to the court! I have no business in the court I had to pay $275 to get it out I called the property owner and he said he didn't care and hung up on me!" 

"My family has had a tough time with this company before. They towed my brother's car on a Friday at 4:30pm and supposedly closed at 5pm for the weekend. Even though he was at the office before 5pm they said it was too late to process and he'd have to wait till Monday, racking in 3 day fees that by Monday would cost $1000 to take out. We gave up on the car cause who can come up with that kind of money that fast? But to give up the car, we had to pay a pink slip transfer, so even though they took his car, refused to help him during business hours, we still ended up having to pay them just to let them keep our car."

Some of these towing victims reported paying amounts of upwards of $280 in “cash only” to recover their “stolen”vehicles. El Monte’s city website states, however, that a “stored vehicle” for arrests or ”impounded for driving with a suspended, revoked, or unlicensed driver”, run costs of up to $240.

Earlier this week on Monday, Nic was confronted by one of the “spotters” holding a knife. The knife was found on the watch person by police but refused to write a report, claiming Tomas was out to “victimize” himself.

The following day, dozens of residents and supporters presented their concerns to the city council meeting that took place at city hall, which happens to border the shopping center in question, along with the El Monte police department.

“I believe it's the police department,” argued Veronica during the council meeting, “those are police department signs, it has the police phone number on it…I want to know who gives this man the authorization to go and stop cars.”

One of the latest victims has reported being told by Albert’s towing that it is El Monte Police Department giving the orders to tow the vehicles, and not property management.

With not much of a response from the council and as both Albert’s Towing and El Monte police place blame on each other, residents and community supporters have directed their efforts in taking direct action by warning potential victims to avoid parking in the plaza.

“They [police and towing company] are known to do the checkpoints, and so they are the same people, with the same intentions, with the same motives,” shared Nicolas, “They’re targeting the poor, lower income people, the people who are already handicapped, who are undocumented and taking their cars…they’re stealing cars, its auto theft., unregulated auto theft - its like lawless land for them.”

The Rebel Press contacted Albert’s Towing and El Monte Police Department for comment, but as of publishing date has not received a response.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES IN EL MONTE:

BATTLE CARRIED OUT THROUGH IDEAS AND CREATIVITY

TO BEGIN OUR SPRING EQUINOX CELEBRATION WE GATHERED AROUND THE FIRE AND GAVE THANKS TO LA MADRE TIERRA. WITH THE BLESSING OF TONGVA ELDER GLORIA ARELLANES AND THE DANZANTES MEXICA CUAUHTEMOC, WE RENAMED PIONEER PARK, 

TONGVA PARK

*OUT OF RESPECT, PHOTOS WERE NOT TAKEN OF DANZANTES

INTRODUCING THE DAYS ACTIVITY, SOCORRO OF COLECTIVO HAUTNGNA PROVIDED US WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SOCIAL CONTEXT IN REGARDS TO WAL-MART. AS A GRAND/MOTHER SHE EXPRESSED HER CONCERNS ON THE WORLD WE ARE LEAVING FOR THE FUTURE GENERATIONS.  

FORMER BRACERO AND LIFE LONG ACTIVIST, GUADALUPE MARTINEZ SHARED WITH US A LITTLE BIT OF HIS LIFE STORIES EXPRESSED THROUGH HIS POETRY AND HOME MADE CHAPBOOK/ZINE. HE THEN SERENADED US WITH SOME OF HIS OWN CORRIDOS. 

PATRICIA OF THE EAST LA COLLECTIVE COMMUNITY EDUCATION/SOCIAL ACTION (CESA), SHARED WITH US SOME OF THE WORK OF THIS SOLIDARITY ORGANIZATION. FORUMS ON POLICE BRUTALITY AND WORKSHOPS ON COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY WERE MENTIONED, AS WELL AS A COMMUNITY FITNESS PROGRAMS AND BICYCLE COALITION. BEGINNING AN EL MONTE READING CIRCLE IS A RECOMMENDATION THIS COLLECTIVE IS TAKING TO HEART. PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED HAS ALREADY BEEN MENTIONED IN OUR FOLLOW-UP GATHERINGS. ANY ONE INTERESTED?

THE MUSICAL DUO, LA REFALOSA, JOINED BY THE SINGER LUPITA'S DAUGHTER, SHARED WITH US SOME AMAZING TROVA SONGS SUCH AS MERCEDES SOSA'S GRACIAS A LA VIDA. THIS TALENTED PAIR STAYS ROOTED TO THE COMMUNITY AND REMAINS TRUE TO THE PRINCIPLES OF SOLIDARITY IN OUR SHARED (COUNTER-)CULTURAL WORK. WE KNOW WE CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON THESE COMPAS! SUPER BUENA ONDA!

LOCAL HIP HOP ARTIST RIGO OF RELATIVE PEOPLES SHARED HIS SKILLS ON THE MIC. BEGINNING WITH A COUPLE ACAPELLA SONGS, THE STREET POET THEN BROUGHT OUT HIS COMRADE ON THE GUITAR WHO TOOK US ON A BEAUTIFULLY IMPROVISED MUSICAL JOURNEY.  SMOOTH SOUNDS AND THOUGHT PROVOKING RHYMES ENHANCED OUR GATHERING IN THE STREETS. THE CROSS-GENRE COLLABORATION WAS AN EFFORT TO BRING DIFFERENT CROWDS TOGETHER AND WAS GREATLY APPRECIATED AND RESPECTED.

COLECTIVO HOUTNGNA WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL THE ARTISTS, MUSICIANS, DANZANTES, STUDENTS, ELDERS, PARENTS, COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND PASSERSBY THAT SHARED THEIR TIME WITH US.  IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL GATHERING IN WHICH PEOPLE SHARED THEIR TALENTS, KNOWLEDGE AND STORIES, HELPING ONE ANOTHER TO LEARN AND GROW AS PEOPLE, CREATING COMMUNITY AMONGST OURSELVES. 

SINCE THEN, WE HAVE BEEN CONTINUING WITH OUR SOLIDARITY/CULTURAL WORK. MOST RECENTLY, WE WERE PRESENT AT THE COURT HEARING OF THE COMPAS WHO WERE GIVEN RESTRAINING ORDERS FOR DENOUNCING THE ILLEGAL ACTS OF ALBERT'S TOWING. MORE INFORMATION TO COME SOON....

DOWN WITH ALBERTS TOWING!

FTP ALL DAY, EVERY DAY! STOP THE CORRUPTION!

LOOK OUT FOR OUR SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION IN THE KLINGERMAN APTS!

DECOLONIZE EL MONTE

MARCH 22ND EVENT

GATHERING AT TONGVA PARK

(FORMERLY KNOWN AS PIONEER PARK)

TO CELEBRATE THE FIRST WEEKEND OF SPRING

ACTIVITIES WILL BEGIN AT NOON WITH A CEREMONIAL RENAMING OF THE PARK LOCATED NEXT TO THE EL MONTE BUS STATION (3535 SANTA ANITA AVE). WE WOULD LIKE TO GIVE RECOGNITION FIRST AND FOREMOST TO THE TONGVA PEOPLE AND GIVE THANKS TO THE LAND FOR ALL ITS RICHNESS, DIVERSITY, AND ABUNDANCE OF NATURAL RESOURCES. MUSIC, ART, POETRY AND THEATER WILL ALL BE INCORPORATED IN THE PROGRAM AS WELL AS WORKSHOPS ON NATURAL HERBAL REMEDIES. WE WILL ALSO BE TOUCHING UPON CRITICAL ISSUES SUCH AS GENTRIFICATION, POLICE BRUTALITY AND WAL-MART. IT IS AN OPEN FORMAT, SO COME WITH IDEAS OF WHAT YOU'D LIKE TO SEE IN OUR COMMUNITY. CONTRIBUTIONS WITH POTLUCK ARE MORE THAN WELCOME BUT NOT REQUIRED, HOWEVER WE DO ASK PEOPLE TO BRING THEIR OWN PLATES, CUPS AND UTENSILS SO WE DO NOT CREATE SO MUCH TRASH! WE ALSO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO WALK, BIKE, CARPOOL OR TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION TO THE EVENT.


FEATURED SPEAKERS AND ARTISTS:

GUADALUPE MARTINEZ

(Poet, writer and singer)

The lines on his face are a map of his life's history.
Guadalupe Martinez, 82, sat in front of a laptop compute at the United Farm Workers' 50th anniversary convention in Bakersfield on Saturday and shared some of his memories to be archived on video.
Later he spoke of his birth in the Mexican state of Michoacan in 1930, his entry into the United States as part of the controversal Bracero worker program and his experience with el cortito -- the short-handled hoe that forced field workers to bend over all day as they worked their way across the long furrows. "It wasn't necessary," Martinez said through a Spanish interpreter. "They didn't empathize with us," he remembered of his employers. "They couldn't feel what we were going through".

http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/local/x243434345/UFW-pioneers-get-to-share-their-stories

LA REFALOSA

(Nuevo Folklore Latinoamericano)

Charango Power!!!!

"La Refalosa", el otro poder.

La sonoridad y ritmica del floclor muscial de Latinoamerica vibra con "La Rafalosa" en los parques y calles de la ciudad de Los Angeles. Liricas de entranables autores Latinoamericanos emergen de la extraordinaria voz de Kendor y Lupitaya Yeye (Norte de Mexico) charango, ukalele y guitarras brillan al potente pulso percutivo de Mariano (Peru). Producidos por ABCHE (Argentina) y Caren Braj (USA-Guatemala), "La Refalosa" se revela como una experiencia musical interactiva, intrepida y festiva, sin intermediarios y accessible, llevando la musica a quien y a donde pertenece: a la gente y a la calle.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/La-Refalosa/420107914764475

KZAR of the RIME FYTAHS

(EL MONTE HIP HOP)

Established in 1995, Rime Fytahs quickly gained an infamous reputation for aggressively attacking local open mics, backyard parties and anything else that stood in their way. In 2002, after losing his Mother to breast cancer, Ksar released his solo CD entitled "KillahRhymeZaar: Please Give Me an Outlet." In the Summer of 2004, tragedy strikes and Haewhyer's physical was lost in a fatal car accident, it was a sad time, but Kuaesar pushes on with another prokect entitled "For the People, by the People". Ksar continues the Fyte. By now, Rime Fytahs has acquired enough production equipment to stay self-reliant. From disc-duplication, silk-screening, beat production and mastering. 

www.rimefytahs.com



CESA

Community Education for Social Action (CESA) is a collective in the Greater Los Angeles are collaborating with working-class communities to educate each other about social-economic issues to gain political consciousness for social action. 



RELATIVE PEOPLES
El Monte Hip Hop

Dedication to the Land and Original Peoples
Recognizing that this is Indigenous land, we would like to begin our gathering with a dedication to Toypurina (see previous post) and the Tongva people. The original name of the area we call El Monte is Houtngna, which means "the place of the willow". Not much is taught in our schools about the original peoples of this land and for this reason we find the urgency to symbolically rename Pioneer Park, Tongva Park. The institutional violence continues to take place in our neighborhoods through the colonizing police force, economic development agency and education system. We work to dismantle the dominant discourse and decolonize our ways of living through art and collective action. 




We will begin our gathering with Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc, a practice dedicated to political/cultural resistance through learning and teaching indigenous danza, philosophy, language, art, history and culture.

Housing for ALL!!!

Tongva Park is the site of an economic development project in which public land was basically given to a private developer to create market rate housing units. The city and its developer try to make a good sell to the people by providing 131 affordable housing units; however, we see their true intentions with the construction of 345 condominium units and numerous retail spaces. During this entire process, the city is criminalizing poverty by sending out the police displacing the homeless who live in the park and under the bridges. This project does not address issues of poverty and inequality in our community; rather, it tries to place a band-aid over the situation by sending people to prison or out further east. We need housing for all!

http://www.sgvtribune.com/government-and-politics/20140227/el-monte-breaks-ground-on-long-awaited-housing-retail-development

We will also be joined by members of the Brookside Mobile Home community who are fighting for rent control. People are forced to pay increasing amounts of money for their trailer spaces, some costing more than $1,200 (not including other living expenses). The city has taken small steps to address the issue, but the bureaucracy has not lead to any tangible solutions. The people of Brookside continue to struggle for rent control and we would like to extend our hand of solidarity as we raise critical issues concerning our access to housing and land. 

http://www.sgvtribune.com/article/zz/20130808/NEWS/130808956

Organizing against Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart is currently conducting an environmental impact report. We are gathering signatures against the proposed project. Check out our petition:

We the undersigned would like to express our concerns in regards to the possible construction of a Wal-Mart supercenter in our community. The 182,429 square-foot commercial/retail building planned for the 15.41-acre site located at 4000 Arden near the intersection of Valley Boulevard will negatively affect the health and safety of not only the surrounding neighborhoods, but the entire global community.  We question the intent and validity of the environmental impact report and reject the plans to build a big box store for the following reasons:

l  Wal-mart has settled lawsuits with the U.S Environmental Protection Agency and paid millions of dollars in civil penalties for numerous violations of the Clean Water Act after contaminating local water sources through storm runoff. 

l  The construction and operation of the Wal-Mart Super Center will materially endanger public health and the environment by causing an increase in the levels of heavy metals, fecal coliform bacteria, herbicides, pesticides, nutrients, sediment, oil and grease contaminating the waters of the Rio Hondo River.

l  The production, processing, and consumption, of commodities require the extraction and use of natural resources (wood, ore, fossil fuels, and water). It requires the creation of factories and factory complexes whose operation creates toxic byproducts, while the use of commodities themselves creates excessive waste.

l  Wal-Mart imports approximately 20% of their goods from foreign countries on ocean liners with Category 3 marine diesel engines. The big ocean vessels are the dirtiest and cheapest source of transportation, leaving trails of smog across the world's most heavily plied shipping routes.*

l   On average each Wal-Mart store services about 6000 customers a day which contributes to congested parking lots. Each customer’s car contributes to global warming and the amount of green house gasses in the parking lots is equivalent to a mild traffic jam. The culture of mass consumption promoted by Wal-Mart and other transnational corporations puts into grave risk the lives of our future generations.

A critical analysis on the social and environmental impacts of a Wal-Mart Supercenter will reveal that this store is not needed in our community. Apart from the grave ecological concerns, the company’s atrocious labor relations should also be brought into perspective in addition to the economical effects of the local small businesses. We support alternative uses of the proposed construction site to foster better health and social development for the community and its residents. Such proposals include the expansion of the Urban Agriculture program to strengthen the local eco-system, as well as the development of a Native Cultural Center to expand our knowledge on the traditional ways of living based on a fond love and respect for life in all its forms.

*Carnegie Mellon University researchers found that ships account for 14 percent of all global nitrogen emissions and 6 percent of sulfur emissions from all fossil fuels. Both pollutants are linked to global warming.

Dedication to Victims of Police Brutality
School of the Americas Watch

SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America and the Caribbean, to close the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institue for Security Cooperation and to change oppressive US foreign policy that the SOA represents. We are grateful for our sisters and brothers throughout the hemisphere for their inspiration and the invitation to join them in their struggle for economic and social justice. 




ALONI BONILLA

Bonilla was on her way to spend the night at a friend's house to be closer to an early morning math final at Cal State LA. But before she arrived she was pulled over for suspicion of driving under the influence. In the early morning of March 21, 2012, the CHP officer took her to the hospital for a blood sample after the breathalyzer read her blood registered at .139 alcohol content. But the blood sample was never taken because a physical altercation took place between Bonilla and the officer. The officer contends that Bonilla waved her arms around and approached him to head butt him. A video shows the CHP officer pushing Bonilla against the wall and then forcing her to the floor. He then pins her down with his knee. Bonilla ended up with a black eye from hitting a wall-mounted medical device, according to court documents. Today, she has five slipped discs in her spine and neck she says ere a result from the altercation with the officer. Bonilla was confident that if a jury saw the video they would side with her. But the judge denied the use of the video as evidence. 

Khoa Anh Le

When the yelling match between Diane Le's schizophrenic brother and their father escalated into shoving, Le did what families of the mentally disabled are repeatedly advised to do. She called the police. Hours later, Khoa Anh Le was dead. Investigators said the 37-year-old had been beaten, choked and tasered by the El Monte police officers whom the family had called for help. "If I could go back in time, I wouldn't call for help," Diane Le said. "Because of my call, my brother is now gone. 


Kiki the dog

An EMPD officer shot a 2-year-old German Shepherd inside the fenced-in front yard while following up on a report of a runaway teenager. The family was forced to put the dog down following the shooting. "I'm hurt that they would do this to my pet, but at the same time I'm angry because they act like they don't even care. They didn't apologize," Cathy Luu said through a Vietnamese translator. 

In an encounter recorded by a home security camera shortly after 4:30 pm, two police officers arrived at the home of Luu. The officers had an appointment to meet with Luu and her husband to discuss their teenage son who had apparently ran away from home over the weekend, and pick up a photograph, according to EMPD officials and dog owners. Police and family gave conflicting reports of the events leading up to the shooting. Police said the officers shook the gate and otherwise took care to check if there were dogs present in the yard before opening the gate and entering. But a video captured by the family's home security camera appears to support Luu's claim that the officers simply parked their patrol car and entered the yaard without checking for dogs, despite two posted "beware of dog" signs, including one mounted to the gate itself. After being shot, the wounded dog ran to the backyard of the home. It was later euthanized at the veterinary hospital. The loss of the female German Shepherd, named Kiki, devastated the family, Luu said, especially the couple's 11-year-old son. 

David Viera

July 2004

David Viera, a young father of three, was shot to death after El Monte PD Ralph Batres and Lt. Santos Hernandez stopped the car he was riding in. Police said Viera and the driver, Raul Moreno, were suspects in a "gang shooting". Police claim that Viera failed to obey orders to vacate the vehicle and attempted to retrieve something from beneath the passenger seat--possibly a weapon. The police riddled the car with bullets, mortally wounding Viera who was shot in the back 7 times. No weapon was recovered. The shooting was found "Justified" despite Viera and Moreno being exonerated as suspects in the earlier shooting.  


Some names of Killer Cops in El Monte
Victor Ruiz - tazered and beat man with schizophrenia to death
Jesus Rojas - tazered and beat Khoa Anh Le to death w/Ruiz
Ralph Batres - multiple killer and killer of David Viera
Arlene Castillo - Killer of family pet Kiki
Retired George Hopkins - killer of Mario Paz, grandfather shot at his bed after PD raided wrong house
Santos Hernandez - threw two stun grenades at wrong house, co-killer of David Viera

JAIL KILLER COPS!!! 
END THE CORRUPTION!!!




A BRIEF HISTORY OF EL MONTE POLICE DEPARTMENT

        An explicitly spatial manifestation of early “police” powers exercised against the working-class mexicano community came in the wake of the organized “revolt” of guerrilla bandit Juan Flores and the attendant marshaling of official and unofficial state forces against the nascent Sonora Town barrio. In conscious retaliation against Anglo rule of the land, Flores and a band of followers took control of Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1857, using it as a launching point for their guerrilla raids throughout the southern counties. After a popular Anglo sheriff and two deputies were killed in an ambush by Flores’ men, the fear of a broad mexicano uprising, coupled with the racial vengeance stirred up by the Los Angeles Star (Escobar 85-86), spurred Anglo leaders and their elite Californio allies to form a vigilante committee, which called on the notorious “El Monte Boys” to help quell the incipitent rebellion. The El Monte Boys were left by several former Texas Rangers—a para-state police organization infamous in its home state as violently anti-Mexican—who helped found El Monte as the first separate, all-white township in the region. Consequently, their activities as a quasi-police body may be viewed through the twin critiques of a racially and spatially manifest antagonism to the local working-class mexicano population.

        In the purported interest of community security during the peak of the Flores rebellion, the self-appointed vigilante committee declared martial law and worked with the El Monte Boys to surround the working-class Sonora Town barrio. Having cordoned off the residential zone, the vigilantes invaded barrio homes in search of pro-Flores sympathizers. Without legal warrant or notice of any kind, several persons were rounded up in a nocturnal raid (Griswold del Castillo 1979:105).  Whether in fear or in solidarity, there was certainly some support given by barrio residents to Flores’ men. However, many of the mexicano residents arrested in the barrio and elsewhere during the anti-Flores campaign (some of whom were summarily shot or hung) were clearly unconnected to the rebel leader. Their guilt lay in being poor and mexicano in an emerging social order that needed their labor but feared and reviled their culture and their potential collective mobilization along racial and class lines.

EXCERPT FROM "BARRIO LOGOS" WRITTEN BY RAUL HOMERO VILLA

Now EMPD is involved in a massive Towing Scandal 
http://ktla.com/2014/03/11/el-monte-residents-accuse-tow-truck-company-of-illegal-practices/#axzz2vmVhIohm

FURTHER DETAILS TO COME....
CONTACT: HOUTNGNA@GMAIL.COM