by Alejandra Matos
Photo by Victor Cruz
A special recognition ceremony was held by the Mexican Consulate General on behalf of Mark Silverman, an immigrants rights attorney and San Francisco Supervisor David Campos. The event took place at the Statue of Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla, Center of Dolores Park, in San Francisco on Sept. 16. It was the celebration of Mexican Independence from Spain. Central America celebrated their independence on Sept. 15.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office will open eight boxes of records on the 1970 killing of Los Angeles Times columnist and KMEX-TV news director Rubén Salazar. It has agreed to review contents and records and determine whether they can be disclosed to the Times. Initially, it had outright refused to release them to Times reporter Robert López.
López told Weekly Report he first filed a California Public Records Act request in March to obtain the records.
As a journalist, Salazar had exposed several instances of police brutality and oppression against Hispanics in Los Angeles County.
He was killed in 1970 when a sheriff’s deputy fired an armor-piercing tear-gas missile into the Silver Dollar bar and cafe, striking him in the head. With his TV crew, he was taking a lunch break while covering an anti- Vietnam War rally in East Los Angeles which erupted into clashes between march participants and the sheriffs.
Earlier that week, Salazar had met with Western regional director Philip Móntez and staff member Charlie Ericksen of the United States Commission on Civil Rights to “put it on the record” that the police were ”out to get” him. At the meeting he stated that the police were tailing his car after work hours and — later confirmed by Hispanic Link — that both city and county law enforcement officials had made efforts to get him fired from both jobs. [Personal disclosure: Ericksen is now publisher of Hispanic Link.] López had reported in 1995 that the district attorney’s office decided not to file charges against the deputy.
Nearly 40 years after Salazar’s death, there are still many unanswered questions. An Aug. 12 editorial, the L.A. Times questioned, “Is it coincidental that Salazar told colleagues and officials with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in the days before of his death that he was tailed because his coverage of police brutality had angered law enforcement officials? Was Salazar truly under surveillance?”
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca firstrefused to release the records to the Times, saying it “could set a bad legal precedent regarding law enforcement records that are generally confi dential.”
López reported on Aug. 11 that Baca’s decision to review the records came after a county Board of Supervisors request that their attorneys review the records to determine if they could be made public.
López, who has been reporting on the case since 1995, told Weekly Report he would not give up on attaining the records.
“I have always pursued this, and will continue to do so,” López said. “I waited years to hear from the FBI, so I am not going to stop now.” He felt it was appropriateto revisit the case as it approaches its 40-year anniversary on Aug. 29.
“We have a different sheriff. I tried getting these records in 1995, and the sheriff denied the request,” López said.
He added that he would not speculate what his next step will be if the sheriff decides not to release the records.
County attorneys will present a report on Aug. 17 to the Board of Supervisors detailing if the documents could be released. Hispanic Link.
