ustxtxb_obs_1967_06_09_50_00019-00000_000.pdf

#ripitz’ Since 1866 The Place in Austin GOOD FOOD GOOD BEER 1607 San Jacinto GR 7-4171 .11111111111EVRAW.,Er sociated Press, and it took effect. While Rangers continued to object to the use of flash lighting, they thereafter assented to other photography. “There could be only one reason why they wanted no pictures to be taken and that is this, they were doing something they didn’t want to be seen. They were pushing people around, they were doin’ as they pleased, and they didn’t want us around,” Garrison told the Observer. “I’ve got no quarrel with either side as long as they leave us alone,” he added. The arrests early the morning of May 27 in Harlingen also involve accusations against the Rangers. Those arrested were Lucio, a government student at Pan American College; Manuel Becerra, Jr., a teacher in a school near Brownsville; and Kenneth Lafon, a captain in the U.S. Air Force. Becerra denied picketing and said Lafon was a bystander, also. Becerra and Lucio were charged with unlawful picketing to deprive a named railroad employee “of his right to labor.” Charges against Lafon were dropped. Lucio, 23, a pre-law student who expresses dedication to helping the poor among the Mexican-Americans, said both the other two men are brothers-in-law of his and that Lafon is a six-year veteran and a decorated navigator of C-47’s who served in Vietnam a year and is now undergoing pilot training at Laredo Air Force Base. Lafon was in civilian clothes; he had come into the Valley for Lucio’s niece’s graduation. Lucio was arrested for picketing. Then, Lucio said, Becerra asked the Ranger making the arrest for his name, and Becerra was arrested. Garrison of AP told the Observer he heard Becerra ask Ranger Bob Dawson his name, Dawson reply he didn’t have to tell his name, Becerra reply that he had a right as a taxpayer to know who was enforcing the laws, and Dawson rejoin that he didn’t think he had to give his name and that Becerra was under arrest. Lucio says that as he got into the Ranger car, “somebody kicked me from behind.” In the car, Lucio says, Van Cleve said to him, “So you want to stop a train? Well, I’m gonna throw you under a train so you can stop it.” “I didn’t say anything. I was afraid they’d stop and beat me up and say I was trying to escape,” Lucio says. At the justice court in Harlingen, Lucio says, Captain Lafon came in with his wife and Lucio’s wife and little sister and sat down in the front row. Dawson and Jack Van Cleve then, Lucio says, told Lafon to get up, that he had falsely told them before he was not with these people he rejoined he had said only that he was a bystander and Van Cleve then told him he was under arrest. “You know,” Lucio concluded, “I would not mind getting arrested, if I wasn’t just pushed around.” The night of May 29 in Harlingen, as Harr of KGBT-TV was taking pictures, a car came all the way across the road and narrowly missed the lens of his camera. Harr gauges the miss-margin at about six inches. They shined a spotlight into his camera, too, he said. This same night a newsman carrying a tape-recorder recorded the words of a railroad man as the newsman took pictures. “That’s dangerous . . . We don’t want that no more,” a voice on the tape recording said as it was played back, across the street from the tracks, on the hood of a car. There were unconfirmed reports that the Rangers had submachine guns. This night, for instance, Martin Rosales, KGBT program manager, said he saw such a gun taken from a Chevy station wagon and put into a Ranger car. But Capt. Allee said there were no such guns around. He thought that what people were seeing was a new kind of carbine with a clip on it; the Rangers of this district have a submachine gun, he said, bur they did not take it to the Valley. Picketing proceeded quietly this night, with no arrests. But unionist militant Baldemar Garza knew the respite was temporary. “I can smell nothing sweet,” he said as he left the tracks at Harlingen. Conversations with the Captain ONE AFTERNOON early this month two Mexican-American girls were picketing the train at La Casita shed in Rio Grande City, and Texas Rangers and railroad people were standing at a distance, watching them. The temperature was 105 degrees, and in the glary afternoon the hamburger stands on the highway nearby were selling soda water at a fast pace. Father Charles Turners of Pasadena, watching the pickets and the Rangers from a grove of mesquite trees between the highway and the packing shed, had just had a talk with Captain Allee. “He said that these union organizers are trained in violence,” the priest, who is a partisan of the union, said. “‘Just like you’re trained in being a priest, they’re trained in that,’ ” Father Turners quoted Allee, who also told the priest that he is for “legitimate unions.” The Observer approached Captain Allee while he was seated in his car, and the captain said, “Get in.” “I’ve come down here as a law enforcement officer to preserve life and property,” the 35-year veteran of the Rangers began. These people, picketing La Casita despite a permanent injunction against their doing this, “have gone to extremes,” he said. “They’ve gone to mass picketing, they’ve gone to secondary picketing at the railroad. It’s illegal. . . . I just feel like the train should go through, that’s the way it is. . . . This thing has gotten plumb outa hand as far as law enforcement is concerned.” This is not the first time Rangers have been called into such situations, he said, replying to Sen. Ralph Yarborough’s criticism. “We’ve been involved in these matters from time to time . . . the oilfield strike, the Celanese Corporation strike, the International Longshoremen’s strike. I’ve had three major strikes. “We’re not prejudiced against organized labor. If they want to organize, let ’em go ahead and organize, but let ’em do it in a way favorable to all the people of the country and not just favorable to the union. “You go talk to ’em in the fields. They’re working. They’re satisfied. There’s none of ’em walking off their jobs. There’s none of ’em walking off,” Captain Allee said. “The people of Rio Grande City don’t want this thing. They don’t want it,” he also said. “It’s outsiders and a few agitators. They’re outsiders they’ve brought in here.” What about charges that the Rangers June 9, 1967 19 PROFESSORS STUDENTS There is still time to replace group orders for the summer session. Subscriptions will begin with this issue and extend through August. The cost is $1.00 per student, if ten or more subscribe and provided we may mail all copies in a single packet for redistribution. We will also include for each subscriber a copy of the recent issue on the University of Texas you so specify, the 1964 issue on J. Frank Dobie. Send your order now. You may revise it as the class rolls settle, at which time we will bill you.