ustxtxb_obs_1970_10_16_50_00017-00000_000.pdf

Some of us in San Antonio were a little angry and embarrassed by that. After all, he’s supposed to be our mayor, too. So we asked him to apologize and he lied to us, saying he was quoted out of context. But the network shot him down on that one, proving that the statement was not edited or taken out of context. Still he refused to apologize. FINALLY, A BOYCOTT of the mayor’s savings and loan company was formed, and a number of young men and women set up picket lines around the mayor’s business. That was our way of protesting peacefully and legally against his stupid and racist remarks. It has been an effective boycott. We don’t have any illusions about putting Mayor. McAllister out of the banking business, but we know he is losing a lot of business. However, the mayor nearly turned our peaceful protest into a riot. City police broke up the picket lines and carried us off to jail. Two days later as we marched in front of his downtown bank a man broke through our lines and struck a young girl who was picketing. That made some of us pretty angry. We asked a policeman who was nearby to arrest the man or at least to carry him away to prevent trouble, but the policeman refused. Some of the pickets attempted a citizens’ arrest and there was a scuffle not a riot but some violence. As a result many of the pickets, including me, were jailed again. A gutless district attorney refused to take a complaint from the young lady who was assaulted. Thinking back to Birmingham and the arrest of Martin Luther King, I recall that the police in that city were all white men . and they were not very gentle with the Black demonstrators. In San Antonio we have a sizeable number of chicanos and a few Blacks on our police force, but the police force itself is being made to serve the political and business interests of one corrupt man the mayor. Incidentally, all of the arresting officers were Anglos. This is not entirely new, but it is becoming more frequent and more blatant and more dangerous. At a time when young people are questioning the validity of our “rule of law” society and while frightened older Americans are screaming for “law and order,” it’s worthwhile to think on what the police should and should not be in our community. We want law and order. I can’t quote statistics for other cities but in San Antonio violent crimes murders, rape, beatings and stabbings are on the rise. The murders and rapes and stabbings don’t take place in Mayor McAllister’s neighborhood. The crime rate is highest in the barrio, where the poor and the depraved too often are thrown together out of sight from the affluent Anglo community. We have, by and large, a good police force. The policemen are underpaid and they work for a city council that is not very cooperative, but they try to do a good job. That is why it is inexcusable for police officers to be diverted from legitimate law enforcement work to be used to break up political activity by our people. We do not have political police in America and we don’t need them. . . . . . . discrimination in police procedures is not a new thing. Mexican-Americans have been pushed around and beaten on and killed by local and county and state police for a long, long time and yet we have been and we remain a law-abiding, peaceful people. But for how much longer I do not know. We want the police in the barrios. We want them on the job and we want them to be well paid. But we do not want them used to oppress us or to deny us our legal rights as Americans. THE QUESTION of violence is a many-sided thing. I knew Ruben Salazar in Los Angeles quite well and knew him to be a fine journalist and an outstanding member of the East Los Angeles community. His murder was shocking and inexcusable. And there seems to be a great deal of evidence that he was killed by a policeman while doing his job as a television newsman . . . covering the civil disturbance in East L.A. last month. No matter who killed him, his death is a great loss to our people. We have too few men of his talent and dedication. We cannot afford to lose them through senseless and uncontrollable flareups in our communities . nor to sloppy and trigger-happy lawmen. I want to speak to one more formance of violence … and that is the violence that continues to drag on in Southeast Asia. That is a war that has cost our community perhaps more than any other group of Americans. It is a senseless and stupid war which should” be ended today and could be ended today if the United States would do what must be done get out! I do not advocate that our young men evade the draft unlawfully, but it seems a shame that so many of our best are being sent 10,000 miles away for a war we never should have entered. Our war must be at home, our Vietnam is in the barrios and in the fields to correct the social inequalities that continue to plague us. And PASO’s wars must be in the communities, attempting to make our voices heard in city councils, school boards, and county courthouses in the next few years. I have made no commitments to campaign for anyone in this November election except for La Raza Unida Party. Where that party is running candidates in Hidalgo, Dimmit, La Salle, and Zavala counties I shall do what I can to help get them elected. One of the things that has kept us so far behind the rest of the nation here in Texas has been the one party system and its single institution the Texas Democratic Party. As long as that party is the only viable party in this state it will give us governors like Shivers, Connally, and Smith, and it will defeat men like Ralph Yarborough with hacks like Bentsen. We must work for the development of two or more parties in Texas this fall. Personally, I have seceded from the state Democratic Party. Early in the speech I mentioned some of the successes of the past few years in Crystal City, Mathis, Beeville, and elsewhere. But we have had defeats and setbacks as well. The murder in Mathis of Dr. Fred Logan and it certainly appears to have been murder was a defeat. The loss of Senator Yarborough was a defeat to our interests. The farm workers’ union breakthroughs in California are tremendous, but South Texas farm workers still have a hard road ahead. In spite of these obstacles and in spite of Governor Smith’s inept and heavy-handed assaults on our people, however, I believe the next years can be important years. It is not too late to make 1970 the Year of the chicano and to plan for 1971 and 1972 as years of La Raza. To close I shall quote from Robert Kennedy’s favorite poem, by Alfred Lord Tennyson: “The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: the long day wains: the slow moon climbs: the deep moans round with many voices. Come come my friends, ’tis not too late, to seek a newer world.” And I will add: it is not too late for chicanos to seek a newer world. Thank you. October 16, 1970 17 FAMILY FEED STORE Organically Grown Grains 118 Fry Denton Personal Service Quality Insurance ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE 808A E. 46th, Austin, Texas 465-6577 MEETINGS THE THURSDAY, CLUB of Dallas meets each Downtown YMCA, 605 No. Ervay St., Dallas. Good discussion. You’re welcome. Informal, no dues. CENTRAL TEXAS ACLU luncheon meeting. Spanish Village. 2nd Friday every month. From noon. All welcome. 0