Whittier police covers up
assault by off duty cop

by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

Whittier, Alta California - November 25, 2003 - (ACN) Whittier is a city a few miles directly east of Los Angeles where, like most cities in the area, there has been a complete demographic turn around from being predominantly White to being predominantly Mexican-American. The big problem in the City of Whittier is typical of many other cities in the area. Even though the Mexican-American population of Whittier is now the majority, the police force and the City Council continues to be overwhelmingly White. There have been numerous attempts to obtain Mexican-American representation on the City Council, however, according to certain Mexican-American residents, the City Clerk in charge of counting the votes, has assured every time that all five City Council members remain White.

This situation has negatively impacted the Mexican-American community, especially concerning the unequal, and at times racist, treatment of its citizen of Mexican descent by the predominantly White police force. This situation became glaringly true this Sunday when a prominent Mexican-American citizen of Whittier who lives in an exclusive part of the city was assaulted by an off duty cop on the driveway of his home. The elderly citizen was taking his trash bin to the curb when he was confronted by a gang of unknown assailants. The gang of youths that included two adults, one who identified himself as an Alhambra police officer, stopped the elderly Mexican-American and slammed his face with a hard soccer ball. The elderly man suffered a bruised eye socket in addition to almost suffering a heart attack because of his advanced age and medical condition.

The insult on the rights of the elderly Mexican-American man did not end here. After calling the Whittier Police Department for help, he was insulted even worse by two White police officers who came to his home. One of the Whittier officers, after determining that one of the persons that attacked the elderly gentleman was an off duty police officer, came back and yelled at the victim, "What's wrong with you, don't you like cops!" The elderly citizen, then called City Hall to complain the following day. Things went really down hill after this. They sent another belligerent officer to the old man's home and she was determined to "shut the old Mexican up". She arrived with her tires screeching, got off her squad car and slammed the door. She then went up to the elderly man and yelled " What's your problem?"

The fact is that a large percentage of Mexican-Americans in the City of Whittier are actually afraid to call the police for assistance precisely because of what happened to the above elderly gentleman in his own home. Many times, and this has been documented, if a Mexican-American persists in demanding his rights, the Whittier police will investigate to see if they can dig up any dirt on the complainer and they will use it against the victims. This occurred about 4 years ago to another Mexican-American citizen that filed a complaint with the city. The Whittier police ran a check on him and found out that he had a suspended driver's license. They then waited until the citizen made a complaint before the City Council and arrested him outside for driving without a license.

In the above current case, it looks like the Whittier police are covering up for one of their own. They are protecting the off duty police officer, involved in the assault, at the expense of the rights of the elderly Mexican-American gentleman. It looks like the Whittier Police Department is becoming as corrupt as the Ramparts Division of the LAPD.