Category Archives: Current Events

Current events, in the news

Interview, with Liberation News

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Link to the article: http://www.liberationnews.org/brown-berets-provide-security-for-albuquerque-march-to-end-police-brutality/

Albuquerque Brown Berets at march vs. police brutality

“I could be one of the ones that was taken out.”

Ricky Gonzales, Albuquerque native and Prime Minister of the Nuevo Mexico Chapter of the Carnalismo Brown Berets, reflected on an experience he had with the Albuquerque Police Department 5 years ago. In his case, it was mistaken identity.

Ricky was at a friend’s apartment when he saw that APD was outside preparing for a raid. “I want to see what happens. I walked out of [the friend’s] apartment. I had assault rifles, lasers and SWAT guns pointed at my chest. I’m carrying a phone charger in my hand, it’s night, it could be mistaken for anything. So, luckily, nothing happened…but it could have gone a completely different way.”

The Brown Berets are a Chicano/Mexican American community organization that was born during the late 1960s and is still active. Their mission is to help those who are oppressed and need a voice.

The Brown Berets, including Ricky, were at the June 21 March Against Police Brutality in Albuquerque to assist with security and show solidarity. They do a lot more than provide security, though. “I like to think of the Brown Berets as a multilateral organization,” says Ricky. They do outreach to gangs, food drives, and toy drives for children born in prison. The Brown Berets do this without much of a budget, Ricky says, “We just fund things ourselves and invest sweat equity”.

According to Ricky, re-education is a major initiative of the Brown Berets. “A lot of our work has to do with re-educating ourselves and others. A lot of us Chicanos were raised with a certain version [of history], not necessarily where we really came from or what really happened. [Being born on] this side of the border and being American and not Mexican [is an accident of birth]. Chicano people here in Albuquerque exempt themselves from the fight of people south of the border – an imaginary line. A lot of [our work] is about re-educating these [Chicanos] to know we’re all the same.”

Video: APD Shoot Homeless man in Sandia Mtns

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James Boyd, a 38-year-old homeless man with mental illness issues, was shot by the Albuquerque PD on Sunday, March 16 2014 after he became engaged in an hours-long standoff with officers who caught him illegally camping in the Sandia foothills.

APD released video footage taken from the helmetcam of an officer on the scene of the crime that depicts a cop opening fire on Boyd while his back was turned to the police. The clip has since been widely circulated online and the Carnalismo Brown Berets have also circulated the clip.

In the video, Boyd tells the police, “Don’t change up the agreement, I’m going to try to walk with you.” As he reaches for his belongings, however, an officer says “Do it” and a flash-bang device is fired at the suspect while a law enforcement dog is let loose. Boyd

remains standing a few yards from the police seemingly unaffected by the blast, but moments later, the police say, he reached for something that they believed to be a knife, prompting Officers Dominque Perez and Keith Sandy to fire a total of six shots into the man.

APD have been known to make this excuse up before, and even shot a young man dead while he was holding a plastic spork. Unfortunately the was no video of that incident.

As Boyd laid motionless on a rock with his face in a pool of blood, the police continued to bark orders at him before firing further rounds of non-lethal ammunition.

After APD released the video, New Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden said that the video showed that the shooting is justified.

With regards to this month’s incident, Chief Eden said Boyd posed a
“direct threat” to his officers and cited Garner v. Tennessee, a Supreme
Court of the United States decision that found that the police can use
deadly force in certain circumstances.

Albuquerque police have shot more people than the New York Police Department since 2010, despite being one-sixteenth the size, and have been the subject of a Department of
Justice federal probe when the APD’s fatal shooting record was called
into question.

The findings from the DOJ Report can be found on www.brownberetsnewmexico.com

Brown Beret Jose Maria Vasquez with American GI Forum Speaks

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As many of our members are Military Veterans, we Carnalismo Brown Berets do support our Veterans, and support helping them in many of the pitfalls they encounter upon returning from war and combat. These issues with hospital shortages are rampant in states in Aztlan (US Southwest) that cover huge expanses, but have low, or rural populations. Sr. Vasquez speaks on the disparity and lack of resources for Veterans, and how absurd and wasteful (or misallocated) government spending can be.

 

Brown Berets, National Brown Berets, Brown Beret National Organization, Los Brown Berets, Aztlan, La Causa

Carnalismo Brown Berets, San Anto at protest against John Boehner

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The Carnalismo Brown Berets de San Anto and many others participated in a Community Protest against Speaker John Boehner for lack of leadership to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform The Rally was held outside of the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel where Speaker John Boehner spoke for a luncheon for a Chamber of Commerce. The Carnalismo Brown Berets and Bexar County Young Tejano Dems ( https://www.facebook.com/BexarCountyYoungTejanoDemocrats) delivered a Letter to Speaker John Boehner’s staff advocating for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Protest was organized by the Bexar County Young Tejano Democrats, with the support of the Brown Berets San Antonio,Texas Young Democrats, Henry Rodriguez of LULAC Concilio Zapatista, Texas Organizing Project, Mujers Unidas Domesticas, San Antonio Immigrant Youth Movement (S.A.I.Y.M.), and Mission Democrats of Bexar County among others.

Our very own Victor San Miguel was quoted in the San Antonio Current! Link Below:

http://blogs.sacurrent.com/thedaily/house-speaker-john-boehners-san-antonio-visit-draws-immigration-protest/

Racism in America today

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Prime Minister of New Mexico’s Journal May 6, 2014:
It’s like a bunch of cockroaches-surfacing in the dark. You shine a light on them and they scatter, but they always come out in the darkness. I equate racism in America in much the same way. These filthy, stinking cowards who largely kept their views to themselves, because the rest of the decent people had shamed them into doing so.
Everyone has a right to be racist-no one is trying to suppress that right, nor should we be. But when we see the attitudes shift toward implementing oppression through legislation and policy, well that is another matter.
It may be a matter of semantics, but I’m not sure I’d call these agendas of oppression racism. They’re far more subtle. I’d call them classism, and ethnicism- still race based in ideologies, but so subtle they’re unspoken amongst those who support them.
This cowled, shielded attitude has shaped racism today. Since conventional racists had been shamed away from flagrantly casting racial epithets, they learned to take dog whistle queues in the media and amongst cohorts to prop up the same consensus.
Worse yet, while listening for these dog whistle queues, the racists have also learned to pull what I call “reverse, reverse racism,” which is for them to pull some racist sh*t, and then accuse those calling them out on it as “race baiters.”
As identifiers of oppression and racism we must NEVER be afraid of calling something as it is. Don’t ever hesitate.

I recall being at an Occupy Protest one time when someone volunteering for the Ron Paul presidential campaign showed up. He was real aggressive and wouldn’t shut the hell about Ron Paul, while passing out palm cards. The protesters continued to tolerate him, and make intelligent arguments with him. But I couldn’t stand this idiot, so I blurted out, above the crowd “Ron Paul is a fuckin’ racist! Get the fuck out of my face with your Dr. Ron Paul!”
All the protesters laughed at him. I was in full Brown Beret uniform, and I was ready to handle the exchange any way he wanted. I didn’t call this poor dude a racist, but I did point out that the man he was supporting and trying to cram down our throats IS a racist. It ended all discussion right there, and the dude quietly walked off, with a bunch of protesters cheering. Confronting racism is a beautiful thing.