¡Otro Mundo Es Posible! – Another World Is Possible!
Join Orange County Communities for Santa Ana’s May Day March. Meet at Sasscer Park on the corner of Ross/5th at 3pm, on May 1. Click here to RSVP.
Unite for Action, Equality and Human Rights – Platform:
IMMIGRATION
*Comprehensive Immigration Reform – full legalization
*DREAM Act – to create a pathway for undocumented students Continue reading
Protesters showed up last night at Original Mike’s, in Santa Ana, to “welcome” corrupt, racist Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as he appeared at a fundraiser for the lame Bill Hunt, who is running for Sheriff.
The video above was shot at the protest by Chris Xitco. Click here to see more of his videos. Continue reading
Bill Hunt, a private investigator running for Orange County Sheriff, is holding a fundraiser tonight, at 7 pm, at Original Mike’s, in Santa Ana, located at 100 South Main St. His guest of honor is corrupt, and racist, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Members of the Orange County Dream Team are going to protest the event, which is supposedly for lawmen only.
Ironically the Santa Ana Police Department is also conducting a DUI checkpoint tonight, at 300 South Main St. I wonder if they scheduled the checkpoint on purpose knowing Arpaio was going to be up the street? What a convenient way to arrest any immigrants that show up to protest Arpaio! Continue reading
Are you wondering who is putting up all those “Dump Sanchez” signs all over Santa Ana?
Wonder no longer. The signs belong to disgraced anti-Latino Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen.
I verified this by conducting a query via Godaddy.com. They list Tan Nguyen as the owner of www.dumpsanchez.com.
He is also touted on the website itself (see the graphic excerpt below). Continue reading
There was a big hulabulloo recently in regards to the Mexican Independence Day celebration in downtown Santa Ana that was scheduled to take place on September 11th of this year. The Orange County Register used its platform to stir the pot and throw red meat to the scores of bigots and racists that make up a good chunk of their readership by questioning whether or not the event should take place on the 9th annivesary of the terrorist attacks.
My question is: Where were the folks at the Register and the others so steadfastly opposed to this event being held on that day back in 2004, when it was held on September 11th of that year?
I think that it is quite clear that the Register and company are just jumping on to the bandwagon of hate and anger that we are seeing in our country. They are simply trying to seize upon this climate that we have seen created by right-wing extremists and their friends in the media like Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
With this constant nasty vitriol being aimed at healthcare reform, immigration reform and anything President Obama supports it doesn’t take much to stir these folks up. Just knowing that a Black man is in the White House is usually enough to many of these folks blood boiling. Continue reading
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez dresses up for the Tet Festival but won’t co-sponsor the Dream Act
A new Facebook page is asking Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez to co-sponsor the Dream Act. Here is what they are saying online:
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is running for re-election this year and has refused to co-sponsor the DREAM Act once again. Every year that students have met with her, its the same story…that she will not co-sponsor. Ms. Sanchez has referred to a DREAM student as “selfish” for wanting to fulfill his professional DREAM. We are tired of Loretta NOT representing the community. It is time that our voices are heard once and for all! Enough is enough!! If you live in her district and demand that she support ALL students, please join this group.
Loretta Sanchez represents the 47th Congressional District, which encompasses the Southern California cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove and portions of Anaheim and Fullerton. Continue reading
The blue marker above are past SAPD DUI checkpoints. The next one is coming this Saturday, at the pink marker.
The Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) will be conducting a DUI/driver license checkpoint on Saturday, April 10, from 7:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., near the area of 500 W. Warner Ave., which lies just west of the historic Delhi Neighborhood, according to Theresa Cisneros, of the O.C. Register, in a Facebook comment.
As you might recall, I researched all of the DUI checkpoints conducted by the SAPD over the past two years and disclosed in a post on this blog that they never set up checkpoints in the extreme northern and southern areas of our city. They set them up in Latino neighborhoods. In my opinion, this is done so more cars can be seized from immigrants, although the SAPD says otherwise.
The numbers however don’t lie. There have been 115 DUI arrests, out of over 17,000 vehicles that have passed through the checkpoints. Of those vehicles, 4,573 were actually screened, on a random basis. Only 125 field sobriety tests have been conducted. Continue reading
“A downtown celebration honoring Mexico’s bicentennial that was initially set to kick off Sept. 11 and sparked a firestorm of protests has been moved to the following weekend. The date change came at the request of the festivities’ promoters, Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream said Thursday,” according to the O.C. Register.
Ream and his administrators were the ones who chose this date in the first place. Alejandra Garcia Williams, who currently serves as the Consul of Mexico in Santa Ana, asked Ream to change the date.
Kudos to Garcia Williams for defusing the ridiculous racist protest against this event. Why Ream chose Sept. 11 for this event in the first place is a real mystery.
This year’s Fiestas Patrias is going to be very special as the entire country of Mexico is currently celebrating 200 years of independence (200 años de independencia). Click here for more information. Continue reading
The Minutemen are in an uproar because the City of Santa Ana decided to hold this year’s Fiestas Patrias event on September 11. They are protesting tomorrow, March 31, at the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana , from 7am to 9am. The Consulate is located at 828 North Broadway, in downtown Santa Ana.
Counter-protesters will be there as well.
Normally the Fiestas Patrias event is held around the middle of September, but in order to hold the event on a weekend, the City of Santa Ana opted to start the event on Sep. 11, which of course coincides with the terrorist attack our nation suffered when members of Al-Qaeda destroyed the Trade Towers in New York. Over 300 Mexican nationals died in that event. The Minutemen either don’t know that or they don’t care. Continue reading
Remember the San Patricios: a History of Mexican and Keltic Solidarity A Lecture presented by the Tonantzin Collective and the Mexica Movement. Presented on Saturday, March 20, from 3pm-9pm, at El Centro Cultural de México, located at 310 W. 5th Street, in Santa Ana.
English Language Program (5:30-9pm)
This event is free. Food and beverages will be available for a donation to benefit El Centro Cultural de México. No vendors please. For more info: (714)381-5331. www.mexica-movement.org. Continue reading
Councilman Vincent Sarmiento, Sophin Zoe Pruong-McCreery of Census Partnership, & Councilwoman Michelle Martinez of Santa Ana, CA participate on Build Day
Santa Ana, CA – “Today, we transformed Bishop Manor,” said Sophin Zoe Pruong-McCreery, a Census employee and volunteer for Kaboom Playground Build Day. “What an amazing day!”
A vacant dirt lot was transformed into a colorful and vibrant Community playground. What was once an area littered with cigarette butts, overgrown weeds and painted over graffiti walls is now a place where children can play and adults can supervise them under the awning of a shaded wooden structure and flower bed.
Over 300 volunteers pitched in to build the modern yellow and green playground and swing set. Many participants worked on painting games such as Twister, Hopscotch, and Tic-Tac-Toe on once bare cement sidewalks. Additionally, workers completed a multi-colored map of the United States.
Bishop Manor is a densely populated complex located in Southeast Santa Ana. It is home to an estimated 4000 low-income residents of Cambodian, Cham, Vietnamese and Latino origins. These residents subsist on income below the federal poverty line. It is a dangerous neighborhood where one would not walk around after dark.
Click here to read the rest of this post.
I met a week or so ago with Paul Walters, the Chief at the Santa Ana Police Department, and two of his top police officers. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the DUI checkpoints that the SAPD conducts, as it turns out, twice a month. You can see all of the checkpoints mapped out in the graphic above.
I was upset when the SAPD recently conducted a DUI checkpoint at Rosita Park, a sleepy immigrant neighborhood on the west side. It seemed like terrible timing given the effort, currently underway, to conduct the 2010 U.S. Census.
The SAPD uses grants from the State of California to conduct the DUI checkpoints. As you might imagine, the police officers like doing this as they get paid massive overtime. Continue reading
It’s our friend Naui Huitzilopochtli and the Minutemen, and their Latina mascot, Lupe Moreno, whom Naui refers to as a “self hating Mexican,” at the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana.
You’ll love Lupe’s little pink camera!
The Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) proceeded with their DUI checkpoint tonight, at Rosita Park, over by Newhope and Hazard. I visited the checkpoint at about 9:30 pm. There were about ten cops there and a lot of vehicles and equipment.
I brought my camera and took pictures and shot some video. As I approached the mobile blood testing unit, one of the cops actually started taking pictures of me! I could not believe it. I showed my press pass to the guy in charge, who introduced himself. I told him that I am meeting with SAPD Chief Paul Walters next Tuesday, which is true, and that I had advised him that I might be visting the checkpoint tonight.
One of the cops, who sported a greasy pompadour, kept mad-dogging me the entire time. He did not even try to hide his anger that I was there. They all appeared to be white guys.
The fellow I spoke to said that they had only impounded one car, after starting the checkpoint at 7:30 pm. Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream isn’t going to like that! Cities make a lot of money impounding cars driven by immigrants, but our efforts likely blew it for Ream tonight. Continue reading
Tell your friends not to drive by Rosita Park on Friday night!
“Officers may stop any vehicle at the checkpoint, which will be in the area of 1000 N. Newhope St., near Rosita Park. The checkpoint stops will begin at 7:30 p.m. and are scheduled to go until 1 a.m,” according to the O.C. Register.
If you think that these checkpoints are about stopping drunks, you are wrong. Too often these tactics are used to seize cars drive by immigrants and others who are unlicensed drivers.
To do this in Santa Ana, right now, while the U.S. Census is trying to conduct its 2010 Census, is ridiculous!
According to an O.C. Register Watchdog report, 79% of those arrested at SAPD DUI checkpoints are Latinos. And get this – the SAPD impounds, on average, 4.5 cars for every drunk driver they catch! Continue reading