A Onesided Confrontation?
James Otto, attorney for the petitioners, claimed that the sixty-minute scene between Signal Hill police and members of the Hispanic party was ugly from the beginning. He said his three clients — Ruben Linares Jr., 18, Adrian Hernandez, 24, and Juan Perez, 24 — had been struck with batons, stepped on and shocked with Taser guns by officers. Mr. Otto said he had family photos from the incident to prove his assertions. Police conduct was “outrageous,” the attorney said, especially since the young men were clean. He said they did not have criminal records or gang affiliations, and they were not drunk or on drugs.
Blaming the Officers
Apparently in the midst of the nearby mother-daughter dispute, all three men were arrested on charges of assaulting and interfering with police. Since, however, the District Attorney’s office has dropped charges against the teenager Mr. Linares. “The Police Dept. came down to the park with full deadly force,” Mr. Otto told the Long Beach Press Telegram. “(They) were looking for trouble. And they were making trouble.” Mr. Linares’ mother was a principal in the scenario, along with her daughter, and she was arrested afterward on a separate matter.
Mr. Perez told the assembled media that at one juncture he was encircled by a dozen or more officers who ordered him to the ground at gunpoint. “They just beat us down for no reason,” he told the Press Telegram. “We were trying to calm everybody down when the police came up to us and just started hitting us.”
Overtones of Racism?
An unmistakable tone of racial or cultural bigotry pervaded the press conference. Mr. Otto removed any doubt when he accused Signal Hill police of violating the civil rights of his clients. Reportedly, members of the Hispanic party said that they were the only minorities among an estimated 200 persons in the park to celebrate Easter.
Postscript
Police officers familiar with Signal Hill said that the Police Dept. earned a “negative reputation” in the 1980s for allegedly insensitive dealings with minorities. “It was in Signal Hill where the late celebrity attorney Johnnie Cochrane first came to wider public attention.” A source told thefrontpageonline.com. “Cochrane took the case of Ron Settles, who was famous at the time as a star football player at Long Beach State. After Settles was found hanged in his jail cell, Cochrane filed a wrongful death suit. They settled it later.”
“The Signal Hill department seems to have come a long way since those days,” another law enforcement source said. “In the ‘80s, it was typical for a very small town, run like an old-boys club. You know, friends hired friends, not because they were qualified but because they knew each other. Pretty informal, and their reputation reflected the way it was run. But Signal Hill went on to make big changes, for the better. Now we will see how this turns out.”