Lines and shadows Read Free Page B

hours, 8 male susps, 17-20 years. Armed with knives and clubs. Two victims and their children robbed.
    And if the pollos were lucky enough (and fit enough) to outrun the bandit gangs in the canyons, or the moonlighting Tijuana cops, or the Mexican-American youth gangs, or the helicopters and four-wheeled vehicles of la migra , they found other perils awaiting them in their crossing:
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    Saturday, third watch, Interstate 5 under pedestrian bridge. Alien struck while running across freeway.
    Monday, third watch, Otay Mesa Road, vehicle ran over fleeing alien. Broken pelvis. Saturday, third watch. Another alien hit by car on Highway 805, running across freeway. Taken to Bay General. Not expected to live.
    And if the male aliens managed to survive the bandits in the canyons and the moonlighting Mexican cops, and the Mexican-American youth gangs, and the speeding cars, there were additional perils for females between the ages of ten and seventy: Sunday, 2300 hours, Border Patrol chopper interrupted gang rape. Five suspects. Spring Canyon.
    And so forth. There were some San Diego police administrators starting to get a very large headache from these statistical entries, and the last thing in the world I needed while they pondered the border phenomenon civilian pressure. But that's exactly what they got. Articles started appearing with regularity in the San Diego newspapers:
ALIEN BOY PARALYZED BY ROBBERS
    Sixteen-year-old has spinal cord cut
    Seventh alien robbery this week
    During the summer, investigative reporters interviewed a Mexican-American youth gang member in San Ysidro for his lurid account of alien robberies. In a short career he had beaten and robbed countless victims, and raped fifteen alien women, one for every year of his life.
    By midsummer 1976 the Tijuana mayor was sweating out all the reports of his police officers ambushing aliens on American soil. A spokesman for Mayor Fernando Marquez Arce told U.S. reporters: "We are sure these are bandits impersonating Tijuana police and not members of our department. There are stores in Tijuana where uniforms resembling police uniforms can be bought and we are sure there are people buying these and posing as police."
    Finally, by summer's end Mexican President Luis Echeverria Alvarez addressed the U.S. government on the fate of pollos being robbed, beaten, raped and murdered at the American border.
    He said: "They deserve the respect accorded to human beings by every civilized society," and he added that the "attitude of the Mexican government has been and will continue to be uncompromising" on the safety of these aliens. ( And while some U.S. citizens said who gives a shit what some boss beaner in Mexico City found "uncompromising," there were file://C:\Documents and Settings\tim\Desktop\books to read\Wambaugh, Joseph - Lines a... 11/20/2009
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    those in Washington who listened to everything in Mexico City these days. The beaners at last had something the gringos needed at this point in history: oil. No one knew how much as yet, but it was there. Oil !
    So, with ever more frequency the San Diego press and the national press began to pay attention to the reports of border bandits, and in virtually every local article and every television interview (sometimes three a week) there was some statement by one Southern Division lieutenant named Burl Richard Snider.
    "Only ten percent of the crimes are reported," he liked to say. "Here's a picture of a fourteen-year-old girl when they finished with her. Here's what they did to a man who didn't have enough money to satisfy them. Here's…"
    Oh, they just loved him for that uptown. Cops generally trust the press about as much as they trust politicians, judges, lawyers, psychiatrists and the Red Army. Dick Snider was conducting a one-man publicity campaign. He was even quoted in a business