I posted my blog essay on the one year anniversary demonstration of the Oxnard police killing of Alfonso Limon Jr on İLATINO LA! and received the email below from "Frankie Firme" who was raised in the San Gabriel Valley.
I read with distinct interest your article in LatinoLA about the youth killed in Oxnard by police, and the family’s endeavor to find justice.
For many years, I myself have supported community causes in search of justice, and I now support yours.
Many times as a youth growing up in the San Gabriel Valley neighborhood of Bassett, I was harassed along with my friends for daring to cruise into West Covina
during the late 1960’s & early 1970’s when it was primarily white. We were always pulled over for DWB ( Driving While Brown) and harassed, frisked, and forced to sit
on a curb facing traffic & the public, while our cars were searched, and back seats pulled completely out of the car and thrown to the curb.
Police would just laugh and tell us to “ Leave West Covina and go back to your side of town or Tijauna” , and follow us to the edge of town.
In 1971, 2 Chicanas, Kathy Zozaya & Rosalyn Macias, both 14 years old, were run over and killed by a white drunk driver in La Puente who had a previous DUI record .
Court was held in West Covina, in front of a white judge, and he was given probation. When the community protested, the media painted us all as “trouble makers”.
Justice was never served. I never forgot that….never will.
My compliments & respects.
Frank “Frankie Firme” A.
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