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arturo solorio is free
by: bianca
When President George W. Bush came to West Sacramento to visit the Fuel Cell Partnership on Saturday, April 22, Arturo Rodriguez Solorio was put under a no-bail arrest.
West Sacramento law enforcement authorities mistakenly thought he had put a fake bomb inside of a blue backpack and set it down on Beacon Avenue in the midst of 1,000 demonstrators.
Yesterday at a preliminary hearing to set bail, however, Judge James Moelke ordered that Solorio be released as evidence proved that Solorio did not intend to commit any crime.
On April 22, according to Elk Grove police officer Joshua Riley, Solorio emerged from the crowd of demonstrators near the intersection of Beacon Boulevard and Industrial Boulevard then walked toward the backpack, kneeled right in front of it, made eye-contact with Riley, then turned around and walked back into the crowd.
Jason Winger, police Sgt. of West Sacramento, said that prior to Tuesday's preliminary hearing, he could not rule out that the bag contained a bomb.
However, the defense called Steve Arosteguy, president of Inacomp, a tech company located at 3210 Beacon Ave., to testify about the bag in question. He said the bag had been sitting in front of his business for four weeks before Bush came to town.
The abandoned backpack, which Arosteguy called a "hobo bag," contained: a tan leather glove, seven metal electrical boxes, Skill ac adapter, 1-foot of metal galvanized pipe, green ornamental wrought iron and cyclone fence post brackets, smalls pieces of twisted black and white encased wires, white plastic tube pieces of what was a Catch All refrigerator filter box, patching material consistent with roofing and construction, a plastic toilet tank tube and a bag with toilet parts.
"Nothing about the bag frightened me ... it was visible from the sidewalk in front of my business."
Arosteguy reportedly contacted the police when he first saw the bag but hadn't heard any word back.
So the police knew the backpack had been abandoned in the area for four weeks, but Solorio remained in jail without bail.
At 10:30 a.m. prior to the preliminary hearing, which began just after 2 p.m., supporters of Solorio held a news conference in which they called Solorio's arrest and the detainment of immigrant rights advocates as racial profiling.
According to members of the League of United Latin American Citizens who provided the conference, Solorio has been an immigrants rights activist for years and they feel that he had been targeted on that basis.
The day of the protest, Solorio and Frank Gonzalez, president of the West Sacramento chapter of LULAC, were handing out leaflets for the May 1 "Day Without Immigrants" Sacramento march.
While they were in the midst of the Bush protest, Gonzalez said his truck was illegally broken into by law enforcement officials, as they reportedly mistook Gonzalez's truck as belonging to Solorio.
Gonzalez had DMV registration of the vehicle to provide as evidence if called to testify at yesterday's hearing.
According to Gonzalez, the result of the preliminary hearing will set the stage for a counter-suit.
"Something has to be done to stop this injustice," he said.
Al Rojas also of LULAC said, "We were selectively detained because of who we are."
Solorio's supporters at the press conference said that West Sacramento's gang injunction sets the tone of how Latinos are treated because of the color of their skin.
Because they have been vocal on the rights of Latinos in West Sacramento, they feel that they were targeted at the Bush rally.
When President George W. Bush came to West Sacramento to visit the Fuel Cell Partnership on Saturday, April 22, Arturo Rodriguez Solorio was put under a no-bail arrest.
West Sacramento law enforcement authorities mistakenly thought he had put a fake bomb inside of a blue backpack and set it down on Beacon Avenue in the midst of 1,000 demonstrators.
Yesterday at a preliminary hearing to set bail, however, Judge James Moelke ordered that Solorio be released as evidence proved that Solorio did not intend to commit any crime.
On April 22, according to Elk Grove police officer Joshua Riley, Solorio emerged from the crowd of demonstrators near the intersection of Beacon Boulevard and Industrial Boulevard then walked toward the backpack, kneeled right in front of it, made eye-contact with Riley, then turned around and walked back into the crowd.
Jason Winger, police Sgt. of West Sacramento, said that prior to Tuesday's preliminary hearing, he could not rule out that the bag contained a bomb.
However, the defense called Steve Arosteguy, president of Inacomp, a tech company located at 3210 Beacon Ave., to testify about the bag in question. He said the bag had been sitting in front of his business for four weeks before Bush came to town.
The abandoned backpack, which Arosteguy called a "hobo bag," contained: a tan leather glove, seven metal electrical boxes, Skill ac adapter, 1-foot of metal galvanized pipe, green ornamental wrought iron and cyclone fence post brackets, smalls pieces of twisted black and white encased wires, white plastic tube pieces of what was a Catch All refrigerator filter box, patching material consistent with roofing and construction, a plastic toilet tank tube and a bag with toilet parts.
"Nothing about the bag frightened me ... it was visible from the sidewalk in front of my business."
Arosteguy reportedly contacted the police when he first saw the bag but hadn't heard any word back.
So the police knew the backpack had been abandoned in the area for four weeks, but Solorio remained in jail without bail.
At 10:30 a.m. prior to the preliminary hearing, which began just after 2 p.m., supporters of Solorio held a news conference in which they called Solorio's arrest and the detainment of immigrant rights advocates as racial profiling.
According to members of the League of United Latin American Citizens who provided the conference, Solorio has been an immigrants rights activist for years and they feel that he had been targeted on that basis.
The day of the protest, Solorio and Frank Gonzalez, president of the West Sacramento chapter of LULAC, were handing out leaflets for the May 1 "Day Without Immigrants" Sacramento march.
While they were in the midst of the Bush protest, Gonzalez said his truck was illegally broken into by law enforcement officials, as they reportedly mistook Gonzalez's truck as belonging to Solorio.
Gonzalez had DMV registration of the vehicle to provide as evidence if called to testify at yesterday's hearing.
According to Gonzalez, the result of the preliminary hearing will set the stage for a counter-suit.
"Something has to be done to stop this injustice," he said.
Al Rojas also of LULAC said, "We were selectively detained because of who we are."
Solorio's supporters at the press conference said that West Sacramento's gang injunction sets the tone of how Latinos are treated because of the color of their skin.
Because they have been vocal on the rights of Latinos in West Sacramento, they feel that they were targeted at the Bush rally.
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The following is a personal observation about the state of affairs regarding "immigrants" and the debate surrounding them. If you are easily offended, don't read this. Now holy grails here, everything is put on the table. From observations at the West Sac protest;
Just wondering if anyone at the West Sac protest noticed the Minutemen/SOS goons huddled together on the sidewalk. Their signs were pro-Bush and anti-immigrant, draped in red, white & blue jingoism they shouted insults at anyone who was nearby and held any pro-immigrant sign (or anything written en Espanol). Then when the people they were shouting at attempted to engage in some discussion and provide facts about how globalization and corporate colonialism were the driving force behind undocumented immigrants coming north, the Minutemen called for the police to remove the person who challenged their right-wing dogma myths..
Then there's the usual Protest Warrior waving his archaic Soviet Union "hammer and sickle" flag in an attempt to label WCW or whomever at the protest as communists. His claim is that he "thinks it's funny."
The police themselves are often racist in action, ignoring the verbal (sometimes physical) threats, antagonisms made by the US flag waving Minutemen and instead harrassing Mexican protesters..
Dialogue with the Minutemen protesters seems impossible, like there is not any logic operating with their spewing of venom. To discuss the reasons for massive undocumented immigrants requires an in depth analysis of US imperialism and global economic inequality. The Minutemen deftly avoid this by focusing on their "band-aid" border wall as a solution. Of course the Minutemen attempt to hijack symbols like the "Don't Tread on ME" snake flag to represent their cause. Fighting British imperialism is what that revolutionary snake flag represents, and should be flying in protest in front of the White House daily to show the Bush regime that imperialism is not what the US stands for. Using the snake flag to scapegoat immigrants is cowardly and insulting to true patriots who challenge imperialism at it's source (Bush regime corporatocracy), not at imperialism's many symptoms (poverty induced immigration)..
The heirarchy for the Minutemen seems to be tied into some CIA/FBI type of a militia front group. Feds have also worked with leadership elements in neo-nazi skinhead movements when it suits them. In fact, it may be to the feds advantage to have working class people divided and fighting over ethnicity, complexion and language differences. The Minutemen/SOS and other hate groups recruit working class Euro-americans who may have legitimate class based reasons for anger yet are misdirecting their anger at other working class (Mexican) immigrants at the "border" instead of the billionaire oily corporatists who currently infest the White House. This is evident because the Minutemen/SOS "mouthpieces" at protests are unwilling to engage in any real dialogue about the causes of undocumented immigration, instead engage in name calling, insults and shouting matches. They act like agent provacatuers..
In the absence of any real dialogue we get the Tweedledee-dummer polarized discussion of Republican (Minutemen/SOS) pundits saying "Send the Mexicans back! Militarize the border! Scapegoat, arrest and punish the Mexicans immigrants!"
& the Democrats (knee-jerk neo-liberals) saying "Let them ALL come over! We welcome ALL immigrants! Big hugs and sugar candy kisses for ALL immigrants! Immigrants (especially Mexicans) WORK really hard in the farm plantations!"
Both sides need one another (like the religious right needs pornographers), the Republicans immigrant phobias are put in check by the Democrats immigrant philia or else there'ld be nobody around to slave away in the agribusiness plantations of CA central valley and elsewhere. Developers putting up their mega mansions throughout CA are always happy to have some extra hard working undocumented immigrant to hammer nails all day on a hot sunny roof, no questions asked..
The "leftist" or should we say Democrat's left arm, the UFW, insists that large agribusiness plantations are the way to go, and pesticides need to be regulated (or workers made to wear masks) but never outlawed. Mention zero tolerance for pesticide at any UFW meeting and you'll likely be laughed right out of the room. Smaller permaculture farms are a threat to the organization of this mammoth farm workers union, they need large plantations with many workers to be able to unionize..
Sort of like the PRI union for the maquiladora workers, let the patriarchs handle labor negotiations, never let the workers organize amongst themselves. We still haven't questioned why we need all that chemical junk made at maquiladoras anyway. We all want our fancy new car stereos, don't we now. What were the mostly indigenous (Seri, Cucopa, Zapotec, etc..) Mexican women doing for thousands of years in meso-america before the Euro-american corporations gave them a reason to live by providing them with JOBS in maquiladoras? Wasn't gathering native food plants and making artwork (baskets, ironwood carvings, boats) from local plants reason enough to live and thrive? Or did somebody need to capitalize on people's time, land and efforts?
Now the Sonoran state police use physical threat in attempts to separate the Seri from their homeland. Should they also migrate to el norte and work in the plantations of CA??
"Members of the Seri indigenous community who inhabit northwestern coastal Sonora accuse the state and federal governments of attempting to take their land for tourist development. Ernesto Molina Villalobos, a resident of the traditional Seri village of Punta Chueca, denounced a raid conducted by the Sonora State Judicial Police and Federal Agency of Investigations last month in which 40 masked officers allegedly fired at buildings occupied by children and pulled a pistol on a woman. Molina charged that the raid was part of a pressure campaign to force the Seri off their lands and clear the way for hotel and tourist construction as part of the Nautical Stairway tourist mega-project.
“We have struggled for years to not lose our history and territory, but now the government has violated the sovereignty of our community,” said Molina. "
Direct quote from Sonoran Governor Eduardo Bours;
“I am worried about the backwardness of the Seris. They have a great opportunity to modernize as they inhabit one of the richest zones in the state for tourist development and aquaculture.”
article @;
http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/Mexicalinews.html
Why doesn't the UFW help defend the community campesino farm in LA under attack by real estate developer Ralph Horowitz? Maybe the UFW doesn't view community farms as worth their time, or are the campesino tenant farmers/shareholders a bit more difficult to push around than the average union stiff? Without the Euro-american derived myth of private property ownership, couldn't the campesino farmers become their own organizers?
Yet neither side wants to discuss why economic conditions in Mexico (and elsewhere) are so difficult that people are uprooted from their homes and forced into treacherous physical conditions to migrate across an imaginary border to a different "nation" where the economy is better. So the uprooted Mexicans end up on some field filled with iceberg lettuce in the Imperial Valley of CA breathing more than their recommended share of pesticides/herbicides/etc... all because they are economically disadvantaged. Cancer and sickness from pesticide exposure wins them a free trip back to Mexico..
Neither the Republican Minutemen nor the Democrat neo-liberals want to take on the corporate plantation style agribusiness that subjects undocumented workers to physically unsafe conditions from chemical pesticide exposure. The discussion of immigrants and economic inequality from imperialist globalization needs to be taken away from both the Republicans and the Democrats if people ever want to come to any agreements..
Meanwhile in southern Mexico the Zapatistas are struggling to save their village homes and farmlands from another globalization pacted Mexican government dam flooding them out, and we wonder why so many people from South America are uprooted and forced off their lands??
When the Zapatistas non-violently organize a resistance movement in their self defense, they are attacked by the combined forces of the right (imperialist lapdog Vicente Fox) and the left (neo-liberal corporatists)..
"There weren’t very many of them, but the mayor says on the radio, “I asked for the support of the state police force.” The people back in Atenco find out that their compañeros have been surrounded and they start to blockade roads, so their compañeros can go free.
All of this happens with a PRD mayor, who is supposedly leftist, democratic, and the country’s salvation. The police arrive to remove them, and they keep pushing, all the way into the town, and the people there react, they fight and drive them back. Next comes the fear campaign. “Get rid of them, how could this chaos be happening.” And that’s when the police come in with extreme brutality, and the spin becomes that it’s the people’s fault, and who knows what else."
http://www.narconews.com/Issue41/article1794.html
Just wondering if anyone at the West Sac protest noticed the Minutemen/SOS goons huddled together on the sidewalk. Their signs were pro-Bush and anti-immigrant, draped in red, white & blue jingoism they shouted insults at anyone who was nearby and held any pro-immigrant sign (or anything written en Espanol). Then when the people they were shouting at attempted to engage in some discussion and provide facts about how globalization and corporate colonialism were the driving force behind undocumented immigrants coming north, the Minutemen called for the police to remove the person who challenged their right-wing dogma myths..
Then there's the usual Protest Warrior waving his archaic Soviet Union "hammer and sickle" flag in an attempt to label WCW or whomever at the protest as communists. His claim is that he "thinks it's funny."
The police themselves are often racist in action, ignoring the verbal (sometimes physical) threats, antagonisms made by the US flag waving Minutemen and instead harrassing Mexican protesters..
Dialogue with the Minutemen protesters seems impossible, like there is not any logic operating with their spewing of venom. To discuss the reasons for massive undocumented immigrants requires an in depth analysis of US imperialism and global economic inequality. The Minutemen deftly avoid this by focusing on their "band-aid" border wall as a solution. Of course the Minutemen attempt to hijack symbols like the "Don't Tread on ME" snake flag to represent their cause. Fighting British imperialism is what that revolutionary snake flag represents, and should be flying in protest in front of the White House daily to show the Bush regime that imperialism is not what the US stands for. Using the snake flag to scapegoat immigrants is cowardly and insulting to true patriots who challenge imperialism at it's source (Bush regime corporatocracy), not at imperialism's many symptoms (poverty induced immigration)..
The heirarchy for the Minutemen seems to be tied into some CIA/FBI type of a militia front group. Feds have also worked with leadership elements in neo-nazi skinhead movements when it suits them. In fact, it may be to the feds advantage to have working class people divided and fighting over ethnicity, complexion and language differences. The Minutemen/SOS and other hate groups recruit working class Euro-americans who may have legitimate class based reasons for anger yet are misdirecting their anger at other working class (Mexican) immigrants at the "border" instead of the billionaire oily corporatists who currently infest the White House. This is evident because the Minutemen/SOS "mouthpieces" at protests are unwilling to engage in any real dialogue about the causes of undocumented immigration, instead engage in name calling, insults and shouting matches. They act like agent provacatuers..
In the absence of any real dialogue we get the Tweedledee-dummer polarized discussion of Republican (Minutemen/SOS) pundits saying "Send the Mexicans back! Militarize the border! Scapegoat, arrest and punish the Mexicans immigrants!"
& the Democrats (knee-jerk neo-liberals) saying "Let them ALL come over! We welcome ALL immigrants! Big hugs and sugar candy kisses for ALL immigrants! Immigrants (especially Mexicans) WORK really hard in the farm plantations!"
Both sides need one another (like the religious right needs pornographers), the Republicans immigrant phobias are put in check by the Democrats immigrant philia or else there'ld be nobody around to slave away in the agribusiness plantations of CA central valley and elsewhere. Developers putting up their mega mansions throughout CA are always happy to have some extra hard working undocumented immigrant to hammer nails all day on a hot sunny roof, no questions asked..
The "leftist" or should we say Democrat's left arm, the UFW, insists that large agribusiness plantations are the way to go, and pesticides need to be regulated (or workers made to wear masks) but never outlawed. Mention zero tolerance for pesticide at any UFW meeting and you'll likely be laughed right out of the room. Smaller permaculture farms are a threat to the organization of this mammoth farm workers union, they need large plantations with many workers to be able to unionize..
Sort of like the PRI union for the maquiladora workers, let the patriarchs handle labor negotiations, never let the workers organize amongst themselves. We still haven't questioned why we need all that chemical junk made at maquiladoras anyway. We all want our fancy new car stereos, don't we now. What were the mostly indigenous (Seri, Cucopa, Zapotec, etc..) Mexican women doing for thousands of years in meso-america before the Euro-american corporations gave them a reason to live by providing them with JOBS in maquiladoras? Wasn't gathering native food plants and making artwork (baskets, ironwood carvings, boats) from local plants reason enough to live and thrive? Or did somebody need to capitalize on people's time, land and efforts?
Now the Sonoran state police use physical threat in attempts to separate the Seri from their homeland. Should they also migrate to el norte and work in the plantations of CA??
"Members of the Seri indigenous community who inhabit northwestern coastal Sonora accuse the state and federal governments of attempting to take their land for tourist development. Ernesto Molina Villalobos, a resident of the traditional Seri village of Punta Chueca, denounced a raid conducted by the Sonora State Judicial Police and Federal Agency of Investigations last month in which 40 masked officers allegedly fired at buildings occupied by children and pulled a pistol on a woman. Molina charged that the raid was part of a pressure campaign to force the Seri off their lands and clear the way for hotel and tourist construction as part of the Nautical Stairway tourist mega-project.
“We have struggled for years to not lose our history and territory, but now the government has violated the sovereignty of our community,” said Molina. "
Direct quote from Sonoran Governor Eduardo Bours;
“I am worried about the backwardness of the Seris. They have a great opportunity to modernize as they inhabit one of the richest zones in the state for tourist development and aquaculture.”
article @;
http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/Mexicalinews.html
Why doesn't the UFW help defend the community campesino farm in LA under attack by real estate developer Ralph Horowitz? Maybe the UFW doesn't view community farms as worth their time, or are the campesino tenant farmers/shareholders a bit more difficult to push around than the average union stiff? Without the Euro-american derived myth of private property ownership, couldn't the campesino farmers become their own organizers?
Yet neither side wants to discuss why economic conditions in Mexico (and elsewhere) are so difficult that people are uprooted from their homes and forced into treacherous physical conditions to migrate across an imaginary border to a different "nation" where the economy is better. So the uprooted Mexicans end up on some field filled with iceberg lettuce in the Imperial Valley of CA breathing more than their recommended share of pesticides/herbicides/etc... all because they are economically disadvantaged. Cancer and sickness from pesticide exposure wins them a free trip back to Mexico..
Neither the Republican Minutemen nor the Democrat neo-liberals want to take on the corporate plantation style agribusiness that subjects undocumented workers to physically unsafe conditions from chemical pesticide exposure. The discussion of immigrants and economic inequality from imperialist globalization needs to be taken away from both the Republicans and the Democrats if people ever want to come to any agreements..
Meanwhile in southern Mexico the Zapatistas are struggling to save their village homes and farmlands from another globalization pacted Mexican government dam flooding them out, and we wonder why so many people from South America are uprooted and forced off their lands??
When the Zapatistas non-violently organize a resistance movement in their self defense, they are attacked by the combined forces of the right (imperialist lapdog Vicente Fox) and the left (neo-liberal corporatists)..
"There weren’t very many of them, but the mayor says on the radio, “I asked for the support of the state police force.” The people back in Atenco find out that their compañeros have been surrounded and they start to blockade roads, so their compañeros can go free.
All of this happens with a PRD mayor, who is supposedly leftist, democratic, and the country’s salvation. The police arrive to remove them, and they keep pushing, all the way into the town, and the people there react, they fight and drive them back. Next comes the fear campaign. “Get rid of them, how could this chaos be happening.” And that’s when the police come in with extreme brutality, and the spin becomes that it’s the people’s fault, and who knows what else."
http://www.narconews.com/Issue41/article1794.html
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