Let’s beat up the Indians and take their land Tom Smith

An American Indian family has been living peacefully in their modesthome for decades; modest, but surrounded by rugged and beautifulcountry many city dwellers would envy.  Now, there is a pounding ontheir door.  Lawmen   hired thugs, really — tell them to get out. When some well-meaning neighbors try to intervene, they are beaten withclubs.  There is little anyone can do.  One local politician tries tointercede, but the big money and the local sheriff are arrayed againsther, and she can t help.  The house is razed into a heap of rubble andmemories to make way for a railroad being built by 19th centuryrobber barons?  Range land for the evil cattleman in a Western epic? No.  The hired thugs are Jamul Indian Village Police brought in toevict an Indian family being pushed out to make way for a casino of dubious legality, anIndian family who just wanted to stay on their land, as Indians aresometimes said to want to do.  The cemetery on the 6 acre reservation ?  That will have to be dug up too.  No point beingsentimental.

I suppose with something like Indian gaming it was only a matter oftime until something like this happened.  Perhaps it’s happened before.  Corruption has a logic of itown.  Take out the clubs and the mace and force the Indians off theirland, because it s the only way to achieve justice for the Indians,of course!  Maybe they should name it Sand Creek Casino, or The Casinoat Wounded Knee.  I’m not saying they should.  They should name it whatever would make the most money.

Here s how the San Diego Union-Tribune summarized the events:

Hired security agents of questionable qualifications and judgmentcrashed down doors to forcibly evict Indians from their life-longhomes. Neighbors opposed to a proposed casino rushed to intervene butwere met by a phalanx of sheriff’s deputies at reservation’s edge. Whenthe protesters entered the reservation from the back side, they weresubjected to batons and pepper spray. When paramedics responded totreat the walking wounded, they, too, were kept off the reservation bysheriff’s deputies.

The March 10 standoff ended with a written agreement signed by allparties that the homes would not be bulldozed for a week so that thecourts might have time to intervene. Within 48 hours, the tribe brokethat agreement and the homes were gone.

Well, of course.  The logic isn’t really complete unless you first make promises to Indians, and then break the promise by throwing them off their land.   Here’s how someone at the event put it in a letter to the Union-Tribune:

It should be noted that Leon Acebedo, Jamul Indian Band tribal chairman, cannot tell the truth about anything. To say the use of force in the March 10 confrontation was necessary because his hired tribal police were being attacked is a complete lie.

I was invited by Walter Rosales to help secure his belongings from his rightful home. I was there when Acebedo’s goon squad, complete with pepper spray, sidearms, metal batons, tasers and SWAT-style clothes, attacked us.

No one physically attacked or threatened the hired tribal police. Just take a look at the U-T’s picture on March 11. It is obvious who the attackers were.

The Cheshire cat grin on Acebedo’s face, as he watched from a distance, said it all. The man relished in seeing people harmed. Funny how he was away from the thick of things as his goons did his dirty work.

In Acebedo style, he lied to Sheriff Capt. Guy Chambers, Supervisor Dianne Jacob and attorney Pat Webb. Of course, Acebedo justifies the abridgement of a written agreement he signed by saying the tribal council overrode him. Where was this tribal council March 10? Could he not reach them by phone that day? The next day he ordered that the homes of Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery be demolished.

Unfortunately, the promise was only not to tear down the houses for afew days, not “while the grass grows and the sun shines,” but no ironyis perfect.  You have to admit, however, this one is pretty close.  Photos from the event can be found here.  And more information generally here.

And don’t miss the link on the slimy developers courtesy of whom we get this debacle.  Fuhgettaboutit.

I live in Jamul and I’m against this casino because I can do without the visual blight and the reduced property values.  And I’m not looking forward to the newspaper story on the first mini-van full of kids slaughtered by a drunk driver coming back from dropping his social security check into the slot, as he sped along the notoriously dangerous Highway 94 that runs through our now rather idyllic rural enclave.  Take that as a given.  But even if I have to swallow all that, could we please stop chasing Indians off their land with clubs?  If you are doing that, it’s a clue you’re doing something wrong.