Ruben Salazar

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February 22, 2011 | 9:51 AM | By

Forty years later, controversy over journalist Ruben Salazar’s death lives on

Photo courtesy of cindylu/Flickr (Creative Commons)

An old interior shot of the Silver Dollar, the bar where Ruben Salazar was fatally struck, taken from a UCLA collection

Over the past several days, the Los Angles Times has featured an extensive compilation of records pertaining to the life and death of veteran journalist Ruben Salazar, an award-winning Times columnist and news director for KMEX-TV who was killed in 1970 during a violent protest in East Los Angeles.

Salazar died after being struck on the head by a tear gas projectile, fired by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy into the bar where Salazar was taking a break. An early draft of a report by the county Office of Independent Review, which is officially due out today, points to Salazar’s death being an accident. Still, there are those who continue to have doubts.

The comments from readers under the recent stories in the LAT have been interesting. Some don’t remember the killing, which at the time rocked L.A.’s Mexican American community and the burgeoning Chicano civil rights movement. Some have wondered why the violent death of a journalist 40 years ago at the hands of local authorities should still matter today. Others who remember the incident not only recall the details, but continue to wonder if Salazar was targeted. The journalist was an outspoken critic of how law enforcement dealt with Latino residents.

A piece published this weekend inviting reactions to the new report drew varied comments from readers.

Uncle_charlie wrote:

No one cares about this murder. I happened decades ago. Drop it LA Times.

Bob Wilson countered:

I care about this murder – it affected me and so many of my Chicano friends. I think too much time has passed to reconstruct what actually happened, but I suspect it was incompetence by the cops on scene, not malice. I would go with voluntary manslaughter.

Whophantom, who identified as a “retired law enforcement professional,” wrote:

I was a young Mexican-American in 1970 and remember these events very well. I followed the event and the story for forty years. I cannot under my professional opinion believe & will ever believe that LASD and it’s Deputies involved in the killing of Ruben Salazar was a “wrong place @ the wrong time” victim. Fatal mistakes in policy were made and no one was held accountable.

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FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, Chicano Moratorium, Ruben Salazar
February 10, 2011 | 8:23 AM | By

1970 documentary captured Chicano Moratorium protest

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times reported that the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department could soon release records pertaining to the death of former Times columnist and KMEX-TV news director Ruben Salazar, killed by a deputy forty years ago last August during a protest in East Los Angeles. Salazar, who was covering the protest, died after being struck on the head by a tear gas projectile fired into a building.

The violent protest during which he was killed, often referred to as the Chicano Moratorium protest to end the Vietnam War, was one of a series of demonstrations organized by the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, activists that between 1969 and 1971 pursued a combined goal of stopping the war and rallying for social justice at home.

The August 29, 1970 protest began peacefully enough, as captured by a then-film student named Tom Myrdahl, now a working cameraman in Los Angeles. His short documentary, above, follows how the march and rally took an ugly turn after authorities responded a report of looting nearby, clashing with protesters. Three people are known to have died as a result of the violence, including Salazar, who had ducked into a bar into which the tear gas canister was fired.

It would not be the only Chicano Moratorium protest to end tragically. After the deputy investigated in Salazar’s death was exonerated, another protest led to the death of a young Hungarian immigrant. Several days ago, a group called the Chicano Roundtable held a 40th-anniversary remembrance. Eastern Group Publications had this story:

Protesters took the street again on Jan. 31, 1971 following the clearing of the officer who fired the fatal shot that took Salazar’s life. They were sprayed with bullets, dozens where injured, and one protester—Gustav Montag—was killed…

Montag was an immigrant who fled the Russian police oppression in Hungry, and was a student at East LA College, according to the Chicano Round Table synopsis.

Records on the investigation of Salazar’s death could be released this week, the Times reported.

FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, Chicano Moratorium, East Los Angeles, Ruben Salazar