Awaiting The Truth About Slain Latino Journalist Rubén Salazar

Rubén Salazar was a Latino journalist in Los Angeles who was a loud critic of institutions that mistreated Latinos in that area and, mysteriously, in 1970 he was hit in the head with a gas canister and died. The gas canister came from an L.A. Sheriff’s deputy shot in East Los Angeles during a melee involving Chicano protestors and all sorts of police, but what exactly happened the day Salazar died has never been exactly ironed out.

In response to a public records request made by The Los Angeles Times for eight boxes of “sealed” materials related to the Salazar case, a report by the Sheriff’s Office civilian watchdog agency, Office of Independent Review, is expected any day now. The Times reports:

The highly anticipated report is expected to shed light on the journalist’s death caused by a tear-gas missile fired by a deputy during a riot in East Los Angeles. Questions and controversy have continued to cloud the incident, even after 40 years…

Michael Gennaco, who heads the Office of Independent Review, the civilian watchdog agency that monitors the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said Monday his probe will be ready this week or next. “There will be some interesting new information,” he said.

It’s unfortunate that the department can’t simply release the information — deputies and officials involved in the incident have long since retired while activists and Salazar’s family has remained in the dark — but I believe the release of this report will be a good step in getting ahold of those documents, not to mention truth and justice.

[Photo by Wikipedia]

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