Protests of immigrant shooting reflect nation’s political tensions

*Needed perspective is tarting to surface in the Pacso, WA, police shooting. First, Latino leaders in Pasco want to make sure the shooting and the calls for justice and reforms don’t get lost in the national immigration debate. And second, in the sixth paragraph of this piece I read the first mention of Antonio Zambrano’s mental illness and how his undocumented status may have prevented his family from seeking medical attention. VL

By Franco Ordoñez, The Daily Herald

PASCO, Wash. — The latest fatal encounter caught on video between police and an unarmed man — this time, a Mexican national shot to death in Pasco — has stoked the wave of nationwide protests over race and inequality after incidents in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y.

In Pasco, an agricultural city of 68,000, most of whom are Latino, the social unrest over Antonio Zambrano Montes’s death comes with the national immigration debate as a backdrop.

Like many members of the majority Latino community, Zambrano was here illegally. He had been throwing rocks at police officers Feb. 10 — it’s unclear why — when three officers chased him and shot him as he was turning toward them and raising his hands. The shooting was caught on video.

Latinos leaders don’t want their calls for justice and police reforms to get lost in a political debate that has plagued the nation for decades. But they acknowledge that the power disparities in Pasco have their roots in the region’s complex social history of using foreign labor to pick apples and cherries.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo courtesy of Here and Now]

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