Ruben Salazar was killed on Aug. 29, 1970, covering the National Chicano Moratorium March, an East Los Angeles protest over the disproportionate number of Mexican-Americans killed in Vietnam.
Story Created:
Aug 11, 2010 at 12:11 AM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 12, 2010 at 12:30 PM PST
Sheriff Lee Baca said Tuesday that he will reconsider his refusal to release documents on the 1970 death of journalist Ruben Salazar.
Baca spokesman Steve Whitmore told the Los Angeles Times this afternoon that Baca will reconsider its request because he wanted to have all the facts before deciding whether any records will be released. He has asked staff members to review the documents and determine which, if any, might be released.
"The sheriff is going to examine all the options and let the analysis of the documents go forward,'' Whitmore told a Times reporter. "Then he will make a decision.''
Baca's apparent change of heart came in the wake of pressure from county Supervisor Gloria Molina and her colleagues on the Board of Supervisors.
"The documents and records surrounding Ruben's death are of enormous historical significance to researchers, scholars, the public at large, and especially the Mexican-American community,'' Supervisor Gloria Molina said.
Baca had refused to make the documents available, although The Times filed a request for the information in March under the California Public Records Act.
Baca told The Times on Monday that, while he had "nothing to hide,'' the release could set a bad legal precedent regarding confidential law enforcement records and he didn't have the money for staff to dig through eight boxes of files to decide what could be released.
"It's extraordinarily labor intensive,'' he said.
Molina asked lawyers Tuesday for the county to write a report, due next Tuesday, on legal issues related making the documents public. She also wanted to know what it might cost the sheriff's department to make the documents public.
The Times said it received records regarding Salazar from the FBI and Los Angeles Police Department. Those files showed that authorities monitored Salazar's activities as a foreign correspondent in Vietnam and Latin America, and his work on police brutality and civil unrest in the Mexican-American community.
Salazar is considered the first Latino journalist to gain prominence writing for a major U.S. news organization.
Salazar was hired as a reporter by The Times in 1959 and later became a columnist, chronicling the problems of the region's Latinos. He covered the Vietnam War for The Times from 1965-67 and was its Mexico City bureau chief from 1967-68.
Salazar returned to Los Angeles in 1968 to cover the Mexican-American community for The Times.
Salazar became news director of KMEX-TV Channel 34 in 1969 but continued to write crusading columns for The Times on Mexican-American life, culture and hardships, including racism and mistreatment by law enforcement.
Salazar was killed on Aug. 29, 1970, covering the National Chicano Moratorium March, an East Los Angeles protest over the disproportionate number of Mexican-Americans killed in Vietnam.
Salazar was drinking a beer in the Silver Dollar Cafe on Whittier Boulevard, when he was struck by a tear gas canister fired by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy. He died at the scene at the age of 42.
"Salazar's death is a symbol of a time when there was deep distrust between the Mexican-American community, particularly in East Los Angeles, and the Sheriff's Department,'' Molina said. "This wound will never fully heal until details surrounding Ruben Salazar's death come to light.''
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