Hoping to get a slice of the reactionary pie, the Anaheim Police Association's mailer in favor of Steve Lodge is the worst so far!
Coming in at No. 6 on our current OC's Scariest People 2012! issue, the former SanTana cop's excessive force lawsuit for beating up an Iranian immigrant jaywalker and his wrongful imprisonment for more than a year of a man for murder should be enough to give Anaheim voters a case of the Halloween heebie-jeebies!
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Not to be outdone, the APA attempts to turn the table with not-so-subtle messaging. The image of a white woman in danger from a would-be hoodie wearing perpetrator positioned next to a large image of a brown man's hands cuffed in the mailer is a sociological handful.
In the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing this year by self-appointed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in Florida, the teen's attire became the topic of chattering pendejos across the nation. Brown clown Geraldo Rivera even got dinged by his own son after suggesting that the hoodie Martin was wearing in the rain that February night was equally responsible for his death as Zimmerman's actions as he cautioned black and brown parents against letting their children dress that way.
This national discussion aside–or perhaps front and center–the APA
has no qualms in perpetuating the criminalization of the now emblematic hoodie. That's a bad look for a department facing accusations of racial profiling from residents!
And the gabacha in distress? Whose fears (and votes) are being stoked here? Never mind raza on raza crime in Anaslime. Behold loaded messaging that would bring a smile to the decomposed face of D.W. Griffith!
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!