Photos by Gustavo ArellanoNuts want my pictures.
Judicial Watch, the lawyers who tried to bury the Clintons in groundless lawsuits, say photos I took will support their claim that Anaheim police failed to protect anti-immigration activists from a beating at the hands of counterprotestors.
In a subpoena delivered to the Weekly late last month, Judicial Watch demands that I turn over “all photographs, negatives, digital images, and video that you shot with any camera at or near Anaheim City Hall on December 8, 2001.”
Judicial Watch should be happy we're moving to quash the subpoena, because (as I reported in “I Witness,” May 24, 2002) I was ringside on Dec. 8, and I can tell you this: California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR) members shouted “Fuck Mexico!” and then started swinging at counterprotestors. That sparked a 10-minute brawl in which the only injury was to ethnic self-esteem. As my photos suggest, the intellectual-flyweight bout entertained many onlookers.
As a Weekly reporter, I covered the fun that morning with my 35 mm Minolta gun. I snapped just four shots detailing confrontations and punches in varying degrees of clarity.
Exhibit A: A blurry, incomprehensible picture with what appears to be two white people doing something. Maybe I shouldn't have developed that one.
Exhibit B: Undermines CCIR's lawsuit. Three white men are about to slam a Latino to the ground.
Exhibit C: This one will never be mistaken for a Robert Capa portrait, but clearly depicts Latinos as targets of CCIR violence. The left side of the photo reveals three white men pulling at a Latino's arm to draw him into a punch. On the other half of the print, a portly bald white man reaches for a young Latino with a shaved head; the Latino's two friends try to pull him away from the rampaging whitey. Elderly whites look on—note the lady smiling on the far right!
Exhibit D: CCIR would burn this fourth photo if they ever got it. The same Latino from the third photograph is once again the subject of an assault. An uncombed white guy in a sweatshirt appears to be holding the guy down; the Latino's friend from photo No. 3 is visibly pushing the white man away. Meanwhile, the Latino with the shaved head recoils in defense. The edge of this shot shows why: a white guy with one arm extended as if to use it as a lever for his other fist that, judging by the gabacho's body language, is apparently splitting the air with a brown face as its destination.
Still want the photos?
