And in the Dallas Morning News, Fri, 4/21, pg A27, "Be wary of Houston Police, Mexicans told" the Mexican Government has issued a travel advisory to its citizens that Mexican citizens are being killed by the Houston police under questionable circumstances. The Mexican Consul General in Houston, Rodulfo Figueros is undertaking a campaign of distributing fliers to Mexicans advising them not to make any statements to Houston police without a lawyer or a consulate staff member present.
The paper said the warnings are prompted by the latest police killing of Jaime Santiago Cruz. The police say they thought he had a gun. It was a toy. It was the fourth killing in 30 months.
The Mexican Government's immediate concern here is that Cruz's friend Aurelio Hernandez was submitted to intense questioning by the police right after witnessing his best friend's killing. It is claimed that the police forced Hernandez to sign a statement he did not understand. The police deny any improper behavior.
All Houston officers have been cleared, except for the last killing which is still under investigation. Another case, that of Pedro Oregon, who was killed in his bedroom, the police were not charged, but were fired for not following proper procedures. In another case, the police claimed that Uvaldo Garcia Armendariz, 17, attacked them with a folding chair. The family strongly disputes that, but the police were cleared. A fourth case the police killed a bystander whom they mistook for a criminal who had fired upon them.
There does not seem to be any awareness between the two papers of the unconscious irony of their news items.
John K. Taber