• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Earlier this year the Los Angeles Times requested records from the LA County Sheriff’s office related to the death of their columnist Ruben Salazar forty years ago. Months after the California Public Records Act request was filed, and after initially denying the request, Sheriff Lee Baca announced this week that he would turn over thousands of pages of information to the county Office of Independent Review – a civilian watchdog agency. Ruben Salazar was also the News Director at KMEX TV, and was killed in Silver Dollar Bar in Whittier when a tear gas canister shot by a Sheriff’s deputy hit him in the head. His death happened during the August 29th 1970 National Chicano Moratorium – Salazar was in the Silver Dollar Bar taking a break from his reporting. The Chicano Moratorium galvanized 30,000 Chicanos to protest the Vietnam war. In 1995, the Times reported that only three days prior to his death, Salazar had confided to friends of his fears that the police may try to discredit him due to his work uncovering police brutality in the Mexican-American community on the Eastside. Ruben Salazar’s death has since been clouded in controversy and speculation. Local activists are marking the 40th anniversary of the 1970 Chicano Moratorium, with a protest this Saturday in East Los Angeles, to call for an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an end to military recruiting targeting Latino and immigrant youth, and for an investigation into Ruben Salazar’s death.

GUESTS: Robert Lopez, LA Times Reporter working to release documents about Salazar’s death from the LA County Sheriff’s office, Carlos Montes, with the August 29th Chicano Moratorium Organizing Committee, Community Service Organization (CSO), and Fight Back News. Carlos was also one of the original organizers of the Chicano Moratorium and personally knew Ruben Salazar

The Chicano Moratorium 40th Anniversary March will take place on Saturday August 28th at 9 am, gathering at 1st and Mednick in East Los Angeles followed by a march to Salazar Park. Download a flyer here: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs183.ash2/
44620_132671596777303_100001033916550_185414_2035644_n.jpg

There will be a screening on Sunday August 29th at Ruben Salazar Park-Senior Citizen Ctr. 3864 Whittier Blvd. LA 90023, of the short documentary, ‘Since Salazar.’