WORDS MATTER
José Angel Gutiérrez
joseangelgutierrezbooks.com
voiceofthemainland.blogspot.com/voces-index
Shootings of others by police, ICE agents, and racist people, mostly White men, have now become a part of life in the US. We are all hypersensitive with fear of going to school, the fast-food place, Wal-Mart, Luby’s, church and synagogues, and protests. Once more we have another shooting at an Islamic Temple in San Diego, California. So many saved because a security guard put his life on the line and derailed the shooters; two late teen age kids who them committed suicide. No other deaths. There was another horrible massacre next to San Diego years ago. More on this later down the essay.
According to the FBI, we have had 333 such incidents between 2000 and 2019. The National Center for Integrated Emergency Response (NCIER) has a higher figure up to 2023, that of 510 incidents. Shooting people at large gatherings has become a way of life in the US because we are a gun-happy, wannabe Cowboy culture. Our heroes are the gunslingers in the Western movies, the murderers of Indians, the US Marines and other soldiers killing Nazi’s, Japanese, Vietnamese, Al-Queda’s, ISIS, and HAMAS. We watch the planned and deliberate murder of innocent people in Gaza with US supplied bombs. We are steadfast with Israel in the demolition of Iran, again with US supplied bombs and drones. No one in the US Congress wants to outlaw automatic weapons. Many states even allow the Open Carry of loaded weapons in public places. Texas is one such state.
I was reminded of some past incidents especially the Wal-Mart one back in August 2019. The racist and deranged killer, Pattrick Crusius was finally tried and sentenced 5 1/2 years later in April 2025; just last year. He received 23 life sentences without possibility of parole for the 23 people he killed and wounding 22 others, almost all were of Mexican origin. Crusius had written a Manifesto before he drove across Texas from the Dallas Fort Worth area to El Paso. In that Manifesto he basically said he believed he was acting at the direction of the president, Trump TACO the Dumbo. It was true that Trump when he first ran for president, used to rail against Mexicans constantly. Trump called Mexicans rapists, drug dealers, murderers and vermin. He said the USA was being invaded by such people and he would get rid of them.
At a rally in Florida in May 2019, three months before his rampage, Crusius saw and heard Trump the president by then on national television broadcasts say that the government was trying to stop the Mexican invasion but he could not use weapons on them. He asked for a solution. Someone shouted back, “Shoot them.” Trump TACO the Dumbo, smiled while the crowd roared with approval. Trump finally said to the “shoot them” solution, “That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement. Only in the Panhandle.”
That kind of anti-Mexican hate and racism has been with us for centuries dating back to the taking of Texas in 1835 and then the rest of the Southwest in 1848. We, the Mexican origin people, have been the historic enemy of White supremacists including various US Presidents.
There was another massacre of Mexicans that I remember but you probably never heard of before. It was the MacDonald’s mass murder of Mexicans in San Isidro, California, a US-Mexico border town. The killer was James Oliver Huberty. It happened on July 18, 1984. Huberty had mental issues that a San Diego facility knew about way before. His wife, Etna, also knew he had a mental problem. Huberty himself said so to her. He even called the mental health clinic to get help. His call was never returned because they misspelled his name as “Shouberty.” Their was no record under that name. Of course, not. The next day he took his family out to the zoo and a nearby park and for lunch at a MacDonald’s in Clairmont, a neighborhood in San Diego. Back at home he dressed up in camouflage with a gun across his shoulder and carrying lots of ammunition, he said goodbye to the wife and a daughter, Zelia. He said, “I’m going hunting, hunting for humans. I won’t be back.” His wife did not call the police and she should have. He did not go to the MacDonalds in Clairmont, instead he went to the one packed with about 45 Mexicans by the border in San Isidro. He had a 9mm Browning HP semi-automatic pistol, a 9 mm Uzi carbine, a Winchester 1200 12 gauge pump action shotgun, and a box and bag of ammunition. Once inside, he began shooting at the customers. For 77 minutes, Huberty fired round after round of bullets at Mexican and Mexican American customers, adults and children; 257 casings were found. He killed 21 people and wounded 19 others. During that time, customers and one manager were able to call the police repeatedly asking for help.
A group of police officers finally showed up including a SWAT team with a sniper. The sniper, Charles Foster, immediately positioned himself across the street. He had a clear shot at Huberty and repeatedly asked permission to engage and shoot the sniper. The police chief was partying elsewhere and could not be reached to give the go-ahead and eliminate the killer. Finally, the commanding officer at the scene gave the go-ahead. Foster shot Huberty as he walked near the front door of the MacDonald’s and killed him instantly.
Subsequently, the police were never investigated much less reprimanded for their inaction. Callers had been telling the operator it was a lone gunman. They could have stormed the fast food restaurant. They had body armor, Huberty did not. MacDonald’s closed for 2 days and announced the reopening to a hail of protests. They demolished building and set up another one 2 blocks away.
More recently, a teenage Chicano kid with anger at the world, Salvador Ramos, bought a semi-automatic weapons and lots of bullets the day he turned 18 years of age. He first shot his grandmother who was providing a home and meals for him. She survived despite having lost half of her face. He then went to the elementary school where he was mistreated and began shooting every one he could find. Police response was slow and even slower at attempting to confront the shooter. For 78 minutes they waited and never did anything to confront the shooter. It took an expert sniper with the US Border Pattrol to go in and kill him. But not after, Ramos had killed 19 students and 2 teachers, wounding 17 more. No one in law enforcement has been found guilty of any crime for failing to act. Some officers were let go and calls for immediate reform by the Texas Legislature on gun purchases went unheeded. This was in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022.
In Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, Adam Lanza, a 20-year old, first shot his mother, Nancy, who was 52 years old. Then he went to the school and proceeded to shoot and kill 20 first graders and 6 school personnel. This was on December 14, 2012. In all these school shootings, the people in the school system knew of the mental issues the shooter had. They had first hand knowledge and often heard the diatribes of these shooters aimed at them.
These shootings have taken place mostly in California with 65; Texas at 43; Florida with 39; Pennsylvania at 27; and, Ohio with 22. There have been many casualties including 36 law enforcement officers killed and 128 wounded. You would think they would be in favor of banning automatic weapons and a more rigorous examination of the purchasers. So far, they have not spoken up. Words matter but flying bullets matter even more.
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