Pubdate: Tue, 09 Dec 2003
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2003 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117

THE GIANT AWAKENS: FAKE-DRUG CASE JOLTS DALLAS LATINOS

Watch closely. We are witnessing history in the making. After all, it's not 
every day that hundreds of Latinos march on Dallas City Hall to make their 
voices heard.

Yet that is what happened Sunday when hundreds of protesters gathered to 
register outrage over the fake drug scandal and demand that the city punish 
those responsible, as well as put in place safeguards so that such abuse of 
power never occurs again.

The March for Justice Rally was organized by the League of United Latin 
American Citizens and two dozen other local organizations in the Dallas 
metro area. It was in reaction to the recent "not guilty" verdict in what 
has been the only criminal trial related to the scandal. It also was in 
reaction to the fact that dozens of people were illegally imprisoned in the 
scandal two years ago and that to date not a single person has been held 
accountable.

These injustices have stirred a community that has long been considered 
dormant.

The Latino population in the United States has been dubbed the "Sleeping 
Giant" because of its inability to transform extraordinary population 
growth into political and civic power. The same goes in Dallas County, 
where in the 1990s the Latino population grew 110 percent to total about 40 
percent of the county population. Even with those numerical gains, however, 
Latinos often have been criticized for being too passive and not doing 
enough to take control of their own destiny.

Now a group of them has taken to the streets. And in so doing, they've laid 
claim to a proud American tradition. Civil disobedience is as old - older 
even - than the nation itself. Without renegade colonials dumping crates of 
tea into Boston Harbor, there would have been no independence from Great 
Britain. From Henry David Thoreau to the Rev. Martin Luther King to Cesar 
Chavez, those Americans who are willing to fight the good fight for social 
justice often have turned to direct action to advance the cause.

In a perfect world, there would be no need for protest. But then again, it 
is hard to imagine how, without it, the reformers could ever make the world 
a better place.
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