Dorian Drake
CJA 304
July 29, 2013
Theresa Williams
Press release and Reflection Summary
Latinos Riot for Community Changes in Anaheim
Dorian Drake University of Phoenix
July 29, 2013 Theresa Williams
CALIFORNIA- Riots in the city of Anaheim began after a Latino man was fatally shot and killed by police officers. When the fatal shooting of another Latino man followed, anger finally erupted in the community causing riots and violent outbreaks. Police rushed the streets to intervene but the unrest continues today.
Last summer Manuel Diaz, 25, was killed on Anna Drive. Diaz was unarmed and was shot once in the back of the head and once in the buttocks. Officers believed he was armed with a gun and was going to shoot. They also reported that he was a member of the Eastside Anaheim gang. Tension immediately rose between the community’s residents and the police.
Interim Police Chief Raul Quezada said, “Maybe where we thought we had a really solid relationship with the community, maybe those relationships weren’t as solid as we thought.”
Weeks later law enforcement officers made their way back to Anna Drive arresting dozens of Eastside Anaheim members and seized dozens of guns. It was believed that the retaliation on the members may have been a result of Diaz’s death. The district attorney’s office put Anna Drive and its surrounding neighborhoods under a gang injunction earlier this year.
Officer Quezada said his department is doing their best to make people feel safer by having crackdowns and injunctions.
“We’re Listening,” he said.
Other operations also became available by police that included fliers explaining what police were doing, and policy manuals were made available on the website which hadn’t been updated in years.
Donna Acevedo, the mother of the man killed after Diaz, said she feels “like I’m being heard now. But I think these are just baby steps.”
Acevedo along with