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Yesenia (2nd from left) back in 2012 at the APD, after Diaz murder – you can see the rubber bullet mark on her gut.
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Yesterday’s jarring “Anna Drive” video threw me off my game in two ways:
1. I HAD been working on a huge piece about Yesenia Rojas and Anna Drive, which she’d asked me to write way back when she got off probation from being railroaded into an “interfering with police” charge simply for trying to find out why they were dragging away some neighborhood youth from her 2014 birthday party. My piece has been taking a while because I’m getting carried away telling the story of Anna Drive since the 50s and 60s, combined with Yesenia’s own story from her birth in Zapote. (Look for that story this week or next.)
And 2. I’d showed up at the annual State of the City luncheon because it was Mayor Tait’s last one, and I wanted to do a retrospective of his 8 years of “City of Kindness.” The Mayor’s speech was fine, maybe we’ll get into it later. But to me everything was overshadowed by this propaganda video.
Check it out. This is actually Yesenia’s film of the video. It starts with the ferocious July 21, 2012, Anna Drive riot which made national news … and smoothly segues into all the nice things the city and police and various nonprofits have done for the neighborhood in the five years years since … without saying a WORD about the cause of the riot. HELLO???
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WHITEWASH definition.
2 a : to gloss over or cover up (such as vices or crimes) – refused to whitewash the scandal
b : to exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data
Anyone who saw this video and knew no better (or had a short/uncaring memory) would think the residents of Anna Drive rose up in anger and despair in 2012 just because they didn’t like the gangs in their neighborhood or their lack of speed bumps and street lights… and then the kind city responded. So that means the Orange Juice Blog has to remind you ONE MORE TIME:
HIS NAME WAS MANUEL DIAZ. HE WAS UNARMED. HE RAN FROM APD OFFICER NICK BENNALLACK, WHO DIDN’T KNOW WHO MANUEL WAS BUT DIDN’T LIKE HIS LOOKS OR BEING RUN AWAY FROM.
NICK SHOT MANUEL TWICE, IN THE BUTT AND THE BACK OF THE HEAD. MANUEL DIED FROM THE WOUNDS. THE NEIGHBORHOOD RIOTED, AND THE POLICE RESPONDED WITH RUBBER BULLETS AND DOGS. FIVE YEARS LATER A FEDERAL JURY FOUND NICK GUILTY OF EXCESSIVE FORCE, BUT HE’S STILL WORKING AS AN APD OFFICER.
Maybe a “State of the City” luncheon is not the place to look to for presentations of uncomfortable truths. But then they shouldn’t have included the riot in their video at all. Think how you would have felt watching that if you were Manuel’s family, or any other of the many people who knew him and cared about him – to see him disappeared into a black hole … just because it might have made the dozen cops in the audience uncomfortable? Or reminded the audience how slow the progress has been to get real police oversight in Anaheim?
As for Yesenia who comes off as the star of this film, “I just agreed to answer five questions, I didn’t know how the film was going to turn out. You saw me yesterday, Vern, when they showed the riot, and didn’t say what it was about. I was crying.” Actually I was at the next table, it was dark, and I didn’t notice she was crying. She remains as proud as she should be about all the improvements she’s gotten here – the street lights, the bookmobile back, the speed bumps, all the Mexican cultural events she puts on. And she reminds us that she was hit by an Anaheim cop’s rubber bullet during that “unrest,” her grandson was attacked by a police dog, and her daughters had become like little sisters to Manuel toward the end of his life. “Every July 21 we don’t know how to feel or what to do, because it’s my daughter Bella’s birthday, but it’s also the anniversary of the killing.”
All true, but…
HIS NAME IS MANUEL DIAZ.
Who put together the video? Did the Mayor even get to preview it?
Dunno
THANK YOU VERN PAT NELSON THANK YOU DONNA MICHELLE ACEVEDO-NELSON FOR TELL ING THE TRUTH
Note: this comment appears to be from Manuel Diaz’s mother Genevieve Huizar, who has been a longstanding activist regarding her son’s killing.
I should also note that the way I read this story it’s not intended to be critical of Yesenia, who just answered some questions and then was “used,” as the headline says. There’s no reason that she should have declined to the city; there’s also no reason that she should have expected to be used to whitewash the facts surrounding the civic unrest.
What is Yesenia to Manuel Diaz. She isn’t his mother… What was the intention of the video? What did Genevieve think? It was her son that was murdered by this cowardly cop….
As I recall.. That was a birthday party for Yesenia and had nada to do with the riots and killings of Manuel or Angel… She had it during this heated time. I didnt go out of respect for the dead.. Didnt feel like a celebration was was appropriate time or safe time to party..
Two murders by police in two days.. And attacks on the people that gathered shortly afterward those murders were attacked by dogs and police. During the day. I saw videos…
But was that was a different attack, or am I wrong?
I though Yesenia had a florical dance group?
And her party was in the evening? Is this the same attack?
And Please explan this to me….how did this video, which I havent seen, or Yesenia help the efforts to get this killer cop off the steets?
You say he is still out there? Does he still make his fingers into a gun and aim it at the people and kids?
Yesenia’s birthday party was a surprise party that she had no idea was gonna happen. And it was two years later, in Sept. 2014.
I didn’t know Bennallack makes gun shapes with his fingers and points it at kids, but as they say, that “CHECKS OUT.”
I do know he likes to call himself “Buckshot” Bennallack. And we change it to “Backshot” because he shot not only Manuel but also Bernie Villegas in the back. And once he was at the council chambers and I turned my back to him and yelled, “Oh no! I have my back to Bennallack! Don’t shoot me Nick!” I couldn’t see his reaction cuz he was behind me.
Now that is some quality selective editing!
The more I see it … Yesenia’s first words are “COPS AND YOUTH” meaning the relations between them as the biggest problem.
But later she says “the problem” and they segue really smoothly into Chief Harvey saying “The problem of gangs on Anna Drive…”
Also Donna just noticed that the “riot” footage is NOT from Anna Drive July 21 but from the big downtown riot July 24, which happened in the wake of BOTH Manuel and Joel getting killed, and the council chambers not having enough room for the angry crowds.
At least one of those NONPROFITS who managed to get into the video we’ve never seen here, we’re looking into that.
It seems like so many years ago now, that Jim Brown, got “The Bloods” and “The Crypts” together with the LAPD…..and they had a real sit down in “The Hood”. The concept was fairly simple….that just maybe they could stop killing each other long enough to help their community. Some serious realities had to be studied by both gangs and the police. It was sort of a Northern Ireland moment. The hate had built up over many years, and there was virtually little or no mutual respect. Then Rampart came along…..seemingly on the heels of these very tough days of negotiations. Had the LAPD been corrupted by “The Gangs”? Well, corruption of a serious magnitude required a complete unwinding and a Federal Consent Degree, which mean Federal oversight for 10 years. As we looked at the Kelly Thomas event and now this…..we
have to wonder if some major City Leadership isn’t necessary to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table. The Chief of Police for Fullerton, Anaheim and Santa Ana need to come together….have weekly lunches for a couple of months and start to derive a serious plan of action. After they come up with a plan, they need the support of the DA…..then the Sheriff of The OC and then ONE unmoved member of the BOS.
This will take a serious grown up effort to finally start to look at these things with intelligence, compassion and understanding. Will there be any guarantee’s of success? Certainly not…..but without effort…..the results are going to skyrocket out of control, especially with The Trumpster setting the standard.
Crips. But Crypts is pretty funny.
I find it sad that Yesenia Rojas is being portrayed as being used in a city coverup. This was her time to shine in celebration for her steadfast struggle to bring long needed services to the marginalized, stigmatized and yes brutalized Anna Drive neighborhood. The struggle for police reform in Anaheim, led by Dr. Moreno and community activists, continues but no one should be so naive as to believe it would be on full display in a State if the City celebration! There is a time and place for everything and this should have been a time of celebration and healing! Heavy Sigh
“Is being portrayed?”
It woulda been a fine little video about Yesenia and Anna Drive, if they’d left out the footage of (the wrong btw) riots. The video practically implied there were no police killings, and that the riots were all about the issues that 1. they LET Yesenia mention and 2. they’ve put some effort into addressing.
Keep your eyes open for a Yesenia / Anna Drive piece on this blog that won’t whitewash anything.
There are TONS of Anna drives all over Anaheim (and OC), Why this one is special I don’t know.
If by celebrating the Mexican cultural events you mean the barrage of high fat, bad unliscenced food sales, yeah I agree. But with half the neighborhood drunk and high, the other half should watch their diets!
First paragraph you’re right, it’s the squeaky wheel of Anna Drives. Yesenia likes to say “There are many Anna Drives in Anaheim, but only one has a Yesenia.”
Second paragraph, I can see you’re a dick, pero no, the food is secondary in the events Yesenia helps put on, which are mostly religious/Catholic/hispanic like Posadas etc, or having to do with supporting this neighborhood’s sister city in Mexico, Zapote. And lotsa neighborhood meetings about local problems, like every neighborhood should have. And how did you know that healthy diets ARE a new fad here?
Why is this Anna Drive special?
Because of a prominent and consequential police killing.
Let me answer your question another way: there are plenty of boulevards with grassy knolls near them in the country; why is Dealey Plaza in Dallas special? Hint: Nov. 22, 1963. (And no, Chumholes, the two killings do not compare.)
Really it’s partly the killing, but more the killing plus the Yesenia (and a few other activists living here.)
Remember there’ve been a dozen or two similar killings in many other neighborhoods.
I had one a few blocks from my house.
And then we had the “Get Off My Lawn Idiot” episode, too. Of course he had a Stay Out of Jail card.
Corruption on public streets by Anaheim pd!! I grew up with Manuel Diaz I am from Garden grove. Sure he was a knuckle head but that was no reason to murder him the way they did. So what if he was a gang member he probably joined because other gangs or the police where harassing him. I don’t know but this senseless violence needs to stop on both ends.