MC Quixote

Probation? Part 37

Sometimes silence can be poisonous. It's been over a year since the news covered the story of the two Utah state workers who terrorized me and my people. I've continually looked for information about what happened to the two women but come up with little or nothing. There have been a couple short, vague articles, buried in back pages of my most recent Google searches, but not much.

I'm surprised how quiet the press has been about what I think is one of the most important news stories since I've been here. For us it's high stakes news, for the status quo it probably gets in the way of the sports stories, or maybe even makes some uncomfortable.

I finally found some news about their case and the sentencing. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like salt in the wounds, vinegar on the open sores, a kick when you're down, a spit in the face, in every face, of every Latino in this community, in every community, an "F You!" to our people.

I'm pissed! I'm angry, thinking about the fires and dust storms in Arizona this summer and I'm not sympathetic. I have to try and overcome this hate, frustration, anger; it's running so deep that it seems self-destructive.

Probation! All they got was probation! And what, what in the hell is the "The Alford Plea"? Here are two people who terrorized thousands of people, terrorized children, terrorized the elderly, terrorized families, communities, spread fear, hate, trauma, suspicion, hate, prejudice, while fueling hate mongering, racists, xenophobic, bigoted propaganda; and they get off because of something called "The Alford Plea"? I'm nonplussed.

How do I deal with this? How do I process this?

More questions first: How do two people get away with what I see as a hate crime against an entire community of people? I think I want to take my original sentencing offer off the table. I think I was too optimistic with my idea that these two terrorists could benefit from a better understanding of the beauty of my culture, my people, and my country.

No! They should be denied this beauty; this beauty should be withheld from them forever. And the one who wouldn't admit her guilt, she should be immediately "whitelisted". Yes, she should never be allowed to enter a Latino country. She has terrorized our people, spread hate against us; so she should never set foot on Latino soil. She should be banished from our warmth and kindness, banished from our rich culture, we need to white her out.

She had the audacity to terrorize our people, get caught, and then she goes and Anglicizes her name by changing it to Elizabeth Scottsboro White, while awaiting her trail. During her hearing she somehow gets out of admitting guilt with this "Alford Plea"; then they sentence her to a short period of probation with minimal community service? It's a huge slap in the face of every Latino, I'm still upset about it.

The district attorney said her community service should be working with Latinos, which could have led to some healing and learning. But Miss White had her lawyers appeal this so that she wouldn't have to work with the people she terrorized. Her lawyers won the appeal; so she'll be able to teach emergency preparedness to paranoid, racist, white people.

What kind of a punishment is that? All I can say is, injustice! This is a crime against humanity! This isn't punishment, and this is no recompense for what they did to our people. I'm so mad that in 2011 the legal system in Utah can be so racist. It's too bad the legal system here (cops, lawyers, judges, lawmakers) doesn't better reflect the population. There are too many white, males in the system and not enough of everyone else.

It makes me want to go places where I know I don't want to go. It makes me want to put up walls, segregate, withdraw, fortify, retreat, withdraw some more, shamed, ashamed, angry, angry and shamed at the same time. These people don't deserve to be our neighbors, and they definitely don't deserve to have our labor that's built on the trick that we'll get to be part of this "American Dream".

They shall be sentenced to sit alone, whitewalls, white-washed, whited-out, they shall be cold, alone, reflecting on ice, living on the warmth of their hate, no more good sun, no more comfort, they will stay in a hard, cold, lonely, white cell, cold cement. They will have a white bed of concrete to curl up on.

Yes, my previous sentencing is now off the table. These people who treatus less than their stray dogs shall be banished from our homeland. Banishedfrom our warmth and humanity, banished from our rich culture and the beauty ofour countries. Let them eat porridge in their white space that slowly fades togray over time until this colorless ideology of hate fades away forever.