Hispanic Archives - MICHAEL O. ALLEN

Steal back your vote

By michael o. allenHomepageNo Comments

Theft of the 2008 Election

Will the GOP’s campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president? by ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. & GREG PALAST

These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas.

STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE, part I

Maez was not alone in being denied his right to vote. On Super Tuesday, one in nine Democrats who tried to cast ballots in New Mexico found their names missing from the registration lists. The numbers were even higher in precincts like Las Vegas, where nearly 20 percent of the county’s voters were absent from the rolls. With their status in limbo, the voters were forced to cast “provisional” ballots, which can be reviewed and discarded by election officials without explanation. On Super Tuesday, more than half of all provisional ballots cast were thrown out statewide.

STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE, PART II

This November, what happened to Maez will happen to hundreds of thousands of voters across the country. In state after state, Republican operatives — the party’s elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics — are wielding new federal legislation to systematically disenfranchise Democrats. If this year’s race is as close as the past two elections, the GOP’s nationwide campaign could be large enough to determine the presidency in November. “I don’t think the Democrats get it,” says John Boyd, a voting-rights attorney in Albuquerque who has taken on the Republican Party for impeding access to the ballot. “All these new rules and games are turning voting into an obstacle course that could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states.”

Continue . . .

October 21, 2008

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N.Y.C. GANG SUSPECTED IN ROBBERIES; ARE VICTIMS FOLLOWED HOME?

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 27, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 2 Star | NEWS | Page B01

A New York City gang that preys mainly on Hispanic business owners may be responsible for four robberies in Bergen County in which the victims sometimes were followed home from their firms in the city, authorities say.

In two incidents in Englewood and two in Teaneck, residents who own businesses in New York or their family members were robbed in their homes.

The robbers have been armed in three incidents, and the victims, who were not hurt, were Hispanic, police said. In the fourth attack, the victim was beaten in the basement of his home. It could not be determined whether he was Hispanic.

Teaneck police Detective Tom Sikorsky said Tuesday that there is a strong possibility that the attackers belong to a gang wanted by New York City police for about 100 robberies in the past year.

Township police developed the link when they talked to officers from the Bronx robbery task force about descriptions of suspects and the New York license plates on a brown Dodge used in a robbery on Darien Terrace, Sikorsky said.

“These men will not hesitate to use violence,” he said. “You have nothing to gain by resisting these guys. I will say just go along with the robbery.”

About 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 13, two men knocked on the door of the Darien Terrace home. When a woman baby-sitting her 10-month-old grandson peeked through the door, a man asked to be let in, saying he was a police officer. Three men entered and ransacked the home, taking jewelry, cash, and a videocassette recorder, Sikorsky said.

They were seen getting into a four-door, brown Dodge with New York license plates.

About a month before, three men identifying themselves as police officers to the owner’s mother entered a Cooper Avenue home and ransacked it. Sikorsky said police are developing an inventory of items stolen in the robbery.

Englewood police Detective Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said his department is following several leads, including the possibility that the victims were followed from New York.

About 12:45 a.m. on Nov. 8, a 63-year-old Englewood resident who worked in the city was beaten and robbed in the basement of his Windsor Road home and was hospitalized. Two gold rings and a brown briefcase were taken.

In September, three armed, masked men entered a Kenwood Road home whose owner worked in New York. They tied up the maid and the son of the homeowner, who was not present. They took $400, a videocassette recorder, and jewelry, but left without a safe that they ransacked the home looking for.

Police Detective Hector Beauchamp in the Bronx said descriptions and a composite drawing of a suspect in the Nov. 8 Englewood robbery fit a member of a gang from the Dominican Republic that has robbed several city business owners.

New York police have photographs of eight men who allegedly belong to one or more gangs of Dominicans believed responsible for the robberies, Beauchamp said.

The robbers, who are based in the Bronx and the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, also have followed victims to New Rochelle, N.Y., and Greenwich, Conn., where two weeks ago they pistol-whipped a money broker and stole more than $80,000, Beauchamp said.

Anyone with information is asked to call police. In Teaneck, call the detectives bureau at 837-2565 or Crimestoppers at 833-4222. To reach Englewood police, call 568-2700.

New York police have set up a 24-hour hot line at -(212) 822-5474.

November 27, 1991

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ATTACK STIRS HISPANICS ANGER ANEW

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen and Vera Titunik, Record Staff Writers |

Wednesday, October 16, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B01

The mugging of a 67-year-old Englewood man well-known in the Colombian community has angered the city’s Hispanics, who were victimized by a series of muggings earlier this year.

Julio Hincapie, who was often seen in the city’s Colombian restaurants or riding his old bicycle and toting an ever-present leather pouch, was beaten and robbed Friday night by four men on Demarest Avenue, near Central Avenue.

He remained in Englewood Hospital Tuesday in good condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Those who know him say Hincapie sells things and helps people out by conveying messages and running errands.

“He’s a guy who is very popular,” said David Bernal, vice president of the United Latin Lions Club of Englewood. “He’s everybody’s messenger. You need someone to go to the bank, to go to the grocery store, he goes for you.”

The Colombian-born Hincapie is known as “Parranda,” a nickname he picked up in his youth meaning somebody “who likes to party,” Bernal said.

Police responded to his calls for help about 9:15 p.m. Friday and found him bleeding from a cut on the right side of his head, Englewood Detective Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said.

The attackers kicked and punched him and knocked him to the ground, then removed his coat and his leather bag, which contained an undetermined amount of money, Tinsley said. Hincapie was also treated for an arm injury, he said.

Residents came before the City Council in force early last spring after a spate of muggings in a largely Hispanic neighborhood near St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church on Demarest Avenue.

Police responded in the spring by meeting with neighborhood leaders to encourage the formation of a block association. They also set up a mobile police precinct a made-over bookmobile to increase police presence and reach out to the community. But because the mobile precinct became stifling in the summer heat, it was rarely put to use.

“We want to speak to the mayor and police,” Bernal said. “What have they been doing since the problem started in the Hispanic community?”

Mayor Donald Aronson said he deplored the violence and would speak to the city manager, but said his authority was limited. Under the city charter, the city manager, not the mayor or council, is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the city’s departments, including the police.

“The Hispanic community looks at the mayor of Englewood as if he was the mayor of Bogota,” Colombia, Aronson said. “I will bring it up to the people who have authority. I will find out the facts. I will see him [Hincapie] and express the anguish of the city of Englewood.”

Keywords: ENGLEWOOD; ASSAULT; HISPANIC; RACE

October 16, 1991

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