I wanted to share an incident that happened to my little brother this week and it is a topic that is necessary to address and one we can no longer just sit quietly by as it continues to exist. RACISM in Caldwell. Those of us who grew up in CALDWELL are so aware of it and if you are Hispanic you have encountered its ugliness at some point in your life. In his own words... The Cancer Lives in 2014What a great “gem” we have here in Caldwell. If you have not patronized the Indian Creek Steakhouse, take it from this born and raised Caldwellite it is a must dine at least once. The service was professional and polite and the steaks made to order are literally like soft butter. On Wednesday July 23, 2014 my wife and I along with her brother and family decided to dine locally. My brother-in-law was planning on taking his family to the Texas Roadhouse, that certainly is an awesome place for dinner, but it is not downtown Caldwell. I suggested to him that we should all dine that evening at the Indian Creek Steakhouse to support our local economy and business owners especially since my wife had recently visited it with a group of fifteen coworkers from a local butter producing facility and all the reviews were positive. As previously stated, the dining experience was at least four star overall. The cashier on our way out asked if we enjoyed our dinner and unanimously we were in the affirmative. As we have had many, that evening was a hot one. As my wife and I approached our 2010 Subaru Forester we noticed a Caldwell police car semi-blocking the street that my wife was planning on taking to maneuver our way home. We rolled up our windows and turned on the A/C. However, being that the police car was obstructing our passage on the right hand lane she chose to take the first left down S. 7th Ave, yielded and then made a right onto Arthur St. so to not cause unnecessary traffic for the officer doing whatever he was doing. However what occurred next was like an episode from CNN investigative reporting on Maricopa County, AZ and all its “legal” indiscretions. That officer, whom we thought was stationed at the intersection for genuine business, was instead profiling our exodus from the restaurant and surveilling our vehicular departure. The officer signaled his lights and in disbelief my wife stated, “he is pulling me over, what did I do, I didn’t do anything.” Well of course we are programmed to entrust in our uniformed officials so calmly she asked the approaching officer what her offense was. “Well there are two things, your tint is too dark and you did not make a complete stop back at the turn,” he states. In my mind I was thinking “bunch of crap because she did yield completely.” The officer continues to ask about our tint and even tested it which he stated was too dark and that the department was educating the public on the legality of car tint. He never mentioned the “supposed” second reason, failure to properly yield. My wife asked if she needed her driver’s license because it was in her purse in the back seat. The officer said no he only wanted to inform her of the tint. Not once did I open my mouth but was in plain view in the passenger’s seat still full of a wonderful dinner we had just enjoyed. The officer’s parting question was as follows, “is anyone in the car on probation?” My wife replied, “No,” and the officer left.What a shame for downtown Caldwell businesses. I now understand why city proper of Caldwell is on “life support.” Those of us who contribute to the local economy but don’t happen to be the demographic that our city paid servants see fit in their own predisposed idea of law abiding citizens lose the desire to return to patronize God honest business owners with awesome food. All I can say is that I hope downtown Caldwell continues to survive, but with that mentality and profiling I doubt that the businesses will be the best that they can be, in part because word-of-mouth is more effective than traditional advertising. I have lived in “good ol’ boy” Caldwell over 48 years and what a shame that in all those years the cancer still lives. Amazing how his discoveries published in Los Dos Mundos: Rural Mexican Americans, Another America Dr. Richard Baker’s study lives in 2014.Cris Ramirez
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 22:08:24 +0000
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