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There's an article in today's (11/29/08) Los Angeles Times regarding the Boyle Heights El Mercado mall becoming too third world even for its surrounding, predominantly hispanic neighborhood. The homeowners and renters alike expressed disgust at peoples' drunken and boorish behavior there spilling out onto their properties and the mall's overall lack of security, protesting further expansion of El Mercado and its requested hard liquor licensing.
Longtime resident and community organizer Nadine Diaz, 46, said that about a month ago she saw a man stumble out of El Mercado about 9 p.m., unzip his pants and relieve himself in the middle of the sidewalk while facing homes opposite the marketplace. Others have chucked eggs and trash into her yard, she said.
"This is not tolerable," she said.
Rosado shrugs off those stories, arguing that El Mercado cannot be blamed for the neighborhood's problems. Boyle Heights has 250 liquor licenses within 15 square miles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, and El Mercado is surrounded by three bars. Rosado insists that to stay competitive he must offer liquor.
"All my competition has everything they need and I am falling behind," he said. "When someone goes out with their wife or girlfriend, the lady doesn't want a beer -- she wants a margarita."
Some of Rosado's opponents cringe at the idea of taking a family or a date to El Mercado. "You walk in there and it smells like urine," Teresa Marquez said. "I can't even take the elevator because I would probably throw up,"
Marquez, 61, is a lifelong resident of Boyle Heights. She remembers El Mercado as a tourist destination when it first opened in 1968, offering Japanese, Italian and Mexican food to visitors.
But El Mercado is not Olvera Street -- there are no tour buses filled with international spectators snapping pictures of mariachis. Instead, Spanish-speaking vendors haggle with customers over handmade leather boots. Discounted car accessories collide with miniature statues of the Virgin of Guadalupe in display windows. Piñatas dangle from crisscrossed wires.
Just across the street on Cheesbroughs Lane, 61-year-old Rita Rodriguez said she can hear people howling at 1 a.m. after the restaurants close. About 10 years ago someone swerved out of El Mercado's parking lot and slammed into her fence before speeding off, she said. Rosado eventually closed off that exit, but Rodriguez said she still sees men urinating 20 feet from her living room.
There's an article in today's (11/29/08) Los Angeles Times regarding the Boyle Heights El Mercado mall becoming too third world even for its surrounding, predominantly hispanic neighborhood. The homeowners and renters alike expressed disgust at peoples' drunken and boorish behavior there spilling out onto their properties and the mall's overall lack of security, protesting further expansion of El Mercado and its requested hard liquor licensing.
The 'Hispanics' in question sound pretty much like assimilated Americans---------unlike that Third World trash infesting Mercado.
Can the mods close or move this thread to an appropriate section? There is nothing in that story to indicate that those involved were even immigrants. The anti-hispanic rhetoric is getting out of hand on here.
PALM DESERT, Calif. — The shooting occurred in a crowded toy store on the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, but authorities say it wasn't related to the bargain-hunting frenzy. Instead, two men pulled guns and killed each other after the women with them erupted into a bloody brawl, witnesses said. Authorities released few details about the mayhem that broke out at the Toys "R" Us store around 11:30 a.m. Friday, sending scared shoppers fleeing. Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said the fight was not over a toy and that handguns were found by the men's bodies. He refused to say whether the shooting was gang-related.
The victims were identified as Alejandro Moreno, 39, of Desert Hot Springs, and Juan Meza, 28, of Cathedral City. No one else was hurt.
Witnesses Scott and Joan Barrick said they were checking out of the store when the brawl began between two women, each with a man. The women were near the checkout area, but the Barricks did not think the women had purchases. One woman suddenly started punching the other woman, who fought back as blood flowed from her nose, said Scott Barrick, 41. The man who was with the woman being punched pulled a gun halfway out of his pocket, then shoved it back in, he said.
"He pulled his gun right next to me. I turned to look for my wife, and she was already hiding," Scott Barrick said.
"I was scared," said Joan Barrick, 40. "I didn't want to die today. I really didn't want to die today, and I think that's what we were all thinking."
The other man pulled a gun and pointed it at the first man but forgot to **** it, Scott Barrick said. The first man tried to run but was blocked by the line of people, then ran back toward the store's electronics section as the other man fired his gun, he said.
The first man reached a dead-end in electronics, turned around and ran toward an exit, pulling his gun and firing back, Scott Barrick said.
"He went up to the cash register, he went to put his hand on the thing and he just went phoomp," he said, indicating the man fell.
He said he did not see what happened to the other man.
Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other.
"I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys "R" Us?" he said. "I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper."
Ray Turner, 20, said he was two aisles away when two women began shouting and screaming at each other and he had a clear view of the fight until a crowd clustered around them. Both women had children, he said.
"We thought it was just a fight and then someone yelled: `He's got a gun! He's got a gun!' You really couldn't see nothing because there was a crowd," Turner said.
Rafael Gomez, 11, said he and his father had been in the store about 20 minutes before the shooting but were in a nearby Pizza Hut when they saw people pouring out of the store screaming.
"We just saw them running and crying. I was kind of scared," Rafael said. "We got lucky."
Toys "R" Us issued a statement expressing outrage over the violence.
"We are working closely with local law enforcement officials to determine the specific details of what occurred," the statement said. "Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to associate the events of today with Black Friday."
Palm Desert is a resort town about 120 miles east of Los Angeles.
My money is on them being illegal aliens as well. It's time for the media to take off the PC gloves and call them out for what they are. By not doing so, it allows LaRaza more room to blur the lines and downplay their crime related, tax draining statistics. Two down a gazillion more to go.
I wonder if any illegals in the knocking down and crushing of the store employee in Green acres mall in Long Island NY.
What is your money on when it comes to that?
I ask as you seem to have a keen sense of who is legal and who is not.
This thread is great to show how anti-Latino you guys are.
I actually ask the mods to leave this up, and post it as a sticky so people know what kind of people frequent the immigration forum.
Not sure what if anything this has to do with illegal immigration or legal immigration for that matter. But it does show how pathetic black friday shoppers can be.
How do you guys know that these are illegal immigrants? It's funny how you take a tragic story and use it to make a cheap political statement. As a matter of fact, a political statement which you aren't even sure exists. I'm against illegal immigration, but I don't judge someone by their name or the area where they live. It seems that the person who posted this is just anti-latino.
How do you guys know that these are illegal immigrants? It's funny how you take a tragic story and use it to make a cheap political statement. As a matter of fact, a political statement which you aren't even sure exists. I'm against illegal immigration, but I don't judge someone by their name or the area where they live. It seems that the person who posted this is just anti-latino.
As well as some of the responses..
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