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UnAmerican
In 1998, Emilio Valdez Mainero was arrested in San Diego. He was wanted for gunning down the Mexican boxer Jesus “Bebe” Gallardo at a Holiday Inn near Mexico City. He and Alfredo Hodoyan, a gunman for the Arellano cartel, were known as “the juniors” because their families were prestigious, well-connected, and affluent.
A San Diego federal judge ordered Valdez extradited to Mexico. Before he was handed over, US prosecutors produced tape recordings of conversations — on prison telephones, and in an informant’s cell — showing that Valdez had casually plotted to murder a US prosecutor. That prosecutor was then-US Attorney Gonzalo Curiel. Curiel was the one who had pursued the case for their extradition.
Mainero had requested and received permission for the hit from the leaders of the cartel. There was some debate about how seriously to take the threat: Could the cartels really be so brazen as to murder an American on American soil? The threat was in the end taken seriously enough that Curiel went into hiding, where he remained for nearly a year. Even his family didn’t know his whereabouts. That was back when Curiel was “an American,” of course.
Now we’re having a debate about whether Gonzalo Curiel, born in Indiana, is “a Mexican” and thus unfit to judge Donald Trump.
The case was at the time covered in great detail by the Los Angeles Times:
Valdez’s arrest was based on a relatively minor charge–failure to appear to answer to a Baja California firearms violation–and Hodoyan, accused of illicit arms possession, was held for his alleged involvement in a 1992 drive-by shooting of four men in Baja, court documents say.
Subsequent Mexican allegations presented Oct. 15 by Assistant U.S. Atty. Gonzalo Curiel accuse Hodoyan of involvement in the Ibarra killing and Valdez of plotting two slayings. Both, Curiel alleged, are members of the Arellano Felix organization, a group “dedicated to drug trafficking, and the murder of competitors and law enforcement officers who were investigating and prosecuting members.”
Mexican officials have until Dec. 2 to prepare substantiating evidence and any further charges to support their request to extradite Valdez and Hodoyan, Curiel said.
“Mexican or not Mexican: All I want him to do is to give me a fair shake,” said Trump.
Well, what do you think: Is Trump’s insinuation American or unAmerican?
Published in General
He’s the nominee. I understand you don’t care for it. Yes, questioning the judge’s impartiality is a low road. Yet, still and all, he will be better than Hillary in my opinion.
Well, I think belonging to a Hispanic supremacist organization calling itself “the Race” is un-American.
He doesn’t.
We survived (in a manner of speaking) Obama’s attacks on the court system and his attempts to intimidate judges, so I suppose we could survive this, too. I will not be a party to it, though, any more than I was a party to Obama’s election.
It depends on whether Judge Curiel considers himself a wise Latino whose ethnicity will allow him to make judicial decisions fairer than those made by others not of his ethnicity.
He belongs to the San Diego La Raza [“The Race”] Lawyers Association.
Which is also part of La Raza Lawyers of California which claims affiliation with NCLR.
Claire,
Well gosh Claire, these nice refugees were just trying to find a better life in America and Curiel was trying to deport them. That’s why they got so angry and threatened to murder him.
Sarcasm over. Hillary Clinton is guilty of multiple federal felonies and gross malfeasance in office. The criminal conspiracy that is the democratic party makes her immune from prosecution. Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a vulgarian blowhard.
And?
Regards,
Jim
This is not the “La Raza” associated with Hispanic supremacy.
Correct, it is not literally the same group, but then why do they link to their website and claim affiliation?
It will be interesting to see if there will be a line so low that Trumps defenders will stop debasing themselves to make excuses for him.
Unfortunately I’m pretty sure I already know the answer, but I suppose I can take perverse satisfaction in learning the true colors of other people who claim the mantle of conservative and profess to be believers in the rule of law.
Because they must be separate otherwise the judge might be associated with a racial supremacist group and that would muddy the waters for the “Conservatives for Hillary” brigade.
People really need to stop trying to get me to pick sides between people I loathe.
If anyone claims they are conservative and for Hillary they were never conservative to begin with. A card carrying member of the shape shifting center right perhaps, but #NeverConservative.
For eight years I watched Republicans debase themselves by defending Bush against the things they had criticized when Clinton did them. So this isn’t really a new phenomenon.
Note:
Editors' Note: Lying requires knowledge of another's intent and is very difficult to prove. Given that members are enjoined to treat each other with a presumption of good faith, it is better to say that a fellow member is factually incorrect and that (if one wishes to be pointed) that he should know better, and then link to facts.He doesn’t belong to NCLR. Why are you [redacted]?
Yes Claire, it is unAmerican. And those who cannot answer that simple question without taking the illogical sidestep of shouting “But Hillary” are demonstrating how impossible it will be to oppose any unstable or dangerous step Trump takes. He is only getting more emboldened and erratic.
Hang tough, Claire.
They link to the website but the San Diego chapter does not claim affiliation, nor does NCLR claim them as an affiliate. There are a lot of dangerous rabbit holes we can go down if we choose to claim affiliation by anyone who links other pages on the web.
Has anyone checked if any Aryan Nation websites link to Donald Trump? That is the same level of connection as Judge Curiel has to NCLR.
No, no, we are the Orlando Nazi party – a theme park entertainers group. We don’t hate anyone, but we are affiliated with and do contribute half our proceeds to the Skokie Nazi folks with the other half going to the local KKK fellas.
As usual, Trump has a style that isn’t to my liking, but he also has a point. If this were a judge with membership in an organization with KKK in it’s name which claimed some loose affiliation with the actual KKK, the matter would be fairly obvious right?
Does anyone have any actual evidence that Judge Curiel has acted inappropriately or in a biased way against Donald Trump? Or are you just assuming it’s there because of the mans race?
I’m not sure what this current Trump media event is, but whether something is American or UnAmerican isn’t exactly precise. The incident, follow on and reactions show that Trump supporters can be stampeded as easily as the PC crowd and rent a mob are regularly stampeded. It’s depressing on every front but I’m never sure if these Trump incidents are accidents of ineptitude, pettiness and lack of class, or that he was a progressive so long he learned how to play the mob game.
I’m not sure I like the term “unAmerican.” That implies disloyalty or action so unprecedented as to be beyond the pale.
Questioning a judge’s ability to be be impartial has a long tradition in American jurisprudence. We recognize that the black robes do not confer infallibility. Many a man or woman with a gavel have shown questionable political judgment. We are talking about a country where a Klu Klux Klan member once sat on the Supreme Court. Mr. Justice Hugo Black claimed that he did so only to advance his career, and in fact, was quite the progressive on the bench.
Likwise, many prosecutors take on cases they see as being advantageous to advancing their careers. Unfortunately neither you nor I can say with any certainty what motivated Curiel’s past actions.
Liberal commentators are parsing the judge’s political affiliations, pointing out that his membership in the La Raza Lawyers Association is not the same as being a member of La Raza itself. But the group links to La Raza on its home page as an affiliated group. And if you belong to any group that promotes “The Race” instead of promoting blind, impartial justice, the people who are brought before you in an official capacity have a right to question that.
Or do you consider that “unAmerican”?
The San Diego chapter is part of the California Chapter which does claim affiliation to NCLR.
I don’t claim affiliation the organization does. Perhaps they just need MUCH better branding and naming. However, I think they probably know exactly what they are doing.
I agree with you about rabbit holes which is why a sitting federal judge should be extremely careful about organizations he chooses to associate with.
I think that were Hillary being judged for anything (as, indeed she ought to be), the media would be focused like a laser on any “appearance of impropriety” on the part of the judge. Recall, for a moment the treatment of Ken Starr as special prosecutor. If the judge belonged to any organization with the word “race” in it – regardless of the language – this would be the recurrent headline of the story (I am not a Trump supporter. I simply want to illustrate, again, the media double standard). I do believe Trump has further diminished himself in this incident.
Jerome Corsi has substantive investigative reporting on this and the connections between each of these groups that share “La Raza” in their Association names … Judge, law firm bringing Trump U case both tied to La Raza
This is not to excuse Donald Trump’s ham-handed statements on the matter. Merely to add balance to an otherwise “glowing” tribute to Judge Curiel (based upon one incident 18 years ago).
This is not the La Raza you’re looking for.
Amen BThompson.
This whole thing has been so enlightening.
How many times must we endure someone claiming to be a conservative actively cheerleading for Hillary Clinton, an accessory to murder and treasonous criminal? I agree with you, shameful.
Bottom line, Trump is a very bad man who should not be in the White House. No argument from me.
But, accepting that, anyone who proceeds from there to arguing that “therefore, Hillary is worthy of…” is making a very bad, fundamental mistake.
It is hard to know what to do. It really isn’t hard to automatically reject voting for an evil leftist.
tim
I have not been following this issue, but Leon Wolf over at Redstate argues that this is the local chapter of the La Raza Lawyers of CA, which is simply the bar association for Latino lawyers, and not related in any way to the radical leftist organization NCLR.
http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/06/03/dishonest-attempt-associate-gonzalo-curiel-la-raza/
I read through the linked website and it looks innocuous; perhaps one of our lawyers could comment.
http://larazalawyers.net/index.html
My understanding is that “la raza” can also mean “the people,” and can used the way Italians, for example, use “il popolo.”
Young attorneys join all kinds of bar associations for networking purposes. My wife is a member of a number of LA Bar Associations with which she does not share political affiliation. Membership in this organization is in no way dispositive as to Judge Curiels beliefs on a Mexican reconquista. I doubt you and I would like his politics much but that has no bearing on the mans ability to do his job.
I find it interesting that people are ignoring his membership in another legal organization: United States Attoney’s Office. While a member he deported enough cartel members that they put a hit out on him.