Watsonville Brown Berets turns 15, takes new approach

Most known for political protests, the Watsonville Brown Berets' latest project promotes pedal power, and, in the process, self-reliance. The Brown Berets Bike Shack, launched last year at the Friday downtown farmers market and now housed in a warehouse behind a former furniture store at 555 Main St., is part of the group's growing emphasis on ...

[From Santa Cruz]

"Alejo said people talk about providing alternatives to gangs. The Berets does it."

That's like saying the KKK is an alternative to joining the skinheads.

Why does a public newspaper support this racism?

Anyone who feels they need to join a race-based group has some serious mental and social issues.

I should also mention that they are anti-US Military. This is straight off of their website: "11. We absolutely discourage our members from enlisting in the U.S. military."

Gee, I guess they forgot how much fighting its taken to attain and protect the level of freedom which we all enjoy today.

[Carla Bjurman]

excellent points,"from Santa cruz"...why not an integrated, inclusive name
that promotes patriots.
like all of us from other places
Mexican is not La Raza
it is mixed
anything the Resource Center is involved in is racist to the core

[Pat Kittle]

how may will be legal?

[Watsonville subscriber]

OMG! Yet another cheerleader piece for the Brown Berets from the breathless Donna Jones? Who can forget her November 25, 2007 ode to Tomas Alejo Jr., for his heroic rehab effort in a Santa Clara County correctional facility after finally being jailed for FIVE DUI's. And that following his thuggish efforts to run First Lady Maria Shriver out of Watsonville when she tried to perform a good will tour of my city? Note to Santa Cruz Sentinel: Do you have anyone not actually in bed with the Brown Berets figuratively or otherwise to report on our community??????????

[Serial Numbers]

Is this a second hand dealer according to state laws, required to keep records and forward serial numbers to police? The pawn shop was raided...are these leftist and illegal alien promoters exempt?

[Brian]

Watsonville subscriber wrote:

OMG! Yet another cheerleader piece for the Brown Berets from the breathless Donna Jones?

Donna's "coverage" consists of fawning all over racist Brown / La Raza groups and pumping up candidates with UCSC backgrounds.

Send her back to the Valley Press.

[Wexinville]

When did they start this, it definitely isn't working because watson is fd up beyond repair. Oh yeah brown berets started in watson! Do brown beret's beat up brown priders?

[The Truth]

Wexinville wrote:

When did they start this, it definitely isn't working because watson is fd up beyond repair. Oh yeah brown berets started in watson! Do brown beret's beat up brown priders?

Not true. You obviously don't know much. This group has saved dozens of young lives. Many have gone on to do great things. With almost no budget, they mostly volunteer to help each other. When most sit around and do nothing, they have worked week after week for the last 15 years helping save one life at a time. No one ever said they are thee solution, but they have been working to to provide positive alternatives to youth in Watsonville.

[watsonville 2]

Watsonville subscriber wrote:

OMG! Yet another cheerleader piece for the Brown Berets from the breathless Donna Jones? Who can forget her November 25, 2007 ode to Tomas Alejo Jr., for his heroic rehab effort in a Santa Clara County correctional facility after finally being jailed for FIVE DUI's. And that following his thuggish efforts to run First Lady Maria Shriver out of Watsonville when she tried to perform a good will tour of my city? Note to Santa Cruz Sentinel: Do you have anyone not actually in bed with the Brown Berets figuratively or otherwise to report on our community??????????

Thanks for your input. I am a Mexican and ashamed of what these Brown Berets did to Maria Shriver. I took my kids to see an important person coming to our town and went home early because my kids were terrified by these "educated" people. Give me a break where are there educated manners- I won't ever support them.

[Local folks]

watsonville 2 wrote:

<quoted text>Thanks for your input. I am a Mexican and ashamed of what these Brown Berets did to Maria Shriver. I took my kids to see an important person coming to our town and went home early because my kids were terrified by these "educated" people. Give me a break where are there educated manners- I won't ever support them.

YOu don't have to agree. The fact is that they shed light on Shriver using Latinos as pawns for publicity when her husband, The Terminator, was running for re-election. Terrified? Give me a break. You were probably afraid only b/c they were Mexican.

[stu_man]

Local folks wrote:

<quoted text>
YOu don't have to agree. The fact is that they shed light on Shriver using Latinos as pawns for publicity when her husband, The Terminator, was running for re-election. Terrified? Give me a break. You were probably afraid only b/c they were Mexican.

If I remember right it was straight up Thug!

[The Truth 2]

The Truth wrote:

<quoted text>
Not true. You obviously don't know much. This group has saved dozens of young lives. Many have gone on to do great things. With almost no budget, they mostly volunteer to help each other. When most sit around and do nothing, they have worked week after week for the last 15 years helping save one life at a time. No one ever said they are thee solution, but they have been working to to provide positive alternatives to youth in Watsonville.

I'm sorry, there was a typo. The word "saved" should have been "indoctrinated" (socially engineered).

[Tabano]

Local folks wrote:

<quoted text>
YOu don't have to agree. The fact is that they shed light on Shriver using Latinos as pawns for publicity when her husband, The Terminator, was running for re-election. Terrified? Give me a break. You were probably afraid only b/c they were Mexican.

This post sounds like a guest column Luis Alejo ran in the Sentinel defending the actions of his brother and other Brown Berets in screaming insults at the First Lady in 2006. Come on, Luis, sign your real name. That earlier post from "The truth" sounded like you, too. Yeah, keep luring young people with the promise of bike repairs, then indoctrinate them so they can help campaign for your assembly race next year. They'll be almost as much help as these free campaign ad articles the Sentinel runs for your image makeover efforts.

[Brown Beret heroes]

Articles states the Brown Beret inspirations as being the non-violent teachings of Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. But I checked the Watsonville Brown Beret MySpace.com site, and didn't see either of them among the Brown Beret heroes listed on that site. Here they are:

Heroes
Emeliano Zapata, EZLN, Assata Shakur, Reis Tijerina, Mumia Abu Jamal, Rigoberta Manchu, Dolorez Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Emma Goldman, Rodolfo Corky Gonzalez, Pancho Villa, Ricardo Flores Magon, Sub Comandante Marcos, Jonathan Jackson, George Jackson, Jose Marti, Che Guevarra, Farabundo Marti, Augusto Cesar Sandino, Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, The Black Panther Party for Self Defense, The Black Liberation Army, The Tupac Amaru Freedom fighters, The Mau Mau, People's Army, Sundiata Acoli, Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, New Black Panther Party, The American Indian Movement, Angela Davis, Linda Evans, Rob Los Ricos, Free, Crazy Horse, Leonard Peltier, the Puerto Rican Young Lords, and all the revolutionaries who have lived and died for social justice!

[Pat Kittle]

As_local_as_they_get wrote:

All you racist IDIOTS can go to hell.
I don't need to refute you claims, your ignorance does that for me.
And F*$k all you who would dare compare the Berets to the klan. You are obviosly confusing the group you belong to with the Berets. There have been Brown Beret members of european, asian, african ancestry and they have never complained about the way they were treated by the Berets. You ignorant mofos on the other hand....
Don't believe me? I dare one of you internet cowards to come to the meetings, which are open to the public, and then try to tell me the same garbage misinformation you're spouting from your ridiculous melon of a head.

If you weren't racist you wouldn't call yourselves "Brown" Berets.

Imagine if a white group called itself the "White Berets" -- and made big murals of themselves wearing bandanas and raising their fists.

Would you have a problem with that?

You want us to think your peaceful, but you can't even post a simple comment without profanity and threats. We already KNOW what your hidden agenda is, you aren't fooling us.

You like to accuse anyone who disagrees with you of being in the KKK. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds (to anyone beside yourselves)? The KKK hasn't been shooting up our streets for a long long long time -- YOUR people are now doing that. You actually do behave much like the KKK, so you've earned the name "tan klan."

[Art]

Its pretty stupid to equate a racist organization that takes advantage of an existing power structure to kill thousands of people, help opppress millions more for over a century, has had millions of members including prominent politicians and is devoted to the enforcement of special status to a race that already controls our country's institutions and power enclaves to a small organization of a few hundred people who are trying to empower their distressed community (as many here have noted in their isht talking) through ethnocentric propoganda and outdated revolutionist mantras.

The klan murdered hundreds of people and advocated the oppression of many more for over a century, the brown berets have done little beyond annoy some ignorant uptight folks and keep a few troublemakers out of the pen. The berets should be appreciated or at least not compared to domestic terrorists.

[Pat Kittle]

Art wrote:

Its pretty stupid to equate a racist organization that takes advantage of an existing power structure to kill thousands of people, help opppress millions more for over a century, has had millions of members including prominent politicians and is devoted to the enforcement of special status to a race that already controls our country's institutions and power enclaves to a small organization of a few hundred people who are trying to empower their distressed community (as many here have noted in their isht talking) through ethnocentric propoganda and outdated revolutionist mantras.
The klan murdered hundreds of people and advocated the oppression of many more for over a century, the brown berets have done little beyond annoy some ignorant uptight folks and keep a few troublemakers out of the pen. The berets should be appreciated or at least not compared to domestic terrorists.

We already know your hidden agenda, all your PC code words no longer fool us.

If you want to stop being racist, the first thing you could do is stop calling yourself a blatantly racist name like "Brown" Berets.

Not surprisingly, you failed to tell us what you'd think of a white group calling itself the "White Berets."

[sparticus]

Another "hate the whites" group that supports stupidity

[sparticus]

regardless if its a sheet with a pointy hat or a brown "beret". The message of hate is really loud and clear. Only stupid people think these clowns are helping the local community.

[Art]

Pat Kittle wrote:

<quoted text>
We already know your hidden agenda, all your PC code words no longer fool us.
If you want to stop being racist, the first thing you could do is stop calling yourself a blatantly racist name like "Brown" Berets.
Not surprisingly, you failed to tell us what you'd think of a white group calling itself the "White Berets."

If a hidden agenda is telling the truth then I am guilty as stated. But honestly, stop projecting, you are one of the numerous mouth breathers on here who thinks anything not celebratin good ol white americana is racist and somehow harmful to you. The berets' rhetoric may not be touchy feely towards the white american power structure, but you cannot find anything advocating the outright attack or murder of another race, which is why it is absurd to compare them to the KKKlan who actualy HAS advocated the murder of nonwhites, jews and catholics.

That is the america today, people so stupid about what racism really is that they call anyone discussing rce or racial power dynamics honestly a racist.

hey genius, do you really beleive our nation's power structure is an even field, did you not leanr the several hundred years of history in this country and its relation to race? Such stupid comments comparing the berets to the KKK are ignorant because they ignore the racial power structure that this country has run on for centuries. The klan exist to reinforce prior racist views that were devastating to nonwhites, orgs like the brown berets exist as a response to racism in an attempt to counteract the negative consequences it has had on their ethnicity through ethnocentric propoganda.

If you had half a brain cell you'd realize Im not defending the berets, just pointing out the stupidity of your comments and comparisons.

Orgs like the berets and black panthers exist to counteract the damage racism has done to oppressed nonwhite communities (ie, without power). The whites who have run this country since its inception are not member sof some oppressed powerless minority.