DWM (Driving While Mexican) in Santa Ana's Floral Park

• Mexican or not, if you have a red light camera ticket in Santa Ana, fight it. Take it all the way to a trial - the judge is dismissing all pre-December Santa Ana camera tickets, at trial. But you have to put up the bail and take it all the way to trial - asking at arraignment won't do the trick. This is happening because of recent appeal decisions. And here is another dirty little secret the Spanish-language press has chosen to stay mum about: Snitch Tickets, which are fake/phishing red light camera tickets currently sent out by the police in an effort to fool the registered owner into identifying the actual driver of the car. (He doesn't have to!) Local cities using this "social engineering" tactic are Bakersfield, Corona, Garden Grove, Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Laguna Woods, Los Alamitos, Loma Linda, Maywood, Moreno Valley, Riverside, Santa Ana, Santa Clarita, South Gate, and Victorville.) Snitch tickets have not been filed with the court, so they don't say "Notice to Appear," don't have the court's address and phone # on them, and usually say, on the back (in small letters), "Do not contact the court about this notice." Since they have not been filed with the court, they have no legal weight whatsoever. You can ignore a Snitch Ticket. If in doubt, Google the term.

• Also, Thurston, your foreign language skills need some work. "Adios and l'chaim" makes no sense whatsoever. "Good-by and to life"?

• Thurston: I'm trying to figure out what song Gustavo and I sing together other than food. Kindly explain what the hell you're talking about, or shut the hell up. There aren't really restaurants in Floral Park so I have no reason to write about it, and I'm unlikely to be the victim of profiling, so I have no reason to comment on Gustavo's post. I've been to Javier's, incidentally, and I could get the same food and the same experience for the same price by eating at El Torito with a 50-year-old hired escort. I can think of plenty of better places to eat, Mexican and not, in my former neighborhood in North Hollywood. Of course, if you knew anything about the Valley you'd know NoHo isn't even close to being its armpit. Finally, you may have been born in California (what part of the 909 are you from, incidentally?) but I was born in New Jersey and we have a word we use for people like you: vaffanculo.

• Joe: I don't know�if a cop tails me to my home, asks what am I doing in my neighborhood and then asks to see proof TWICE of where I leave, finds it in order, then leaves without telling me why the hell he tailed me in the first place, dontcha think something's up? The wab is actually a law-and-order type of guy, which makes the story even more of a hoot. And it's not an isolated incident�over on my Facebook page, people are leaving their DWM stories. Not that Yeah Whatever He's Now Calling Himself would believe them...

• There are a myriad of reasons the officer MAY have had for justifiably talking to your friend. knowledge of the area, vehicle matching description of suspect in a crime, vehicle code violation - blah, blah, blah.. the list is long. I would agree that as a courtesy, the officer could explain the reason for his interest in wabbie. However, won't your journalistic mind also consider that it is equally possibly that wabbie had a chip on his shoulder due to perceived harassment? You don't report enough of the supposed dialogue to let the reader come to any conclusion other than what you suppose happened. In my personal opinion, anyone in SA who has a valid driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance gets a gold star for the day - and a hall pass for minor infractions...

• with a name like "thurston" you probably live in floral park

• Well, I'm born here and 5th gen Cali. And yes, I'll bring in Das, 'cause you 2 will never belong and you both sing the same, boring song. Misfits. As for the moronic twit comment, I'll take that as a compliment. Again, adios!

• Shows what you know. That corrupt POS wouldn't be caught dead talking to me.

• Thurston: You can bash on me all you want, but to bring Das Ubergeek into the conversation when this has nothing to do with food shows you're nothing more than a moronic twit. Leave Orange County? NEVER�HAHAHAHA

• Gustavo, you sound mighty bitter, not only regarding this story but your general opinion about life in OC. Maybe you might be happier in another area? And take Das with you (maybe NoHo, the armpit of the Valley would work for the both of you?)...two disgruntled, whining, can't-finacially-compete sour peas in a pod. There are some of us that LOVE it here and don't need 2-bit hacks pointing out a non-story. Adios and l'chaim. Stop and have dinner at Javier's on your way out of town (and don't forget the obligatory plastic surgery crack in your final post).

• I'll put up my record against your many comments (in so many pseudonyms!) any day of the week. Say hola to the Don Papi when you see him, and tell him I have something in store for him next week!

• And gracias for confirming my diagnosis: No journalistic integrity or fact gathering.

• Gracias for confirming my diagnosis of you! Believe it or not, I actually did drive through other neighborhoods and ended the evening in Park Santiago, which is the less-asshole version of Floral Park. There, the spirit was alive. Funny how no one ever has anything bad to say about that neighborhood even though the income levels, exclusivity, and demographics of it is the same to Floral Park...

• Whether 1/4 or 3/4 the households hand out candy on Halloween is a correlation but not necessarily indicative of the "segregationist" causation you infer. Did you drive through other neihborhoods or cities to compare the level of Halloween participation? I doubt it. Did you interview those who are purportedly not handing out candy to inquire the reason? Again, I doubt it. Rather, you appear to rely on ONE source, anecdotal data and your very unscientific "drive through." Interestingly, depending on when you drove by our house, you may have thought we were not handing out candy and thus improperly put us in the 3/4 of the "segregationists." You see, we ran out 4 times and had to turn off our lights while I went out to get additional loot for the revelers. Did you data gatherinc account for that? I am pretty sure journalistic standards do not sanctiont that sort of data gathering, especially the part about using one obviously biased source and a faulty statistical sample. That is where the "opinion" kicks in. I have no gripe with your complaint that people in FP don't get into the holiday spirit on Halloween, but to pawn it off as "segregationism" is simply not accurate even based on your own "reporting" which as I noted above has flaws in the data gathering (if you can call it that).

• That's not true. When I did my report, only about a quarter of Floral Park's homes gave out candies on Halloween proper. How do I know? Because I drove up and down every street to make sure. It's called journalism, whether you want to believe I practice it or not. And then I verified this longstanding segregated Halloween by an old-money SanTana family that I know. They're thankfully not racist (though their grandparents...), and were more than happy to say this has been going on for a while. Again: journalism. And me, can't bear to say anything positive about Floral Park? Wrong�shit, I did an entire cover story on the backyard beekeepers among you. You, on the other hand, simply won't believe that Floral Park is a wonderland where all is swell and well. Good luck with that!

• For what its worth, its not that many FP residents view the number of tricker treaters as a problem. Though I think my family spent about $200 on candy that night. Nor the trash . . . which likely would occur in any neighborhood when you have that many people. But I would note that there is significant safety issues on a night like that. There is simply an overwhelming amount of traffic for the number of children on the streets. As for your view of the "segregationist" Halloween, it is, like much of what you write, an opinion, and not necessarily fact. Many communities have community oriented parties. This just happens to be one of them. BTW, perhaps you should report on the college scholarships that the FP community organization provides to local area students. Oh wait - that may paint the area in a positive light . . . and you couldn't bear to do that.

• Who Cares: Figured you were a Floral Park resident. Good for you for distributing candies on the actual Halloween holiday, but spare me the justification for the segregation, and don't bother denying it, either: as my original post on the subject showed, Floral Park has actively tried to discourage the rest of SanTana from coming to their neighborhood for trick-or-treating since at least the 1970s.

• Art: The problem was likely that your wife got a ticket for breaking the law in some regard. It just happens that many people drive through FP and often are breaking the law - speeding down streets, running stop signs and endangering playing children . . . all to save a minute or two by cutting around 17th or Broadway. I'm sure it had nothing to do with being "brown" as you say. Gustavo: You and your ilk like to harp on the "segregated" halloween event. For what its worth, the neighborhood's voluntary association has 7 or 8 events a year, including concerts. Due are paid to join the voluntary association. What's the problem with having an event for the community? By the way, I bet you have never been to FP on Halloween. We are one of many households that do celebrate Halloween and offer candy to everyone. We enjoy it, but I will tell you that after running out of candy 4 times, distributing (not an exaggeration) over 3,000 pieces of candy and single-handedly cleaning out the candy supply not only at the 7-Eleven on Flower/17th BUT ALSO the Big Saver, I was more than a littl miffed when I went out that night to spend 1/2 hour cleaning the trash from my front lawn. Most trick-or-treaters were respectable folks, but there was an inordinate amount of over-age ass-clowns and hoodlums who clearly were up to no good. Traffic is horrible and the streets look more like a parking lot at a sporting event than a holiday event. Its odd that someone like you, who doesn't live in the community, would be so critical when you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

• Interesting story on this subject in relation to Papi's 'hood. We used to have a lady participating frequently in Los Amigos meetings and activities. She lived in Yorba Linda (patrolled by Brea PD). She was stopped on the 91 Freeway one Sunday night and given a CHP fix-it ticket for a burned-out taillight. Minutes later, in deepest YL, she was stopped by Brea PD and asked if she knew her taillight was not working. She showed them the CHP ticket and said she planned to get it fixed Monday morning. Then she was asked why she was in that neighborhood. Oh, I forgot to mention that she had brownish skin and a Spanish surname. She had difficulty convincing the cop that she lived at the address on her CDL. She's Juane� A friend of mine (Zacatecano, now a US citizen) worked for a Mercedes dealer. Part of his job was returning serviced vehicles to their owners and bringing back the loaners. Pancho was often stopped by police questioning why a Mexican was driving an MB. This usually resulted in a call to the dealership despite his uniform with his name and the dealer's logo. I've attended traffic court sessions in Orange and San Bernardino counties and noted that the breakdown of apparent racial/ethnic backgrounds based on names and appearances was generally about 85% Hispanic, 10% Anglo, and the remainder Black or Asian. There seems to be something terribly wrong with this picture. Maybe on a slow day someone from OCW might spend some time observing this phenomenon.

• petit bourgeois says: anonymous: if youre glad to be mexican then go back to mexico. I'll buy you the $20 ticket for a bus ride to Tijuana. WT??? Someone needs to tell this coconut or whitey to get back on the Mayflower..Mexican Indians were here first! If Mexicans bother him so much then he needs to move on!! Hell I'll pitch in a $100,000 to help him build it. Poor baby must be depending on his welfare check and foodstamps.

• We should organize 'banda raids' through floral park. At a set time, gather up six or so cars/trucks with booming systems, roll the windows down and crank up the Mexi umpa lumpa music!

• Anybody want to guess what increases ACLU membership more than anything else? Police harassment of people who have committed no criminal offense other than the very well known offense of "driving while black" or "driving while brown". Keep up the "good work", boys (and girls) in blue - we can use more members. On a somewhat related note, my brother (pale white and blond) used to get hassled by both the cops and the drug dealers when he lived on 163rd St in Manhattan (largely Dominican/Puerto Rican neighborhood). The cops thought he was there to buy drugs and the dealers thought he was the competition moving in. He was, of course, just carrying his laundry to the local laundrymat. Obviously racial prejudice by cops can cut both ways but it seems unlikely that the cops in Santa Ana are very likely to get away with violating the rights of white folks. People expressing views like "yeah, right" amuse me. They must live in such a whitebread world that they still believe the cops are their friends. Good luck with that - it will be interesting the day "yeah right" gets arrested.

• Gustavo, Very true. My wife got a ticket driving through Floral Park. The irony is that while she is brown, she doesn't speak a lick of Spanish! Pulido uses the cops like his own security guards. And the firemen drive around pimping for him in their historic fire engine every two years. Cabron!

• Petit: Don't forget you called UCI's Dean of Law a jewboy as well! There's simply no explaining away your anti-Jewish slurs, and they'll be enshrined in Navel Gazing forever! And for you to accuse me of being a crybaby is laughable, as you are the queen of them! Still angry at Enriqueta Ramos? Last I heard, she landed a plush job somewhere in San Antonio...

• petit bourgeois, you have no idea what you are talking about. You come across as one of those persons who thinks they know more about organizations like M.E.Ch.A. than its members. You believe racist people who make up its "mission" and "goals," instead of listening to its members or learning from the organization. Residential segregation dramatically hurt the life chances of thousands of people for centuries. College ethnic graduations are open anyone interested in participating, and no one's life chances are detrimentally affected by not attending. It is a horrible comparison for you to make as if they are equal.

• great response anonymous. typical uncivilized mexican lowlife. We already had your mother. Thats why you have european blood in you, self-hating mestizo.

• petito, Chingas a tu Madre......c/s

• anonymous: if youre glad to be mexican then go back to mexico. I'll buy you the $20 ticket for a bus ride to Tijuana.

• yes, tell me some more myths gustavo. no wonder you do not list "americans" in your exhaustive list of diversity. you hate americans and it is painfully obvious for years now. maybe you could translate into english what "MEChA" stands for since my bastardized mexican spanish isn't so good (mexico has no formal language academy--its bastardized spanish). help your readers to better understand where you come from by translating the acronym of the group you belonged to and wholeheartedly supported while at chapman. and spare us the "holocaust survivor" sob stories. you're more like griego irwin than she is. answer the question: why is it ok for you to belong to a group that calls for an ethnic homeland (irredentism, separatism, brown nationalism-socialism (aka mexican nazis)) but you have a problem with a white neighborhood in sta. ana? and if you dont like racial profiling, then you have no problem abolishing affirmative action for mexicans right? you will renounce the very racist system you benefitted from, right? In typical fashion, you like racial profiling when you can get a free ride at the expense of whites, but you abhor it when there are negative effects. do you know what happens to me when I cross the border with california plates? yeah, I get pulled over immediately because I am white, so get over it you big f-ing crybaby. its disgusting the way you attack a police officer with nothing more than one source. you were not even there, so its complete hearsay. that doesnt fit into any journalistic standard I know of. Its just you crying victim like a little pussy, as usual.

• My God...Im glad Im Mexican and not Mexican American...mucho pleito..aca en Mexico ya les hubieran dado una chinga.

• Yeah: If you're as avid a reader of the Weekly as you claim you are, then you'll know I'm more than happy to admit my mistakes. And I have done a couple (ha!) of them, worst of all being my initial kid-gloves treatment of Claudia Alvarez�I've been apologizing for that one ever since. That said, your Pollyanna view of how police operate needs a reality check. It's perfectly fine for the police to ask for registration and the like, but to follow someone and never bother to put on the sirens and not give an explanation? Your reasoning of protection is pretty silly�and there was never any offer of a sobriety test. Petit: Yes, that same racial organization that had so many whites, Asians, blacks and real-life Kazakhs in it. Don't you have a Holocaust survivor to slur?

• "The problem is that Bee editors now believe some of those �real� people--many of whom Griego Erwin referred to in print only by their first names or by pseudonyms--don�t exist at all. They believe she fabricated some of her sources, violating a basic journalistic tenet: Tell the truth." Remember that tenet Gustavo. You're as dishonest as they come.

• why shouldn't whites and coconuts have a refuge gustavo? what neighborhood do you live in? or are you still living with your parents? where were you when the mexicans had their own racially segregated graduation ceremonies at santa ana college? nowhere to be found, because when it benefits mexicans, you're all for racial segregation. didn't you belong to a racially segregated campus organization which advocates for the overthrow of the united states government and a return of the southwest to mexico and drive out "the brutal gringo invaders?" this item sort of reminds me of the "journalism" of diana griego irwin. http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=35418

• To Yeah Right (Si Como No).. Deep down you love Gus' work. Deep down you appreciate real journalism. Deep down you are sick of reading the PennySaver. Deep down you know you suck but you can't stay away.... Ahora, callate pendejo.

• Gustavo: First of all, yes, if you are making serious allegations against someone - or, as in this case, some institution - I expect you to offer concrete proof. It's called journalism. I'm sure if you tried Amazon.com, you could find some books on the subject. Second, your friend's story - or your presentation of it - has two major holes. a) How did the police know your friend was a "wab" before they pulled him over? You can tell by following a driver what ethnicity he is? Was he wearing one of those giant sombreros? b) The police "force[d] him to dig through the glove compartment for further proof"? If you are pulled over by the police, you are going to have to show license AND registration, irrespective of your race. Isn't that obvious? c) Pulling into a random driveway is one of the oldest and least effective ways of eluding the police. Even the cops you so malign have figured this one out. Your friend had no right to expect they would simply drive past at that point. An alternative explanation: Your friend was a little drunk, and the cops saw him weave a bit so they followed him. They gave him a break because he got home safely and didn't seem too toasted when he got out of the car. Maybe he should thank them. That makes just as much sense as your treatment - maybe more so given the problems with your version. P.S. You are welcome for my years-long patronage. I must admit, however, that while I enjoy the Weekly on the whole, I have never liked your work. In no small part, it is because of your steadfast refusal to admit to even minor mistakes. I am convinced that you truly believe you have never been wrong. Six is not an indefinite number, nor do I think it is small enough to merit the description "a couple." If a wrongdoing politician said he had made an error "a couple" of times, and you found out it was six times, you would roast that person alive.

• I think I would like to live in this slice of heaven...I mean, just to piss off white folks...like when the Raiders play on Sunday, or when Pumas plays on channel 34. I'd be over the top mexican. I'd rent out my house for Quincea�s...

• OK IF YOU DRIVE DOWN WHERE HE LIVES (PULIDO)THEY PAVED HIS STREET ONLY HIS STREET OH BY THE WAY IT HAPPENED RIGHT AFTER HE MOVED IN TO FLORAL PARK. OH REGARDING COCONUT -BROWN FROM THE OUTSIDE AND WHITE FROM THE INSIDE GET IT....

• i dnt get it???

• PULIDO IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE A COCONUT AND OF COURSE JUST HIS STREET WHERE HE LIVES GET TO BE FIXED EVERY YEAR WHILE OTHERS THAT HAVE LIVED THERE 20YRS OR MORE STAY THE SAME . OH THE COMMENT FROM THE CITY IS WE DONT HAVE THE MONEY.........

• Floral Park is chill... No problema for dis "wab"... The "little park" in Floral Park is cool 2, sumtimez i take my Nina there 2 play wit da gabachoz, all is well... "Orange County, The Right Spot, The White Spot", (Taken from OC COC flyer,1957, advertising homes in da OC!!)... OY VEY !!!!

• I apologize for some of the grammar in advance. I don't want you to have to waste time putting on your Grammar Police badge. I wrote it in a little bit of a hurry =) Peace!

• To: "Yeah, Right" - I hope this situation never happens to you. Not only is it degrading to the victim, but it is just blatant ignorance of the police force to act such a disgusting way. Does every police officer act this way? No, probably not. Does anyone who gets pulled over deserve it? No, probably not. But the next time a case like this occurs, let's say for an example - the police pull over my "friend" (AKA a boring desk jockey who lives in Orange) because his Sirius radio is in the "improper location" but then decides to handcuff him and lay him on the sidewalk, I'll be sure to call you over. Just so you are aware the situation and can confirm it isn't an "embellished" or "complete b.s.".

• Yeah: You really think I'm going to disclose my friend's name, and you really think the police would admit to following someone around for being Mexican? Yeah, right--like your name! Corroboration? Maybe I should trot out the other wab I know in Floral Park, whose neighbor keeps calling the cops on him every time their wabby cousin comes around in his Suburban? P.S., the fourth definition in Merriam's online dictionary for couple is "an indefinite small number." Gracias for reading us all these years!

• Let's see, an unnamed "friend" tells Gustavo this story and he just prints it without a single bit of corroboration. No chance this could be embellished or complete b.s., right? I mean, all those stories you head from a "friend" about the girl who took Spanish fly and Obama's birth certificate were true, right? Increasingly, this drivel is what passes for journalism at the OC Weekly. It's a sad husk of what it used to be. P.S. A couple is two, not six.

• It is true that in a city in which the police department runs their C.O.P.s (Community Oriented Policing) it is sad and outraging to hear stories such at these in which the community members suffer at the hands of some know-nothing agenda-cized pendejo SOB, pero, yo soy Mexicano de Santa Ana y en serio que nostros nos fregamos a vos mismos. The community is only as good as those that make it up, individual trees do make the forest. Ya no sean animales y cuidemosnos en lugar de seguir quemandonos. Acuerden "el que le detiene la pata, es igual de culpable quien mate la vaca"

• typical Santa Ana pigs just harassing mexicans fuck pigs!

• Cheeser: What do you think? NONE.

• Don't you know that it was cacique Pulido who is behind this redada? He wants his little fiefdom all to his little wab self. By the way, what was the explanation that the wab got from the fucken' pigs?

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