DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974 | 1974-04-14 Workshop IV, Chicano: Legal Process Page 3

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Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974

1974-04-14 Workshop IV, Chicano: Legal Process Page 3

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rights case, they do not want to get involved. They are afraid that other firms or some of their clients will stop seeing them because they have turned into a radical organization because they tried to help some Chicano, A Black or an Indican with some civil rights problem. So many times you are stopped right there, you have to keep looking. This comes under the heading prejudice. The bias people have against civil rights problem and their fear of being ostracized by their clients and losing business.
Then, if you get an attorney and he is willing to go to court with you then you have for example a jury. The jury is the last thing I will mention. We have a trend in the United States, so far the juries are beginning to decide non-unanimously. A majority of the jury, ten out of twelve jurors can decide a case: Even if you do get two Chicanos on that jury and they do think that you are not guilty or should be covered, damages or what have you it doesn't do you any good because the other ten jurors can do away with that.
Now, I would like to start going into some of the current problems. We will start with employment, education, business places, police harassment and also to comment on the need for Chicano attorneys.
AUDIENCE RESPONSE: It is not expensive for a civil rights complaint. You don't need an attorney. All you have to do is walk in there, write a complaint, then ask the establishment for an affirmative action.
AUDIENCE RESPONSE: We have a case in Chicago now that we feel is police discrimination on part of the city in terms of their establishing a minimum height requirement. Presently in Chicago the police is five foot seven inches. We have a situation where a young man who had been in the army took the written test in Germany, because he was stationed there. He came back to the states and was given a notice saying, "you passed our test, please come down for your physical." The first thing they did when he entered, they told him to take off his shoes, they remeasured him and it said five feet six and half inches. We then began to see what could be done about this injustice. Obviously everyone thinks, go get a lawyer and say it is a discriminatory thing. We went to the A.C.L.U.. The A.C.L.U. said we had a good case here but er are really full, we don't have any attorney available to take the case now. What you should do is go to the Fair Employment Practice Commission, This os a state agency. If we take it to court they will kick it out of court because you have not used all the available means of resources. We then went to the F.E.P. Commission. So, they took his

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3 rights case, they do not want to get involved. They are afraid that other firms or some of their clients will stop seeing them because they have turned into a radical organization because they tried to help some Chicano, A Black or an Indican with some civil rights problem. So many times you are stopped right there, you have to keep looking. This comes under the heading prejudice. The bias people have against civil rights problem and their fear of being ostracized by their clients and losing business. Then, if you get an attorney and he is willing to go to court with you then you have for example a jury. The jury is the last thing I will mention. We have a trend in the United States, so far the juries are beginning to decide non-unanimously. A majority of the jury, ten out of twelve jurors can decide a case: Even if you do get two Chicanos on that jury and they do think that you are not guilty or should be covered, damages or what have you it doesn't do you any good because the other ten jurors can do away with that. Now, I would like to start going into some of the current problems. We will start with employment, education, business places, police harassment and also to comment on the need for Chicano attorneys. AUDIENCE RESPONSE: It is not expensive for a civil rights complaint. You don't need an attorney. All you have to do is walk in there, write a complaint, then ask the establishment for an affirmative action. AUDIENCE RESPONSE: We have a case in Chicago now that we feel is police discrimination on part of the city in terms of their establishing a minimum height requirement. Presently in Chicago the police is five foot seven inches. We have a situation where a young man who had been in the army took the written test in Germany, because he was stationed there. He came back to the states and was given a notice saying, "you passed our test, please come down for your physical." The first thing they did when he entered, they told him to take off his shoes, they remeasured him and it said five feet six and half inches. We then began to see what could be done about this injustice. Obviously everyone thinks, go get a lawyer and say it is a discriminatory thing. We went to the A.C.L.U.. The A.C.L.U. said we had a good case here but er are really full, we don't have any attorney available to take the case now. What you should do is go to the Fair Employment Practice Commission, This os a state agency. If we take it to court they will kick it out of court because you have not used all the available means of resources. We then went to the F.E.P. Commission. So, they took his