William Weeks

(The genius who gave us a real tool for weeding out bad cops)

Here is a video of Miguel, his son Michael, and LA Supervisor Kenneth Hahn on a news program: https://www.facebook.com/100002610067012/videos/180328207412414

Those who support corrupt, racist law enforcers hurt the law enforcement officers who are trying to do a good job of protecting all Americans.
The Black Lives Matter Movement opened the eyes of many Americans to a serious problem in our nation of law enforcement officers who are racists committing illegal acts against minorities, and often quite literally getting away with criminal acts, including murder.

But once the problem is identified, what steps can be taken for meaningful change?

Miguel Garcia was only eleven when he came to this country, not speaking a word of English. He became a lawyer when there were few chicanos practicing law yet managed to accomplish what the best civil rights lawyers of his time had never done before — he gave us a real tool for finding and weeding out racist bullies in law enforcement.

I’m proud to say he was my friend, and still is today. This will be the cliff notes version of his story.

My own family had been involved in civil rights issues, especially with regards to law enforcement, for almost as long as I can remember. My father, Paul Weeks, was a newsman for thirty years, before working for Johnson’s OEO (Poverty Program), and later the Rand Corp.. Newsweek magazine described him in an article as one of the ten most influential writers of the Civil Rights Movement. When Doris Day reads the article supposedly written by Clark Gable in Teacher’s Pet, she is actually reading a civil rights article my father made up for the film based on his stories. When three civil rights workers were murdered in the South, my sister said, “They won’t stop us”. Barb got on the next bus to go register first time Black voters in Mississippi.

I was introduced to Miguel in early 1976 by my girl friend at the time, Golda Savage, who worked with me at ABC Guest Relations. We were all neighbors at the lower end of Mt. Washington, an area in LA known as the second most prevalent for the use of marijuana at the time.

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Miguel and his son, Michael at the Chicano Moratorium Aug. 29, 1970
Miguel would come over and sit at the only furniture I had in the living room of my little house I paid $125 a month to rent, a card table with four folding chairs. Miguel would tell me about his exploits, going before the California Supreme Court less than two years after he had been admitted into the bar, and returning twice more (once representing Cesar Chavez’s Farm Workers Union). It didn’t take long for Golda and I to realize he was a true genius and one of those people who actually made a difference in the lives of others (as Jackie Robinson advocated).

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Miguel as I first met him, around 1976
In those days, Miguel had long hair and a beard. He often wore a denim jacket, jeans, and sharp, shit-stomping boots. We would share a joint and he would flatter me by asking my opinion on some courtroom strategy he was considering. Sometimes he would sit in my living room for hours, sometimes on acid, sometimes listening to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez or Santana. His old suit coat that he used when he appeared before the Supreme Court had a burn hole in it from an accident with a joint.

Through the years we did many things together. My daughters, Erin and Ayla, are about the same age as his daughter, Adeliz. Miguel was a groomsman during my second marriage, and my wife, Yumiko, and I attended Adeliz’s wedding in Mexico. Miguel came to my Mom’s funeral and I attended his Dad’s and his son’s memorials. I talked him into joining Windward Sailing Club with me, and we took two sailboats and ten children (with five men) to Catalina Island to find a buried skull and pirate treasure.

There is a unique community near Riverside, California called Casa Blanca (not to be confused with the movie). Life magazine did an article once on two feuding families there that were like a modern-day Hatfields and McCoys. There also had been a mini-war between four police departments and Casa Blanca community members. One police sergeant testified that he had commandeered a dump truck and drove it full of police volunteers into the thick of the battle. He was knocked across the cab by a shot gun blast and had to fight for consciousness to turn the truck around so the volunteers wouldn’t be sitting ducks inside.

I went with Miguel to Casa Blanca to celebrate a victory he had in court with two rival groups who normally wouldn’t have gotten along. To me the groups looked like the toughest gang members I’d ever seen — to Miguel they were people defending their homelands that had belonged to them for generations. The man with butcher experience hadn’t shown up, so Miguel shot a pig and I slit its throat (I had always told myself that I would participate in such an event if given a chance — and become a life long vegetarian if it bothered me). Luckily, the man who knew what he was doing showed up before we pierced any organs that would have ruined the meat.

At one point it was decided that a beer run was needed. They opened the trunk of a lowrider to show me at least a dozen car batteries inside that could make the car hop front or back. I called shotgun and we took off (sans Miguel). As we drove across a field a black and white cruised towards us from the other direction. When they got close, both cops did a double-take when they saw the white guy cruising with the vato locos. I gave them a smile and a wave.

But I digress. The two important California Supreme Court decisions Miguel gave us were Pitchess and Murguia.

The second of these, Murguia, was brought about by Miguel’s brilliance in representing the Farm Workers’ Union of Cesar Chavez using a strategy he developed with Pitchess. Murgia says that the law cannot be enforced in a discriminatory manner. If the Murguia ruling had been in place during WWII, not one Japanese would have been unjustly interred at that time.

On September 24, 1975, Justice Mathew Oscar Tobriner wrote:

Neither the federal nor state Constitution countenances the singling out of an invidiously selected class for special prosecutorial treatment, whether that class consists of black or white, Jew or Catholic, Irishman or Japanese, United Farm Worker or Teamster. If an individual can show that he would not have been prosecuted except for such invidious discrimination against him, a basic constitutional principle has been violated, and such a prosecution must collapse upon the sands of prejudice.
The other important decision Miguel gave us was the Pitchess Motion in May 1974, only two years from the time Miguel first entered the California bar (they used falsified evidence to try to deny Miguel entrance — but that’s another story).

There were laws already on the books saying that an attorney could use “discovery” to find accusations against bad cops, but judge after racist judge simply prevented the motions from going forward. Miguel recognized the need for published case law that could be cited. He made the motions repeatedly, improving them by making them more specific. Finally, a Hispanic judge granted his petition and he found the contact information of four persons who had made formal complaints against an officer. Two could not be found, and the other two could not recollect what they had said. Miguel then found a proviso which said that in cases like that, the original complaints could then be introduced in court.

Attorneys for Sheriff Peter Pitchess tried to get the subpoena quashed, but the judge stood by it. They then appealed to an Appellate Court. Miguel had usually been turned down by them, but the sheriff’s people got right in. That court held that Miguel was correct that the information could be admitted — but held that the sheriff’s department only had to give over complaints about its personnel that they themselves deemed were true.

That led to the Supreme Court where Miguel argued that after the Watts Riots, the McCone Commission found that minority communities had deep distrust of law enforcement, partly due to the fact that law enforcement agencies never honored nor followed up on complaints of police brutality. The court ruled that law enforcement agencies could not judge the validity of complaints themselves and that they should be adjudicated in a court of law. It ruled unanimously in favor of Miguel.

The Pitchess Motion as it came to be called (though it should have been the Garcia Motion), resulted in thousands of cases being overturned — either by witnesses of police brutality coming forth or because law enforcement agencies refused to turn over documents they knew were highly damaging to them. To this day it is one of the most used motions in civil rights cases in California, and has been widely imitated in other states. Recently one of the largest settlements in California history took place, (for $24,000,000), as a result of using the Pitchess Motion.

But it didn’t end there. Because Miguel’s hard won legislation was so effective, the highest officials in law enforcement in California conspired to thwart its effectiveness, denying many people of their rights. More than four and a half tons of records of complaints against officers were shredded by officers working day and night over two days time.

Hundreds of California attorneys signed a petition demanding that an independent investigation be made into this illegal act. But the top men in California law enforcement simply said they would investigate themselves. Three guesses how that turned out. When a memo came out a few years later showing that top law enforcement had been involved, they simply conducted yet another white washing. Here is what one judge said about it:

“I believe the shredding is a more terrible scandal than Watergate…the shredding scandal goes to the very heart of our system of justice.”

Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge George W. Trammell

On January 24th, 1977, Judge Trammell found:

1) Police personnel deliberately destroyed records with the specific intent of depriving defense attorneys of potential evidence to which they were legally entitled.

2) The Internal Affairs Division deliberately deceived the City Council to get them to authorize the destruction.

3) Four more years were destroyed than had been authorized.

4) The City Attorney of Los Angeles aided and abetted the destruction of evidence — constituting gross professional conduct.

So, how does all this affect the Black Lives Matter Movement? Here are my recommendations:

Demand our politicians pass laws forbidding the destruction of any complaints against any officer. These complaints should be adjudicated in a court of law, not by the very people they are being made against. With modern technology, the original excuse of not having enough room to keep all of them simply doesn’t hold water any more. All complaints should be kept forever.
Demand a new, independent investigation be made as to who ordered the files destroyed. They had described the files as being unimportant to the LA City Council when they asked to destroy anything over 5 years old, and then actually destroyed anything more than 1 year old. They are still routinely destroying all files over 1 year old today. Why?
Establish police review boards in such a way that they cannot be meddled with when conservative politicians get elected such as defunding them or otherwise impairing them.
Any gross misconduct by any officer should lead to the immediate dismissal of that officer and the police chief who allowed conditions to exist that did not prevent it.
Screenings for law enforcement jobs should look at previous employment records and histories of racism or acts of brutality.
No law should be passed criminalizing the audio or video recording of police abuses.
Pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
There’s one more thing I want to make clear. I find the wisdom of our forefathers to have been amazing. They foresaw the need for checks and balances of power. As the population grew, and institutions like the FBI and law enforcement grew, the concept of balancing the power of these agencies in an effective way was never addressed. Those principles of the constitution need to be examined closely, and included in the continued development of all agencies designed to protect us as our population grows.

Law enforcement is there to protect everyone from bullies, abusive behavior, and to enforce our laws. We will always need police. However, racist bullies with badges destroy the credibility and the trust law enforcement needs within communities and make their work harder and much more dangerous.

My question to citizens and law enforcement officers is this: Will you continue to support all cops just because they wear a badge — even when they have proven themselves to be racist bullies? Or can you see how weeding these individuals out will create greater trust in the community, greater respect, and create more cooperation that will make law enforcement safer and easier to do? And, (by the way), anyone know just how much money bad cops end up costing tax payers every year?

Miguel today. He took Yumiko and I to a Japanese restaurant that used to buy avocados from him. We presented him with a traditional Japanese garb.
Here is a link to a poem that one reader wrote after reading the script: https://medium.com/@hennessiebrown/barrio-barrister-e8c7ffdb3cbc

I have written a film, Barrio Barrister, that covers the years from when Miguel attended law school to when his actions led to the Pitchess Motion. However, I have embarked on a novel and hope to do a mini-series that would include the Murgia decision, many of Miguel’s interesting cases, and the contributions of several other chicano attorneys, many of whom are still alive today. I am looking to collaborate with other writers on this. Anyone interested?

Parts of the film with descriptions will be listed followed by numbers such as Barrio Barrister F-1, Barrio Barrister F-2, etc. There will also be a brief history of my family and my relationship with Miguel as well. Those descriptions will be listed with letters afterwards: Barrio Barrister H -A, Barrio Barrister H-B, etc. These sections are meant to satisfy those who are curious but are not necessary for appreciating Miguel’s story.

I want to thank my old friend, Ebbe Roe Smith who wrote the cult classic “Falling Down” (which Michael Douglas described in an interview as the best written film he was ever in), who gave me tips on the writing of the script. One of his warnings was — you will be accused of cultural appropriation when this comes out.

My answer is that Miguel’s story has been out there for 50 years and no one’s done it. I recall the famous story by Pastor Martin Niemoller in which he said:

First they came for the communists,

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a communist.

Then they came for socialists…

trade unionists…Jews…

And I did not speak out

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me.

So this is me speaking out about police abuse — a situation which is far worse than most Americans are aware. Since I knew Miguel’s story and it had not been done, how could I remain silent?

By the way, when Ruben Salazar wrote about Jimmy Williams, a nineteen-year-old African American who was killed in Vietnam but whose parents’ wishes to have him buried at his hometown of Wetumka, Alabama, were denied simply because he was black — would that have been considered “cultural appropriation” because Salazar was not African American?

Was Spielberg guilty of cultural appropriation with his Amistad or The Color Purple? Were Steinbeck and Kazan guilty of cultural appropriation when they did Viva Zapata! (by the way, Steinbeck had wanted a Mexican actor to do the part instead of Brando).

Is Romulus Hillsborough guilty of cultural appropriation when he writes book after book on the Meiji Restoration period in Japan?

Were the all-Japanese cast who successfully performed Fiddler on the Roof for so many years guilty? How about the Japanese who perform square-dancing (with English calling), imitate Elvis, or imitate Chicano lowrider culture — -are they committing cultural appropriation?

And finally, civil rights is important to everyone. That’s why my father, Paul Weeks, played an important part in writing civil rights stories for the LA TIMES, why Wayne Satz’ ABC TV coverage on Press-Police relations was so important, and why the contributions of Reverend John Luce of the Church of the Epiphany were so vital to the Chicano Movement. Attention must be paid to how the struggles of people of color have benefitted all of society and how people of different colors, religions or national origins have helped one another. This had been one of the main tenets by old friend, David Fox-Benton, who created the Immortal Chaplains to honor those who risked or gave their lives to help others of a different race, religion, or ethnicity.

I have always felt that the improvement of civil rights for others improves the quality of life for all, including those who are in the majority. But there are many who are not fully aware of the problem. One young executive to whom I pitched recently, said he did not believe a judge would be quite so bad as I depicted one in the script — even in those days.

On September 2, 1969, while Superior Court Judge Gerald S. Chargin was passing judgement on a 17-year-old Chicano he stated, “We ought to…send you back to Mexico. You belong in prison for the rest of your life…You ought to commit suicide…Maybe Hitler was right. The animals in our society probably ought to be destroyed because they have no right to live among human beings.”

It is my intention to make a film that will make all who view it, regardless of race or national origin, burn with hatred for the injustices that have been done under the guise of badges and seize the moment to demand real change. Supporting racist, abusive cops makes the job of honest cops more dangerous — weeding them out will increase the confidence in law enforcement a hundred times over.