JUSTICE FOR SOME IS JUSTICE FOR NONE
By Jim Towers, M.J.A. JD. | Photojournalist, Houston Heights Independent
Hundreds gather at Will Weber Field in Houston's Montrose to demand answers in the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — and to insist his name be counted alongside others lost to federal immigration enforcement.
HOUSTON — They came to Will Weber Field in the Montrose on a Sunday in July when the temperature reached 105 degrees, and they carried his name on signs they had made by hand.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. They said it from a stage built of stacked picnic tables. They lettered it in paint on poster board. They printed it in block type and held it above their heads so it could be read from the back of the crowd: WHO KILLED LORENZO? RELEASE THE NAMES.
Salgado Araujo, a Houston-area resident, was killed during a federal immigration enforcement operation. He was one of at least eleven people whose names a hand-lettered sign displayed to the crowd that afternoon — eleven people dead in encounters with federal immigration authorities across the country, their names listed in the same column, without rank or hierarchy, as if the sign itself were a finding of fact.
The rally drew hundreds of people to Will Weber Field, a Houston Parks and Recreation park, on July 19. Organizers had planned a march but canceled it because of the heat. They did not cancel the grief.
Three Investigations. No Word From City Hall.
From a stage a few feet off the ground, a speaker in a white shirt and pink cap asked the crowd a question that carried across the park: Why has the mayor done nothing? Why has the district attorney done nothing?
The Texas Rangers, the Texas attorney general's office, and the Harris County district attorney's office have each said they will investigate the circumstances of Salgado Araujo's death. The City of Houston has not. Mayor John Whitmire's office did not respond to a request for comment submitted July 20. [TK: Whitmire verbatim from July 15 City Council session — verify against council video before characterizing.]
The rally's organizers are volunteer-run. Their members work day jobs. Asked for comment, they replied that they were grateful for the coverage and would respond when they were able. That they showed up at all — with ASL interpreters, with volunteer medics in red vests, with legal observers in shirts that read ATTORNEY, with hi-visibility safety marshals carrying radios — is its own kind of answer to the question of whether this was organized.
The Names on the Sign
The hand-lettered decedent list — photographed here in full — named eleven people: Alex Pretti, Victor Manuel Diaz, Renee Good, Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, Keith Porter, Luis Gustavo Nuñez Caceres, Parady La, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, and Heber Sanchez Dominguez. [GATE: all eleven names verified against public record before publication.]
Trying to stay cool in the heat.
Resist.
Lorenzo's name is near the bottom of the list. It is not larger than the others. The crowd did not treat it that way either. They came for him, and they came for all of them, and the sign made the argument that there is no meaningful difference between those two things.
The Officers Who Were There
Houston Police Department officers were present throughout the afternoon, working the crowd on foot and stationed at the perimeter. A mounted patrol unit and ATVs were staged outside the park. Neither was deployed.
The posture was professional and restrained. Officers moved through the crowd without incident. The rally ended without arrest.
How HPD managed this crowd — and what that management reflects about the department's approach to civil protest during the current federal immigration enforcement climate — is addressed in a separate report.
105 Degrees and Still There
Vendors worked the shade lines selling mangonadas and paletas. Water pallets were stacked near the stage. Misting fans ran throughout the afternoon. Someone handed out free paletas to whoever wanted one, including the officers.
The march was canceled. The heat was not the point. The names were the point. The crowd stayed anyway, in the shade of the live oaks at Will Weber Field, for as long as it took to say them.
Disclosure: The photographer and author is a retired master peace officer with 34 years of service.
Houston Heights Independent covered this story on the ground. HHI is a civic journalism publication operating on the Murrow standard.
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