White House Invitations and the Slandering of a Wounded DEA Agent

This week, while perusing an article on David Horowitz's Frontpage Magazine blog, I came across a piece of information that hit me like a punch in the stomach. The article in question, written by Ben Johnson and which is linked below, concerns a cultural meeting organized by White House presidential advisor Valerie Jarrett back in May 2009. It was a gathering of numerous leftist individuals from various corners of the cultural world. Among the invitees was an artist/muralist named Judith Baca.

http://frontpagemag.com/?p=24494

I draw the reader's attention to the below lines from that article:

"Others Jarrett’s office asked to help shape the administration’s agenda shared Van Jones’ conspiratorial outlook on the world. The OPE invited Judith F. Baca, who once noted some of her Los Angeles-area public murals “were about drug abuse, including the government-supported influx of drugs into the communities, including the Las Tres issue in Los Angeles, where three people were imprisoned for shooting a narcotics agent who was bringing narcotics into the community.” (Baca's words)

Though not personally involved in the Los Tres incident, which occurred in 1971 in Los Angeles, I do have some knowledge of the incident.

On July 22, 1971, Robert Canales, an undercover agent for the then-Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs was working undercover in East Los Angeles negotiating a drug purchase from three suspects. In an attempt to rob the UC agent of the buy money, the three ambushed the agent and shot him leaving him permanently crippled. Yet, once they were arrested, the leftist activist community and the LA media took up the cause of "Los Tres" (The Three) and the urban myth was propagated that these three punks were only protecting their (Mexican-American) community from drug agents "who were bringing in drugs". It was a shameful episode. (The three were convicted and sentenced to prison.)

Canales, though crippled for life, was able to continue his career as a supervisor in the LA office. In 1974-75, while stationed in the LA office of DEA(the successor agency to BNDD), I was privileged to work under this brave agent who was unfairly maligned by the local activists and the local media on behalf of three low-life criminals.

To be exact, Mr Johnson took the above quote from a 1994 book by Maxine Schwarz Seller, entitled: "Immigrant Women", State University Press of New York, 1994. There is a section on Baca, and Baca's quote appears on page 214. (This can be found under Google Books.)

http://books.google.com/books?id=ul9lYKCI0csC&printsec=frontcover&dq=immigrant+women#v=onepage&q=&f=false


In addition, Baca reproduces the quote on her own website (Judith F Baca Official Website). Under the sub-heading "publications", she references a book by Diane Neumaier entitled,"Political Arts-Subversive Arts". This book also features a narrative by Baca (pp 256-270) in which the quote in question is repeated on pp
264-265. Thus, this slanderous and untrue statement sits today on Baca's website.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6133996/Our-People-Internal-Exiles


I should note here that Baca is a renowned and clearly talented mural artist from Los Angeles, who has a slew of awards to her credit. She is apparently a leftist "Chicana" activist who is currently on the faculty at UCLA. I confess that I had previously never heard of her before reading this Frontpage article. Personally, I could care less what her view of the world happens to be. I care greatly about what she has said about Mr Canales. I do not know if she has since retracted this comment about Mr Canales, which she made back in 1994, apparently not since it still stands on her website.

Today, I contacted Mr Canales and brought this information to his attention for whatever action he deems appropriate.

I am grateful to Mr Johnson for bringing this information to the fore on Frontpage Magazine. If this outrageous mis-representation of a wounded DEA agent is still appearing in print and being disseminated, then it must be pointed out and denounced. Of course, it is hardly surprising that the person spreading this lie is being invited to the current White House.