Well, being that we can not discuss race within the regular forums, I will not.
What I will break down is the origins of the article at hand.
The website is Latin America News Dispatch.
Latin Dispatch is an NYU student-run publication. They receive support, aka funding, from the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Slight bias in reporting?
They promote themselves as striving "to produce reliable, original reporting, and abide by traditional American journalistic ethics of independence and impartiality." In modern times, this is a real stretch.
The author of the piece, Angely Montilla, is a Master's student in International Relations at New York University, with a concentration in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
While Ms. Montilla certainly has a possible bright future ahead, in this piece she is relying on the works/ideas of Dr. Amaryllis Estrella, a Visiting Assistant Professor of Afro Latinx Studies at New York University, and the ever treacherous Junot Díaz. Again, can we mention agendas?
Ms. Montilla also recounts a story passed down to her by her father of the 1992 murder of Mr. Jose "Kiko" Garcia in 1992 by the New York City Police Department. The only problem with this story passed down by Papi Montilla is that it was a tall tale. A fable which he seems to have shared with his daughter.
I was within the latter stages of my UN service when this event occurred sparking rioting within the neighborhood of Washington Heights, NYC.
The problem is that it was based on a false narrative consisting of the lies of a nice, little old abuela, who claimed to have been an eyewitness to the events, but in actuality, later admitted to making the entire story up. Otherwise known as, lying.
"Kiko" was hailed as just a nice young man from the neighborhood, who was thrown off a rooftop by brutal agents of the policia.
In actuality, he was a violent drug dealer who was fleeing from police across building rooftops when he fell to his own death, unassisted.
Much shame came upon the New York City Dominican community at that time. I remember. I was there.
Perhaps Papi Montilla forgot to tell his daughter that part of the story.
Regardless, I would treat this article as a composition piece in creative writing, as opposed to true journalism in it's proper sense.
You the readers, can make up your own minds.
Don't run from facts, embrace them. And for this generation, stop trying to recreate them.
latindispatch.com
