Mexican soldier said that a U.S. citizen attacked an army convoy and was killed when troops shot him in self-defense outside the resort city of Acapulco

ACAPULCO, Mexico  A Mexican soldier said that a U.S. citizen attacked an army convoy and was killed when troops shot him in self-defense outside the resort city of Acapulco, a police official said. The man’s father said Monday that he found it hard to believe.An army lieutenant told police that Joseph Proctor opened fire on a military convoy with an AR-15 rifle, forcing the soldiers to shoot back, said Domingo Olea, a police investigator in the western state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located.

Olea provided no further details on Proctor, who was found dead in his car early Sunday.A Defense Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the army was investigating the lieutenant’s claim. The official said Proctor might have been a passenger in the car, although nobody else was found with him at the scene.Proctor’s father, William Proctor, said he did not know of his son being involved in any illegal activity and did not believe he would have owned a gun or attacked soldiers.”I doubt that. Joseph had a temper but he didn’t use guns,” Proctor said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his home in Auburn, New York.

William Proctor said Joseph, 32, had lived off and on in Mexico for at least six years. He said his son had been in the process of divorcing his wife in Georgia and lived with a girlfriend and their young son in Mexico. He said he had little contact with his son and was unsure what Joseph did in Mexico but that he had worked in landscaping in the U.S.He said Joseph had sometimes complained about being pulled over by Mexican security forces looking for bribes.”He would get mad when the police pulled him over looking for payoffs,” Proctor said.Olea said the Mexican girlfriend, Liliana Gil Vargas, identified Proctor’s body. She gave Mexican authorities identification papers that listed Proctor as a resident of Georgia.

In brief comments to Mexican reporters, Gil said she last saw Proctor on Saturday night when he went out to run an errand at a convenience store in Barra de Coyuca, a community outside of Acapulco.Gil said the couple had been living in the central state of Puebla, near Mexico City, but had moved to Barra de Coyuca four months ago.Joseph Proctor’s mother, Donna Proctor, declined to speak to the AP when reached by telephone at her home in Hicksville, N.Y.

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said consular officials in Acapulco had been in contact with Proctor’s family and were providing assistance to repatriate his body. The spokeswoman declined to be named, in line with Embassy policy.Soldiers frequently come under attack from drug-trafficking gangs in the Acapulco area and there have been cases across Mexico of innocent bystanders dying in the crossfire between soldiers and drug gangs, or of soldiers opening fire on civilians who failed to stop at checkpoints.The military has faced mounting allegations of human-rights abuses since President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers in 2006 to fight drug traffickers in their strongholds.

In November 2009, American Lizbeth Marin was shot to death in the Mexican border city of Matamoros. Mexican newspapers reported that Marin was hit by a stray bullet fired by a soldier participating in a raid.More recently, two Mexican university students were killed in March in the crossfire of a shootout between gunmen and soldiers outside the gates of their campus in the northern city of Monterrey.(AP)

black youths versus Mexican conflict has NYC worried

A wave of attacks by black youths against Mexican immigrants has provoked a police show of force and swift action by politicians worried about racial conflict in the remote New York City borough of Staten Island.Gravely concerned about racial conflict in the middle of a hot summer, city authorities, immigrant advocates and the Mexican consulate have announced a series of measures aimed at reducing the violence even as they disagree over the cause of the attacks and how to stop them.

The situation has combined two of America’s most intractable social problems — the plight of inner-city black youths who lack jobs and opportunity, and the world of the migrant workers who flee poverty or violence at home in search of low-paying jobs that Americans generally refuse to take.Police are investigating at least 10 incidents of beatings or robberies since April as hate crimes and in recent days have flooded the Port Richmond neighborhood with highly visible patrol cars, street officers and “eye in the sky” mobile watch towers that can be staffed by police.

Experts say the incidents are likely under-reported because illegal immigrants fearful of deportation are reluctant to report crimes to police. On the streets, Mexican immigrants tell enough stories about how they or their compatriots have been targeted to suggest more than 10 cases.

The police build-up began last week after a July 23 incident in which several young men yelling anti-Mexican slurs attacked a 31-year-old Mexican, breaking his jaw and cutting his scalp while stealing his backpack. Then last weekend three men beat a 17-year-old Mexican, stealing $10.

The beatings are often accompanied by anti-Hispanic epithets, and in some cases little or no money has been taken.”It’s nothing more than racial hate,” said Gerardo Garcia, 29, of Acapulco, one of the many immigrant day laborers who gather at different points, hoping to get hired for the day.”We try to do things right. We work. We go home. We’re not looking for fights. But we’re always confronted by groups of four or five black kids who always want to fight. They’re not looking for money, they just want to fight.”

EASY TARGETS

The sight of Hispanic men concentrating on street corners has unsettled communities across the United States, particularly when associated with littering or public drunkenness.

Staten Island, which is less diverse than other New York City boroughs, is still getting used to them. Sometimes called the forgotten borough, Staten Island is geographically closer to New Jersey than to the rest of New York City and, with the smallest population of the five boroughs, it rarely receives as much attention.

The youths may been looking for easy targets for robberies of men who carry large amounts of cash on payday.”It’s a crime of opportunity, not just because they are Mexicans,” said Debi Rose, the city council representative of the neighborhood and one of the officials who on Tuesday announced a $300,000 anti-bias program for high schools and fund-raising to buy more security cameras, among other steps.

“The young African American males involved are not exemplary of the community. We are working hard to ensure that we don’t demonize young African American men,” she said.

The poor economy has hit both minority groups hard. Jobs for teenagers are scarce and the city has cut funding for recreational programs that might keep them out of trouble.Mexican day laborers who commanded $120 for a full day of work before the recession now say they are lucky to get $80.

“I just hope that at some point these young African Americans realize we are on the same side. We are both minorities. We are suffering from discrimination in various parts of the country,” said Ruben Beltran, the Mexican consul.Even before the most recent attacks, the Mexican consulate hired a counselor to roam Staten Island, advising Mexicans of their rights and encouraging them to report crimes.

“Across the country there is a wave of anti-immigrant violence. There are people who are particularly hateful of the undocumented who are seen as less than human,” said Ana Maria Archila of Make the Road, an immigrant advocate group.”Now it just seems so much more gratuitous and intense than ever before,” she said. “I’m not sure anyone knows what the right solution is.”(Reuters)