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Ruben Salazar (March 3, 1928 - August 29, 1970) was a Mexican-American news reporter killed by the police during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War on August 29, 1970 in Los Angeles, California. During the 1970s, his killing was often cited as a symbol of the unjust treatment of Latinos by the police.
Killed covering march
Salazar was a reporter and columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the news director for the Spanish language television station KMEX in Los Angeles. On August 29, 1970 he was covering the National Chicano Moratorium March, organized to protest the disproportionate number of Latinos killed in the Vietnam War. The peaceful march ended with a rally that was broken up by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department using tear gas. This resulted in rioting, during which Salazar was shot in the head at short range with a tear gas projectile while seated in The Silver Dollar Bar. A coroner's inquest ruled the shooting a homicide, but the police officer involved, Tom Wilson, was never prosecuted. At the time many believed the homicide was a pre-meditated assassination of a very vocal member of the Los Angeles Latino community.
The story of Salazar's killing gained nationwide notoriety with the release of Strange Rumblings in Aztlan, an article written for Rolling Stone magazine by noted gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and released on April 29, 1971 in Rolling Stone #81.
Honors
In 1971 he was posthumously awarded a special Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and after the controversy of his death had subsided, Laguna Park - the site of the 1970 rally and subsequent police action - was renamed Salazar Park in his honour. His death was commemorated in a corrido by Lalo Guerrero entitled "El 29 de Agosto". At Sonoma State University, the former library, now an administration and classroom building, is named for Ruben Salazar, in memory of his work in Sonoma County as a reporter for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
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