The long delayed criminal trial of Costa Mesa resident and immigrant rights activist Benito Acosta, a.k.a. Coyotl Tezcatlipoca—a name that references his native American heritage—is scheduled to start Aug. 15 at the Harbor Superior Court in Newport Beach. Acosta is charged with one misdemeanor count each of violating city codes 2-61(b) and 2-64, which address unlawful conduct by audience members during city council meetings.
The charges of “disrupting” a city council proceeding stem from a free-for-all that broke out during a public comments session of the Jan. 3, 2006, Costa Mesa city council meeting after police, acting on Mayor Allan Mansoor’s orders to take an early recess, pulled Acosta away from the speaker’s podium and pushed him outside the council chambers before his three minute speaking limit had expired.
From the newswire:
Criminal Trial for Costa Mesa Activist By JOHN EARL
OC Voice Editor
| | Defend free speech! Attend Coyot Tezcatlipoca's criminal trial, Sept. 25th
by Civil Liberties
SIMI VALLEY, California, Sunday, September 16, 2007: At 10 a.m., 40 pro-immigrant supporters and about 80
Minutemen and their supporters faced off on each side of the driveway leading to the parking lot of the
United Church of Christ on Royal Avenue where
Liliana has taken refuge from the Immigration Services.
During the protest, a small group of three Minutemen came on the pro-immigrant side apparently to provoke. Pro-immigrant supporters complained to the Simi Valley PD, but to no avail. Despite the angry protests of immigrant supporters, the police didn’t force the Minutemen to move, Half an hour later at 11: 12 a.m. a Minuteman pepper sprayed Naui Hutizilopochtli, an immigrant activist, so badly that he had to be taken to the hospital by paramedics. The protests went on until 1 p.m. without further incidents. From the Newswire: Minutemen Provoke, Pepper Spray, in Simi Valley by Marcus