George Ramos writes for the Los Angeles Times Oct. 10, 1994:
There wasn’t any tolerance the other night at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance. Only petty narrow-mindedness held sway.
The center, in conjunction with Occidental College, opened its Peltz Theater in West Los Angeles for a debate on Proposition 187, the supposed “save our state” measure on the Nov. 8 ballot that would deny health and educational benefits to illegal immigrants in California. Any hope for a rational discussion was dashed before the debate even started.
Several hundred Latino demonstrators–who have loved to hate Harold Ezell since his days as regional immigration commissioner–confronted him before he took the podium. One protester called Ezell, a godfather of 187, “a bigot and a Nazi.”
Amid signs calling him “Slezell,” Ezell cried foul, telling reporters on his way out that the assertion was ridiculous. “I don’t have a racist bone in my body,” he said. Ezell also claimed to know nothing of a comment made by a pro-187 leader, Ron Prince, who enraged protesters by recently telling an audience: “You are the posse and SOS is the rope.”
The evening went downhill from there…
Ezell knows I hate Proposition 187. But that didn’t stop him from calling the next day to see what I thought of the debate high jinks.
We went back and forth, hammering each other. Ezell did say that Prince’s “SOS is the rope” comment was out of line.
When we finished chatting, I realized I couldn’t take another word on 187. I don’t like what it’s done to us.
