PARALLELS DRAWN BETWEEN TORRES, OREGON CASES

In 1977, Joe Campos Torres drowned in Buffalo Bayou after a savage beating
by police officers. His death prompted an outcry across the city and rioting
in Moody Park.

This year, Pedro Oregon Navarro was killed by officers who stormed his
apartment without a warrant. The officers' nobilling on homicide charges
last week prompted a similar outcry -- but so far no violence.

Many local observers believe that if Houston remains calm in the aftermath
of the Oregon decision, it's largely because the city itself has changed
since 1977.

"Back then, we weren't part of City Hall, we weren't part of city
government, and back then you just had to take to the streets," said
political consultant Marc Campos. "You know, people are still outraged, but
they're taking a different approach."

Torres, 23, died on May 6, 1977, after police beat him so severely that a
booking sergeant refused to accept him into the City Jail. The officers then
took Torres back to a site near the Buffalo Bayou and beat him again. At
that point, Torres either jumped or was pushed into the bayou and drowned.

None of the officers spent more than a year in jail for the crime and
initially received probationary sentences in state district court.

Oregon, 22, died July 12 after six police officers, acting on an informant's
tip, raided his southwest Houston apartment in search of drugs. The police
had no warrant and found no drugs. Oregon was shot several times, including
several times in the back, although he never discharged his weapon.

Last week, a Harris County grand jury cleared five of the officers of all
charges and indicted a sixth on a criminal trespass charge, a misdemeanor.
The U.S. Justice Department has announced an FBI investigation into the
case.

While the cases have striking similarities -- both include a Hispanic
victim, and both prompted widespread outrage -- the city itself is not as it
was in 1977.

In the first place, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities are represented at
the highest levels of local government. There are three Hispanic and three
black members of the City Council and the mayor is black; when Torres was
killed, there was one African-American and no Hispanics on City Council.

As a result, Hispanics and other minorities frustrated with the Oregon
decision may now feel they possess the political clout to legally address
their frustrations. Likewise, today's Latino elected officials may be less
likely to use the inflammatory rhetoric of 20 years ago.

"Back then, we weren't so cozy with the police unions and the police
associations," said Campos. "Now, (Latino politicians) go out and get
endorsed by these groups and they help out in the campaigns, and so there
may be some reluctance to attack the department."

Also as a result of the Torres case, sweeping changes were made in the
Houston Police Department -- including creation of the internal affairs
division, which investigates misconduct complaints against officers, and
increased field supervision of officers. Likewise, there are more Hispanic
and black officers and command staff in the HPD.

Perhaps because of those changes and the political advances of
African-Americans and Hispanics, Houston appears less burdened by racial
tensions. Pollster and Rice sociology professor Stephen Klineberg said the
percentage of Harris County residents expressing positive attitudes about
race relations has grown in recent years. In 1992, 20 percent of surveyed
residents rated race relations as good or excellent; this year, that number
was 41 percent.

Likewise, Hispanics are more likely than any other ethnic group to report
good or excellent race relations, Klineberg said. While he did not measure
such attitudes in 1978, he said it is safe to assume that "Hispanics are
generally much more positively disposed (regarding ethnic relations) than
they were" when rioting broke out in Moody Park, at 3201 Fulton in Houston's
heavily Hispanic near north side.

"While there is enormous outrage, Hispanics may be more willing to wait and
see (the facts of the case) and to give the benefit of the doubt," he said.
"But there is also a lot of underlying tension among the different ethnic
groups, so we don't want to exaggerate how well everything is going."

For others, the nobilling of police officers in the Oregon killing has
highlighted continuing frustrations over the Harris County grand jury
system.

City Council member John Castillo said that since Torres' death, minority
politicians have won great numbers of municipal offices but have been
recently shut out in countywide races. As a result, the local judiciary --
which has control over the grand jury system -- is almost entirely white.

A 1996 study of grand juries by the Houston Chronicle found Anglos served in
disproportionately large numbers in relation to their population in the
county, while Hispanics were considerably under-represented.

Likewise, about 60 percent of grand jurors were white-collar workers, while
only 10 percent were blue-collar workers.

"We used to have state district judges of different colors, and these are
the ones that impanel the grand juries," said Castillo, who was an aide to
Mayor Jim McConn when Torres was killed. "We now have a single party
(Republican) judiciary that recruits conservative people, which is not
conducive to producing a lot of confidence in the grand jury system."

Harris County District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr. defended the grand jury
selection process, saying the alternative would be a more random system that
would draw unwilling participants. Serving on a grand jury, Holmes said,
requires a commitment of several days each week -- for several months.

Holmes also said he was unsure of the exact racial composition of the grand
jury that reviewed the Oregon case -- he recalled at least two blacks and
two Hispanics on the 12-person panel -- but insisted ethnicity was
irrelevant to grand jury deliberations.

The race of the officers involved also was not issue, he said. Of the six
officers, two were Hispanic, one African-American and three Anglo.

"The people on the grand jury know more than anybody else about this
(Oregon) case -- even the cops," he said. "To suggest that something is
wrong with the system just because people who don't know anything about the
facts disagree with the results, is silly."

Travis Morales, who has been at the center of protests in both the Torres
and the Oregon cases, also believes Houston has greatly changed over the
last 20 years -- even if he has not.

Perhaps Houston's best-known radical, Morales continues to identify himself
as an "unrepentant Maoist revolutionary communist" and says he remains
dedicated to "uniting the people to resist the attacks that are coming down,
and to prepare for the day when millions of people can make revolution in
this country and put an end to the madness."

In 1978, Morales was arrested for inciting the Moody Park riot -- he calls
it "the rebellion" -- that sent 15 people to the hospital and caused at
least $500,000 in damage. Morales again was organizing demonstrations last
week -- this time in the Oregon case. He said tensions remain as high now as
they were then.

But unlike others, Morales said the public has become even more distrustful
of police since 1977, when Torres drowned in Buffalo Bayou.

"There's a black mayor now, and a black police chief, but that has made no
difference," he said. "I have to say that now, more than ever, people demand
justice."

Checked-by: Don Beck