No! This is what happened right here in Jamul, San Diego’s back yard. Shocking but true.

A year ago, on March 10, residents of Jamul were exposed to the staggering reality that special interests held sway in our bucolic community. Driven by the greed of a few, Walter Rosales, Karen Toggery, both Kumeyaay Indians by birth, and her son were forced from their life-long homes in the early morning by men carrying guns, batons and pepper spray. When friends and supporters came to stand by Rosales and Toggery, the hired men brutally clubbed and pepper-sprayed both men and women.

The motivation for these horrendous actions? Greed. The small Jamul Indian Village tribe, led by Bill Mesa, wrenched these families from their historic home sites for the sole purpose of trying to build a casino. Rosales and Toggery have opposed a casino on their ancestral land based on their convictions and belief in their Kumeyaay heritage. The casino faction forcibly removed them because they stood in the way.

To end the stand-off, the tribe agreed to refrain from destroying the homes for a week. That would have given courts time to intercede. Just two days later, however, the tribe ignored the written agreement it signed and destroyed both homes, crushing them and everything surrounding them. Today the land has been ripped up, but there still is no casino. Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery have had their lives changed forever.

The sad truth is that the swelling growth of Indian gambling in the country is propelling these abuses to become the norm. Daily the newspapers write of new abuses, influence-buying, disenrollment of tribal members and corruption associated with Indian gaming.

Our goal is to return Karen Toggery and Walter Rosales to their rightful homes. Jamul won’t forget.

MARCIA SPURGEON
Jamul

© Copyright 2008 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.