This Saturday at 1 p.m. 1301 Commerce, Houston celebrates the life of Joe Campos Torres...
Janie Torres, right, holds the arm of her mother Margarita Campos Torres as she talks about the death of her son during an interview Friday, Dec. 17, 2021, at her mother’s home in Houston. Jose “Joe” Campos Torres was a Mexican American veteran who fought in the Vietnam War. He was brutally beaten to death by Houston police officers and dumped in Buffalo Bayou in 1977. “This is not something that you turn on and off, we were born into it,” Janie Torres said of her activism.
The officers finally took him to jail for processing. He was so abused that the jailers refused to process him and insisted that Campos Torres be immediately taken to the hospital. He was never taken to a hospital.'I can hate no more': Mother of Joe Campos Torres, vet killed by Houston police, breaks decades of silence
The officers instead took Campos Torres back to The Hole. There, he was beaten further, hands tied behind his back, and thrown into the bayou. His disfigured body was found three days later, on Mother’s Day. Imagine the horror felt by his mother and the rest of the family. Imagine the pain that returns every Mother’s Day.
In 1977, we did not have cell phones to record abuse, nor did we have social media to spread the word. Nevertheless, two officers — Terry Denson and Stephen Orlando — were tried in a courtroom in Huntsville by an all-white jury and were found guilty of negligent homicide. In the testimony, it was discovered that one officer said “let’s see if the wetback can swim” as Campos Torres’ near lifeless body was tossed into the bayou.
How can the value of a veteran’s life be just $1? Naturally, the community was outraged which led to multiple protests. Through the incredible work of LULAC and other Latino leaders, a second trial was held; several officers were found guilty and given a ten-year suspended sentence. Denson and Orlando were convicted of assault and sentenced to nine months in federal prison. On the one-year anniversary of his death, theIt is not critical race theory to remember the terrible events of 1977.
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