Deputies Gave Orders In English

An audio recording of conversations between two white sheriff’s deputies who beat two Mexican immigrants last week indicates that the officers ordered the immigrants to get to the ground before striking them. But because the orders were given in English, which the Mexicans apparently do not speak, they may not have understood the commands.

In the recording, secretly taped by a California Highway Patrol officer who witnessed the incident, the deputies, both of Riverside County, are heard shouting at the immigrants several times to “get down.” Only after striking them, do the deputies deliver their first orders in Spanish.

The April 1 beatings occurred after a chase by highway patrol officers and the two sheriff’s deputies from Temecula, where there is a Border Patrol checkpoint, to South El Monte, about 60 miles to the northwest.