J.B. Tucker & Associates
10153 ½ Riverside Drive PMB-374
 Toluca Lake CA 91602-2533
Private Investigator License #PI-10143
(818) 830-2794 x 3 Fax 2824  

September 2, 2000  

Don Gage, District 1
Blanca Alvarado, District 2
Pete McHugh, District 3
Jim Beall, District 4
Joe Simitian, District 5
Honorable Members of the Board of Supervisors
c/o Phyllis Perez-Sorensen
Clerk of the Board of Supervisors
70 West Hedding Street 10^th FL, East Wing
San Jose CA 95110

Honorable Supervisors of Santa Clara County:

After nearly 21 years of practice as a Private Investigator, I thought that I had heard every possible utterance of ignorance come out of the mouths of Attorneys over the years, but after reading Norwood Anthony Nedom’s May 14 and August 30, 2000 letters to the editor of the San Jose Mercury, I instantly recognized that I had started at the bottom and was working my way down to find words to describe the level of intellect that could generate Mr. Nedom’s thoughts on the subject of immigration.

Pardon my French, and apologizing in advance for the use of an ad hominem (abusive), I could only come up with a cross cultural acronym to describe this level of ignorance, e.g., P.I.A.M.F. (Pendejo Ignorant Ass M-F-), because no one ethnic group had terminology which by itself expressed the depths of Mr. Nedom’s knowledge of the subject of immigration.

 I do happen to have some small knowledge of the field.  I was the second Anglo in the state to receive a degree in Chicano Studies, double majoring cum laude  in Political Science and Chicano Studies at the prestigious program at California State University at Northridge.  I did 22 units of graduate work towards an M.A. Special Major combining both disciplines with a 4.0 G.P.A.  Significantly, the undergraduate program required Field Work in Barrio Studies, in which I did political work in the immigrant community, which was not a particular culture shock since I grew up in a zip code (to which I have moved back) that is approximately 85% Hispanic and overwhelmingly immigrant.  Starting out my career in investigation, I worked undercover for eleven (11) months in a firm where my co-workers were approximately 75% Hispanic immigrants.

 By contrast, Mr. Nedom chooses to live in a segregated neighborhood.  1989 Census figures for his home zip code demonstrate that of just under 19,000 inhabitants, 17,000 were white, there were less than 50 African Americans and 730 of Hispanic origin.  Other than reading daily newspapers and perhaps some popular literature on the subject, Mr. Nedom is probably not even in a position to ever come into contact with average immigrants in anything more than a superficial way.  Likely, he doesn’t shop where they shop, work where they work, eat where they eat, and it is even more unlikely that his children went to school with any of “them.”

 As a lawyer at least, one might think that before expressing his inflammatory views on immigration in the press, he might at least have studied the legal history of immigration or the treaty background.  He has likely never heard of the Protocols to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which place in question the constitutionality of many of our restrictions on immigration from Mexico, which had to be negotiated after the original treaty was rejected by the Mexican Senate and just in time to extricate the American armed forces from the middle of Mexico before they got stuck in the rainy season, without hope of reinforcement or re-supply.   Nor would I guess that Nedom has any conception of the magnitude of American atrocities committed during the Mexican-American War by American forces, which caused none other than Ullyses S. Grant to write friends to the effect that if he had more moral courage, he would have resigned his commission in protest against them.

 Finally, Nedom is probably so clueless that he is incapable of viewing immigration from the Mexican side of the coin:  given the history of U.S. – Mexican relations throughout history, why would any people with their own sense of self respect have any respect for our laws?  We stole their land, beginning with a process of opposition to President Santa Ana’s attempts to enforce Mexican anti-slavery laws against Anglo settlers in Texas and culminating in a process that led to the seizure of Mexico’s north in the name of “Manifest Destiny,” which Europeans were honest enough to call Imperialism when they engaged in it.

 All this said, I have come to understand that the County of Santa Clara’s Public Defender’s office grants an award for public defender excellence, named for Norwood Anthony Nedom.  Who came up with this brilliant idea and why is it being tolerated by the Board of Supervisors of your county?  This is like naming an award for Adolf Hitler because he was a vegetarian and kind to animals. 

 Respectfully yours,

Jan B. Tucker

Human Rights Chair, Local 39069 Communication Workers of America; Co-President, San Fernando Valley Chapter, NOW; Political Action Chair, San Fernando Valley NAACP (Titles for Identification only).