I was reading the newspaper yesterday during rehearsal (yes, I do still read the newspaper - old school) and read a story about a suspected Orange County serial killer named, Itzcoatl Ocampo. Itzcoatl is accused of killing 4 homeless men by stabbing them over 40 times each. But, that’s not what intrigued me about the story. Itzcoatl is a former Marine, like myself, who spent a tour in Iraq working in triage - which meant he was in charge of examining the wounded and directing them to the proper spot for care. So what, right? Well, the LA Times journalist who wrote the article interviewed his former roommates and a few former Marines who served with him and they all told the same story of a young man who started to show signs of mental illness. They described incidents where Itzcoatl would wake up in the middle of the night screaming at the top of his lungs, or fidgeting and spacing out during his waking hours. The Marine Corps even documented that he was showing these signs and that a mental disorder was present with Itzcoatl. But, regardless of those findings, he left the Marine Corps and attempted to transition into civilian life.

Itzcoatl came home to his family, now living inside of a big rig truck in a parking lot in Orange County. Itzcoatl’s father, Refugio Ocampo, had lost his job during Itzcoatl’s time in the Marine Corps and was doing odd jobs to keep his family fed. Refugio said that his son was very charitable and the article documents numerous times in which he gave his last dime to those he felt needed it more.

Itzcoatl, now home from the Marine Corps, began looking for work but could not seem to get any callbacks - despite his military experience and “service” to the country. Then at the end of 2011, police say that Itzcoatl killed four homeless men.

Now, believe me, I’m not justifying these slayings (if Itzcoatl in fact committed these murders), but I am asking you to look deeper into this story. Here is a young man who joined the Marine Corps, in the same manner that I did, under the guise of money for school and “serving” his country and his family. Then this young man was sent to fight in a war and is exposed to the gruesome sight of wounded men and women, dead bodies and brutal violence EVERY day that he was in that Iraq desert. He would come home and find that no matter how many times he put his own life at risk, this country couldn’t provide the basic needs that his own family needed to properly survive — his family was homeless. Finally, he separates from the military with documented mental illness and finds that as a veteran you may not get the help needed to properly transition: with both healthcare and job placement.

Could this have been prevented? Is Itzcoatl’s story an isolated one? Itzcoatl’s family and friends say he was often paranoid after his time in the Marines, believing that people were out to kill him. He would look for weapons he believed were hidden in various places so he could remove them and make sure they weren’t used to kill himself and his family. He was a classic PTSD case.  To me, this is the story of another pawn in the US’s game for imperialist gain and when he had served his purpose in that game, he was thrown away. Itzcoatl should have been in a facility that could offer him the care he needed. I hope that this story spreads and that we start to take a serious look at cases of PTSD. We will see a large number of these cases in our future as this war comes to an “end,” and these pawns begin to come home. 

A video has been circulating on the internet of 5 or 6 Marines urinating on dead Afghans. Folks have been hitting me up trying to get my opinion on the matter and I’ve had the same answer to them all, “I don’t know enough of the details surrounding the incident to make an educated statement.” I hold true to that still. BUT, if it is as simple as what we see on that video, we need to ask the question, “What did you expect?” We watched the last president declare war on an entire region and we’re surprised that Marines are urinating on dead bodies? In war, the only way to live with yourself after putting a bullet into another man’s head is to dehumanize them. This is why when we kill each other in the streets, we call our “enemies” names like slobs, crabs, nigguhs, marks, etc. because like my big homie Bone says, “You can’t kill your brother, but you can kill a nigguh.” Yes, I despise those Marines who did that to the dead, but I know that I should really be mad at the country that continues to flex its military force secondary to the fact that its citizens are broke. Itzcoatl is another victim of this cycle and in order for us to truly address it, we must first find the root of it. Dump.

On January 5th of this year, secondary to the heavy rains and Typhoon Sendong (December 16th), a landslide atop an “illegal” gold mine killed more than 50 people and sent the remaining survivors in search of the hundreds missing. This disaster adds to the already catastrophic Sendong typhoon that struck less than a month ago, whose death toll now stands at over 1800 with close to 50,000 people displaced and thousands missing. 

If you’re a Pilipino here in the United States, you may have heard your parents comment on the typhoon: “Oh, it happens all the time in the Philippines…” True. This natural disaster known as a typhoon does strike the tropical island cluster of the Philippines often. Still, the frequency of landslides is alarming and does naturally lead one to question whether there is another reason for the incessant collapse of soil. Well, if you dig deep enough, you may find that the existence of “illegal” mines and heavy deforestation to be the crux. Simply put, trees and other vegetation aid in the land’s ability to hold together. When you begin to remove the trees, vegetation and/or burrow a hole into a mountainside, the soil becomes weak — weak enough for a heavy dousing of rain to break up and cause a landslide. Why would anyone want to destroy these forests? Why would anyone want to dig giant holes into such a beautiful landscape? 

Easy: besides being rich with beauty and spirit, the Philippines is also wealthy in natural resources — like gold. In order to get to those resources, companies who want access to them will purchase the land and hire the people who live on the land to mine and ultimately destroy the land in search of these resources. I use the word “hire” very loosely, because rarely are these exploited people put on a payroll or “taken care of” by these companies. The land of their ancestors sits on top of minerals that are making these companies (usually of foreign origin) rich beyond belief, yet they still live in extreme poverty. Not adding up, huh? I’m sure the government of the Philippines, whose establishment is to secure the well-being of its people is taking the proper steps to prevent this blatant manipulation from running all over the country… Right? They wouldn’t pass an Act or law that could aid a foreign company in the raping of the land… Right? They did and have for many years (ie. Mining Act of 1995). But why? 

Great question. It all goes back to keeping the few wealthy families of power in the Philippines… Well, wealthy and in power. These foreign companies know that the Philippine government is selling it off like a basehead. Come through and buy the land cheap, buy the labor cheaper and profit like a mu’ufukkuh with NO interference and, again, NO regard for the people. This is real shit. Study up. Let’s build up and bring awareness to this brazen act of disservice to the people of my parents’ home. Only then can we organize the people away from a semi-colonial/semi-feudal system and toward a democracy that is truly dictated by its people. Build up. Study.

Thanks for reading.

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