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Obama Attempts to Allay Racial Debate Over Beers

31 Jul 2009

Responding to the steady drumbeat of criticism for calling the Cambridge Police Department “stupid” for arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates for “coming home while black”, President Obama and his PR team rigged an event designed to position him as a mediator for a debate on racial differences (read racial profiling). The intimate encounter was sort of a summit — over beers — yesterday afternoon in the White House’s Rose Garden. Check out the above video.

ABC News has a good rundown of the content of that encounter, but a standout for me is this poignant statement by Gates:

Sergeant Crowley and I, through an accident of time and place, have been cast together, inextricably, as characters – as metaphors, really – in a thousand narratives about race over which he and I have absolutely no control.“

It isn’t about Crowley and Gates. It’s about how American society continues to deny that racial profiling even exists.

But back to this specific incident, Crowley doesn’t seem to have seen how profoundly wrong his actions were, that is, if we are to be guided by his statements at the Beer Summit:

Crowley was asked if the controversy was a “teachable moment” for the sergeant, as President Obama said he’d hoped this would become?

He said it was.

And the lesson?

“The media can find you, no matter where you live,” he said.

Wow, glad you learned something there Sergeant Crowley!

Via / ABC News Political Punch Blog

72-year old Texas Woman Gets Tased

4:03 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Justice| Texas| crime| society · 7 Comments

10 Jun 2009

What happens when a 72-year old Austin grandma talks back to a cop who shoved her on a routine traffic stop? This:

What’s pretty sick to me is that people all over the Web are justifying the tasing as if she was really some sort of a threat to the cop or to anyone else. Read more…

Houston Police Chief Opposes Immigration Enforcement Policy

8:57 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Immigration| Politics| houston| society · 2 Comments

21 May 2009

mototrbo-police-stop Yesterday, Maegan told us about a controversial government policy that would check the immigration status of every person currently being held in U.S. jails. While that in itself is already ruffling a lot of feathers, a similar program, 287(g), is being instated throughout the country, this one more worrisome due to the the other dimension it appears to be taking: local enforcement of immigration laws by police. The Police Chief of one of the cities participating in 287(g), my hometown of Houston, says while his force is signed up for the jail revision part, he is “worried” about the element of local law enforcement checking out the immigration status of everyone it comes in contact with:

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt was in Washington on Wednesday, supporting a study criticizing the controversial immigration program known as 287(g), in which his department is planning to participate.

Hurtt said the department has applied for 287(g) training for Houston police to use federal immigration databases but only to check on those booked into the city’s two jails.

He said he favors that portion of the program but is opposed to the street-level phase of the federal immigration law, allowing local and state police to make immigration arrests and process offenders for deportation.

The yearlong study of 287(g) by the nonpartisan Police Foundation was critical of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, concluding it erodes law enforcement’s public safety mission, diverts scarce resources, increases exposure to liability to charges of racial profiling, and heightens fear in communities.
“Immigration enforcement by local police is counterproductive to community policing efforts. It undermines the trust and cooperation of immigrant communities, could lead to charges of racial profiling, and increases our response time to urgent calls for service,” Hurtt said during a Capitol Hill press event in Washington.

Yes, folks, the police chief of a city with millions of immigrants doesn’t even feel right about this. What does that tell us?

Hurtt says that Houston’s signing up with the jail revision element of 287(g) wasn’t his idea either, but rather Houston Mayor Bill White, who adopted the action after a police officer was shot by an undocumented immigrant.

Hurtt is apparently quite disturbed by the turn this is taking for Houston, and the Houston Chronicle reports he is considering job offers from other cities, including San Francisco.

Via / Chron.com

Torture Classes in Mexico

6:01 pm By Maegan La Mala · Latin America| mexico| society · 2 Comments

1 Jul 2008

If you are training to be a police officer in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, you might just get a couple of classes in torture. Many are up in arms in Mexico as videos have surfaced showing officers learning how to torture subjects, using their own colleagues as guinea pigs (videos after the jump):

One of the videos, first obtained by the newspaper El Heraldo de Leon, shows police appearing to squirt water up a man’s nose – a technique once notorious among Mexican police. Then they dunk his head in a hole said to be full of excrement and rats. The man gasps for air and moans repeatedly.

In another video, an unidentified English-speaking trainer has an exhausted agent roll into his own vomit. Other officers then drag him through the mess.

Mexico: Cops Get Paid to Get Skinny

4:20 pm By Maegan La Mala · Health| mexico| society · Comments Off

8 Feb 2008

In Aguascalientes, Mexico, cops have a problem. It’s not low pay, or even violence, but rather big old panzas. That’s why the city is providing the policias with an attractive incentive: lose weight and get paid.

A city spokesperson for Aguascalientes said that 35% of the 3000 police officers in the city are an average of 20 kilos [44 lbs.] overweight.

They will pay 100 pesos (about $10) for each kilogram that they lose, which means that will be able to receive 2000 pesos (200 dollars) once they manage to eliminate the excess weight,” said the source.

The city is concerned that obese cops have a really hard time participating in chases, and to that end, want officers to stop eating the “T” diet: tortillas, tamales and tortas.

Via / 20 Minutos

Image via Ed Fladung on Flickr

Garcia Marquez translated into police code

5:47 pm By Maegan La Mala · Bizarro| literature| mexico · Comments Off

18 Dec 2007

Mexico City cops are honoring Nobel Laureate colombiano Gabriel García Márquez in a singular way: they’ve translated his masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude into police radio code:

“Muchos alfas posteriores, frente al grupo que hace 44, el coronel Aureliano Buendía hacía 60 de una tarde remota en que su progenitor le hace 26 a 62 el hielo”, are the first lines of the novel translated by police officers in the city of Nezahualcóyotl, on the outskirts of Mexico City as part of a program to promote reading among officers.

You might remember that this is the same program we told you about last year, which looks to promote reading among cops based on “the principle is that a police officer who is cultured is in a better position to be a better police officer.”

Venezuela’s El Universal says that the Neza cops each did a part of the translation, and because of the project the “identify a lot more [with the book] and see it as something that’s our own.”

Via / El Universal (Venezuela)

Image via Alfr3do’s Flickr

In Mexico, cops watch the cops

6:04 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · crime| mexico| society · Comments Off

19 Jul 2007

In Mexico City, a bribe paid to a cop can get you out of the stickiest situations. But local government is looking to change all that by keeping an eye on police who blackmail motorists into coughing up the cash. A tough job indeed, but the tactics being employed are even more curious: they are paying cops to keep an eye on cops:

For 100 days, inspectors from local police will make sure that police behave with honorable conduct in the streets when ticketing traffic violations, and that they don’t ask for nor accept “mordidas” (bribes).

It’s a case of good cop, bad cop. But who’s to say that a good cop won’t go bad? I’ve said before that one of the reasons why corruption exists in the Mexico City police force is the incredibly low salary (between 400 to 500 USD per month). They get paid so little that it’s awfully cheap to make them go bad.

A testament to that is the fact that this program says it will reward “good cops” with boxes of food and a shot at a promotion.

Via / Diario de Yucatan

Image via Ed Fladung’s Flickr page

FBI to investigate LAPD beating of Latino man

6:57 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism| Controversia| Internet| Los Angeles · Comments Off

13 Nov 2006

The power of YouTube continues to amaze us. The brutal August 11th beating of William Cardenas by the LAPD was caught on tape and put out there for the world to judge. And public opinion says it doesn’t think the LAPD has changed much over the past decade. You judge for yourself:

Thanks to the video’s viral popularity on the internet, the FBI is looking into the matter, reports BET:

The footage prompted federal investigators to open a civil rights inquiry into the Aug. 11 incident, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

The involved officers, who did not know they were being recorded, have been assigned to administrative duties while the FBI investigates. The LAPD’s internal affairs division is also investigating the arrest, the department confirmed Thursday.

Can’t see the video? Please let us know.

Via / BET.com and YouTube

Literature lessons for cops in Mexico

12:08 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Culture| Education| literature| mexico · Comments Off

27 Oct 2006

Mexico City police officers are infamous for their laissez-faire attitude towards crime (some call it lazi-ness) their corruption (I once got out of being taken in by feeding this corruption myself and giving the officer what he asked for: “dos pesos pa’ un chesco”) and their overall “lack of culture”.

With officers earning about 400 USD per month, it’s easy to see why money for a Coke might be more worth their time than taking me down to the station or running after some thief. And with that salary, I probably wouldn’t be taking any trips to the symphony or the ballet myself.

The police force of Ciudad Neza – perhaps Mexico D.F.’s most infamous suburb — wants to change all that. And the first step that they are taking is to make their officers read and write, through a program called “Literatura Siempre Alerta”:

“The principle is that a police officer who is cultured is in a better position to be a better police officer,” says José Jorge Amador, Nezahualcoyotl’s head of public security.

The experiment began early in 2005 with reading and writing classes. It has since mushroomed into an entire literature course with its own constantly expanding editorial series, called Literature On Alert. All the 1,200 officers of the municipal force are now required to attend fortnightly book groups – while off duty – if they are to have any hope of promotion.

Delaware State Police Need Latinos

3:58 pm By Maegan La Mala · Careers · Comments Off

13 Dec 2005

The Delaware state police is in search of Latinos to join the force. The agency currently has 15 Latino state troopers out of a force of 657.

“We have not let up on our recruitment of all demographics, but we have intensified our efforts to recruit qualified Hispanic applicants,” state police spokesman Lt. Joseph Aviola said.
State troopers are visiting career fairs at colleges and military bases, attending community events and using radio, newspapers and flyers, as well as the state police Web site, trying to attract Latinos to a career in law enforcement.

I find it commendable that the Delaware state police is trying hard to diversify its force, especially with the growing Latino population of the state.

Via / The News Journal

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