Racial Profiling | VivirLatino

Posts Tagged ‘racial profiling’

Welcome to NY Secure Communities

7:04 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|New York|Secure Communities · No Comments

14 May 2012

Despite efforts by local and national advocates and activists, the Secure Communities deportation program will go into effect in New York and other states tomorrow.

S-Comm is a Department of Homeland Security program that requires states to identify immigrants for deportation. While NY governor Cuomo and other governors across the country have expressed concerns regarding the difference between what how DHS says the program is implemented and what statistics show regarding the deportation of non-criminal undocumented immigrants. There have been mixed messages and allegations of a cover up regarding the mandatory nature of the program. The intense roll out of the program despite complaints and protests seems to make the mandatory nature of the program clear.

Given the latest report of racial profiling by the New York City Police Department which showed that 87 percent of those stopped were blacks and Latino, the implementation of S-Comm especially in urban areas with large immigrant populations is extremely concerning. Immigrants account for more than one-third of the city’s residents and 29% of all voters in New York.

While the federal government attempts to make an example of Arizona by challenging parts of SB1070 in the Supreme Court and by suing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling, it continues to fast track a program that has contributed to racial profiling.

Why There Will be no Winners in the S.B. 1070 Supreme Court Decision.

4:50 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|Justice · No Comments

30 Apr 2012

To paraphrase my beloved, It’s not that I’m a pessimist. It’s that I’m practical. It’s why I am not alarmed by reports spinning the questioning of the Justices as signs in favor or displeasure with Arizona’s S.B. 1070. While it would be wonderful to say goodbye to parts of the anti-immigrant law that birthed others, it would not change federal law which essentially functions in the same way.

In the coverage of last week’s hearing, organizations and media outlets tried to feel out what side the Justices were leaning towards based on the questioning. Interestingly enough there was no consensus as to what the line of questioning meant. Some organizations felt that the questioning revealed a sympathy towards Arizona State Law. Others expressed concern about the absence of a discussion of race within the questioning. Some sources predicted a mixed result, with some provisions of S.B. 1070 standing while others would not. Very few sources that I saw were able to muddle through the complicated proceedings in a way that was honest and went beyond advocacy for a specific outcome.

S.B. 1070 is a horrible law but let me be super clear, while S.B. 1070 is absolutely about race, ethnicity, and nationality the Supreme Court is not deciding on if the law violates the civil rights or human rights of individuals. It is deciding on if four specific parts of the law attempt to carry out what the federal government should be doing, enforcing immigration policy. If the case were about racial profiling, then national immigration enforcement policy and practice would also end up being scrutinized. This would include the excessive force of border patrol along the southern border, this would include the use (or not) of prosecutorial discretion, and the enforcement priorities of national programs like Secure Communities. To admit that S.B. 1070 is racist and relies on racial profiling, would mean to admit that policing priorities overall across the county are racist and rely on racial profiling. It is troubling to see liberal institutions insist that racial profiling is out of character for the United States when really it has been a hallmark.

A ruling is expected in late June.

NYC Orgs Try to Redefine CPR for NYPD

1:48 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York City|Police Violence · Comments Off

27 Feb 2012

Courtesy. Professionalism. Respect. That is what CPR stood for when the New York City Police Department rolled out a public relations campaign in the mid-1990′s. The PR campaign was a response to growing protests and attention against a police force that was more violent and more racist by the day. The late mid-1990′s up until 2011 saw a rise in stop and frisks against young men of color. It also saw a rise in officers acting with impunity in neighborhoods of color, harassing, abusing, and killing. Amadou Diallo, Anthony Rosario, Yong Xin Huang are just three of the names from a long list of young men of color killed by the police. Prosecutors across the boroughs, with their long history of working alongside the NYPD, failed to bring justice to the families of the dead who followed then Mayor Giuliani and Police Chief Bratton with photographs of their own disappeared. In response people took to the streets, blocked bridges and the entrances to government buildings, and there were hearings held on the local, national, and international level.

Seems like now we are in the same place again in NYC. Stop and Frisks are at record numbers and again it is people of color who are stopped the most often. Since 1997, when the New York City Department took over school safety, over 90 percent of the young people arrested in the halls of learning are Latino or Black. We are seeing a rise in killings of unarmed people of color, most recently 18 year old Ramarley Graham in the Bronx. The difference between now and the late 1990′s however is that now the level of police surveillance is up. Watchtowers stand on street corners. Mobile command centers park outside supermarkets. The NYPD most recently had to come out about spying on Muslim communities inside the city and even in New Jersey. These tactics done in the name of “national security” are the new broken windows and Giuliani time has expanded under Bloomberg’s all seeing eyes.

Many of the answers proposed to counter the threat that the NYPD pose aren’t new. City council person Jumaane Williams from Brooklyn wants police officers to give their card to every one they stop and frisk. There was a proposal in the 90′s that was similar in that it asked that officers give a paper document explaining to people why they were stopped and frisked. That proposal didn’t go anywhere and I doubt that the current proposal will go anywhere either. It seems the only union that Bloomberg seems to respect (fear?) is the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA). There are renewed calls for a special prosecutor for when police shootings end with criminal charges against the police. It is a worthy demand but without intervention from Governor Cuomo and the state Attorney General, we will continue with police not being prosecuted.

This week, a coalition of organizations who have been on the front lines of fighting police violence in NYC since the 1990′s, launched a campaign demanding police reform (their word, not mine). Communities United for Police Reform seek to end discriminatory policing practices in New York, and to build a lasting movement that promotes public safety and policing practices based on cooperation and respect– not discriminatory targeting and harassment.

Singled Out due to Alabama’s HB56

2:00 pm By BiancaLaureano · Culture|Immigration|youth · Comments Off

9 Nov 2011

The ACLU has produced this video that shares the story of Cineo Gonzalez and his daughter who was given a paper in front of her entire class that explains HB56 in Spanish. When Gonzalez spoke with the principal asking why his daughter was receiving this information, the principal replied “they give this paper to all the students who appear to not be from here (US).” There are subtitles in English in the video. The ACLU has created a website specifically devoted to working to challenge HB56 and you may visit it at Crisis In AL.

Miercoles Movie : Face the Truth, Racial Profiling in the United States

6:36 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Justice|Media|Movies · 1 Comment

29 Sep 2010

Here at VivirLatino, We have written about racial profiling, especially the impact it has had on Latino immigrant communities and how racial profiling by both local and federal law enforcement across the United States has helped to foster anti-immigrant violence by civilians.

The Restore Fairness campaign and the Rights Working Group, have just released a documentary short, Face the Truth, showcasing the devastating impact of racial profiling on communities around our country, including the African American, Latino, Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities.

The documentary brings to life a new report by the Rights Working Group released along with 275 local and national partners on the one year anniversary of the Face the Truth campaign to end racial profiling. Both the documentary and the report urge Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA), highlighted in a Congressional briefing on Thursday, September 30th in Washington D.C.

Face the Truth: Racial Profiling Across America from Breakthrough on Vimeo.

Small Nebraska Town Presses Pause on Anti-Immigrant Law

6:18 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration · 1 Comment

28 Jul 2010

According to many sources, A decision on whether to grant one of a few injunctions argued against SB1070 in Arizona will be decided any minute now (the judge likes cutting it very close apparently as the “show me your papers” law is slated to become the law of the land tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a copycat law in small town Fremont, Nebraska which sought to make life miserable for any immigrant by making it illegal for landlords to rent to people who could not prove their legal immigration status, has been suspended . The Fremont City Council voted for the suspension to be upheld while law is argued against by the local ACLU.

A ver if in Arizona, SB1070 can also be stopped, first through a temporary injunction then by the poder of the people.

More from the Netroots Nation 2010 Mock ICE Checkpoint : Considering Assault at the Fronteras

9:50 am By Maegan La Mala · Las Vegas|Netroots Nation · 6 Comments

27 Jul 2010

As more videos from the Netroots 2010 mock ICE checkpoint are released and I reflect on my own experience as a reverse border agent, I am struck by, as la Macha pointed out, how many of those profiled laughed their way through. This video, from Madelou de VozMob, really captured alot of that (click on the image in the link to see the full video).

What her video clip made me think of was also how gendered and sexualized the border debate has become, and it’s not something that gets discussed often enough or analyzed enough. At one point during the Mock ICE checkpoint, I and Yahira Carillo were at a checkpoint by ourselves without cameras documenting. Men who were stopped by us used their bodies to try and dominate. Given some of my own personal experiences at last year’s Netroots Nation conference and this year’s as well, finding myself in situations where I was the only mujer among a group of people who identify as male and seeing how that was noticed by others and how the men themselves in those spaces used it as an opportunity to flex some machista muscle. In my video mashup of parts of the MockICE Checkpoint, note how quickly some men use words like “assault” and “police” to threaten our fake agents. I would like to remind people of how these words are often used in so called “progressive” spaces to attack both men and women of color, even amongst our own. Words like “assault” when uttered from the mouths of women of color and non-gender conforming folks, is expected to be backed up by concrete proof, when in the mouths of men, there is the expectation that we should become meek, docile and cower in a corner. It should be noted that after the MockICE raid, a higher up from the Netroots Nation conference approached us asking that some video clips showing people reacting negatively, not be shown, so that peeps’ white progressive asses would be shown publicly.

How many times in immigrant and people of color communities is the violence against us silences, downplayed, viewed as individual incidents and expected to fade back into the shadows? How many times is violence against immigrant and Latina mujeres laughed off, ignored, or hushed to save face?

We need to save our cuerpos, our mentes and our souls, and that does not come through silence or perpetuating invisibility.

Can a Law Stop Racial Profiling

8:44 am By Maegan La Mala · race · 4 Comments

19 Jul 2010

In the late 1990′s, when racial profiling, especially framed in terms like “driving while black”, was in the headlines, Congressmen like John Conyers spoke out about the possibility of legislation aimed at stopping racial profiling. Now, ten or so years later, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. and Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution,
Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Chairman Jerrold Nadler introduced H.R. 5748, End Racial Profiling Act of 2010 (ERPA).

This bill is being introduced in the context of the rising use of police tactics like stop and frisk in NYC and of course laws like Arizona’s SB1070 which make it suspicious to be alive while brown.

From the official press release announcing the legislation late last week:

“The debate over racial profiling has become a central element in a much larger history of adversarial relationships between the police and communities of color,” Conyers said. “Over the past two decades, the tensions between police and minority
communities have grown as allegations of racial profiling by law enforcement agents, sometimes supported by data collection
efforts, have increased in number and frequency. The recent passage of Arizonaʼs new immigration law has crystallized the terms
of the profiling debate and demonstrates that the combination of racial discrimination and law enforcement represents a volatile
mix across all strata of the minority community. In 2001, we achieved a bipartisan consensus with the Bush administration in
support of profiling legislation and hope that we can rebuild that momentum in support of this long overdue federal action.”

New York State Bill Seeks to Toss Stop and Frisk Files

6:39 am By Maegan La Mala · New York|New York City · 1 Comment

15 Jul 2010

I first learned about it about 15 years ago, it being how the NYC Police Department was upping its stop and frisk operations in the name of cleaning up the city. As stop and frisk became routine, so did targeting people of color communities and very often that came with less than courteous, professional, and respectful behavior on the part of the NYPD. Complaints with the Civilian Complaint Review Board rose as did the number of lawsuits over harassment, brutality, and deaths.

Today in 2010, stop and frisks are the norm again, as is the racial profiling that tends to go with it. But what happens to the information of the stopped and the frisked especially the overwhelming majority of people who provide their ids and are never arrested or fined?

A bill presented in the NY State Senate would prevent the NYPD from keeping that information, as they do now. The NYPD argues that just because a person isn’t arrested or fined when they are stopped doesn’t mean that they are innocent. Thus the NYPD creates premptive criminal files of innocent, overwhelmingly people of color, just in case. Read more…

More States Step Up Against SB1070 and Copycat Laws

10:43 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Iowa|pennsylvania|utah · 1 Comment

5 Jul 2010

As Macha’s post earlier this morning pointed out, there are cities and states across the country taking a stand against Arizona’s SB1070 and copycat measures that are popping up all over the country.

Last week, a network of lawmakers so far representing 28 states announced their rejection of Arizona’s law which essentially legalizes racial profiling against Latinos. They are doing this by pushing pro-migrant legislation as opposed to laws that, to steal a phrase from Obama’s speech on immigration last week, put more “boots on the ground”.

In Iowa, for example, wage-enforcement legislation that expands opportunities and defends the rights of all workers passed the State Senate in 2008. Although it was not enacted, legislators will introduce a similar bill in 2011.

The legislation, proposed by Utah State Senator Luz Robles would enable legal immigrant children to receive preventive medical care through the federally-funded Medicaid and State Child Health Plus (SCHIP) programs without the current five year waiting period for immigrants included in President Obama’s recently passed health care package.

In Pennsylvania, legislators have taken the lead in efforts to introduce and advance community policing and anti-racial profiling legislation. Such measures would bar state and local law enforcement officers from taking on the added responsibility of enforcing federal immigration laws, while helping to curb incidents of racial profiling in the event they are required to by courts or the law.

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