Overpolicing in the Latino Community

“Show me your license now. If you do something, I’ll kill you here. Do you understand,” threatened an Arizona police officer to a man who was, quite frankly, acting fairly calm and reasonable. In response, the Buckeye Police Department has responded with the same character assassinations leveled against previous victims like Michael Brown, claiming that he could have been armed and had an arrest previously for DUI (which, of course, has NOTHING to do with the interaction he had with the officer).

This is only one of many instances of overpolicing and police brutality in the Latino community, a community which has been burdened with everything from Joe Arpaio trying to lock up every Mexican he can find to the Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group locking up immigrants in detention centers that cut every corner imaginable in the care of their inmates. Through this, the Latino community has seen much of the same overpolicing problems that broadly affect communities of color in general, and still has riot police patrolling in Ferguson.

In Arizona, we have already seen a very strong trend of racial profiling: Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, for example, embodies some of the worst aspects of overpolicing. He was empowered by Jan Brewer, who claimed not to know what an undocumented immigrant looks like but that police did as she signed SB 1070. SB 1070, the notorious “papers please” racial profiling law, immediately became an excuse for Joe Arpaio and his “posse” to stop any Latino they wanted and ask for their immigration papers.

The problem of authority and brutality is not, however, only a problem with local police: the Rojas family is currently suing members of the Border Patrol for beating Anastasio Rojas to death, and a damning video of him being tazed and beaten while handcuffed and on the ground is readily available online. It created enough of a stir that PBS did a “Need to Know” episode on the incident entitled “Crossing the Line at the Border.” The footage is truly shocking, as is the fact that the officers involved are making a “scope of duty” claim inside the court; that is, that they were performing their duty as law enforcement when they beat and tazed a handcuffed Anastasio, who screamed for help, as horrified onlookers pleaded with them to stop.

The problem doesn’t stop there, however: after Border Patrol or ICE is finished with a prisoner, they often send them to an immigrant detention facility. These facilities are known for having far worse conditions than even the terrible ones that exist in regular prisons. Talking with prisoners, it’s commonplace to hear stories about maggot-ridden food and regular beatings by guards as undocumented immigrants often do not have the political leverage to complain about the conditions of their incarceration. Even worse, politicians on both sides of the aisle accept hundreds of thousands of dollars from the multi-billion dollar private prison industry that takes money to operate these facilities based on occupancy, and push for laws to lock up as many people as possible for as long as possible through lobbyists and organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

The recent reports of rampant sexual assault by guards in facilities housing women and children is just the latest of many egregious human rights violations that occur in these places so far away from the public conscious.

Despite the fact that Latinos are not the only group of undocumented immigrants, 97% of deportees are Latino. This happens even though Latinos make up only 81% of undocumented immigrants, signaling a serious disparity between reality and enforcement: From Joe Arpaio’s posse turning over every rock they can to root out undocumented Latino immigrants, to those being sent to the abysmal conditions of immigrant prisons to those finally being deported, perceptions in law enforcement are driving Latinos into this part of the law enforcement system, and it has been brutal.

This has all been a part of a larger trend of police escalating situations to become violent that we have been seeing more in the media lately, whether it is the police overreaction in Ferguson, or Occupy being teargassed, shot with rubber bullets and pepper sprayed for little reason in NYC and Oakland, or any of the other incidents that are happening and being posted every day on social media.

At the end of the day, although communities of color often have very different values and priorities, they are all having difficulty with law enforcement authorities at seemingly every level of the criminal justice system. As we move forward, it is my hope that these communities will be able to join together to demand a greater accountability that will lead to fewer instances of police brutality and unnecessary escalation towards violence against people who often don’t have the political leverage to go against the police and complain about their treatment by themselves.

About The Author

Ryan Campbell
Communications Director

Ryan Campbell is a graduate of CUNY School of Law, Author of "Chasing Romney: How Mitt Romney Lost the Latino Vote," Co-Founder of DRM Capitol Group and editor for DRM Action Coalition

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