Everyday, there is injustice and racial profiling going on in our states. Recently, I found an article on the New York Times online article on race and justice called ‘Connecticut Town Grapples With Claims of Police Bias’ (written by Nina Bernstein) . Apparently, Hispanics are accused of wrong-doing just because of their appearance and they are starting to complain in a town called East Haven in Connecticut.
The local officials in East Haven, Connecticut are denying any bias in arresting or giving out tickets to people. Though, it is stated in the article that most officers in Connecticut do not truthfully check off the ethnicity of those people who got ticketed and arrested. 210 out of 376 tickets were given to people with Hispanic surnames in between June 2008 and February 2009 according to the NYT. This is 56% of the total tickets given! Of course, the Police Department of Connecticut reports that 95% of their tickets are given to Whites. If the Police Department is hiding the real percentage, then this shows that there is some kind of bias in doing these actions.
After the Justice Department and Yale law students look further closely into the case, they found that there is proof that East Haven has a history of being a “shambles”. This means that it has been a state of total disorder within their Police Department. The department does not have “modern rules of conduct for officers” and “check on their use of force”. It is also known for having “inadequate training and no functioning citizen complaint system.” So, even if there is injustice going on with racial profiling and prejudice, the people in East Haven are not protected because no one would know this!
Now that the ‘shamble-ness’ of East Haven is exposed, are they doing anything about this? April Capone Almon, the mayor of Connecticut, and the police commission board both put Leonard Gallo (the police chief of Conn.) on an administrative leave. In addition, Mrs. Almon donated a kidney to a local office worker named Carlos Sanchez in order to possibly make a gesture to improve relations between the town and Hispanics. This was a really considerate and nice thing to do. Especially since she did not know the man well.
Yale law students are also taking action. They’re doing hard successful work to get the revelation and statistics out there for people, like us, to see. Since they found that 60% of the tickets given out are given to people with Hispanic surnames and the town’s Hispanic poopulation is 6%, a lot of people have realized this unfairness. After the students battled to get more police documents under the Freedom of Information Act, the town was “highlighted”. These students are highlighting the fact that East Haven, Connecticut, is at stake in terms of racial profiling and relations with the Hispanics of that town.
This case is not unusual. It may be unusual that it is actually posted on a newspaper article but I rarely hear about the topic of brutal traffic stops or racial profiling. The Police Department has a lot of control. However, they cannot get uncontrolled and be unwatched by the people on this injustice.
A Hispanic named Jose Cuapio. He lived in East Haven, Connecticut. He says that he was one of the victims who were pulled over because of racial profiling and encountered brutal traffic stops by the police.
Access to the actual online article on New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/nyregion/23haven.html?scp=1&sq=race%20and%20justice&st=cse
Thanks for posting this, Irene! I completely missed this case in the Times.