Social Justice

#BrownLivesMatter : Why hasn’t the deaths of Latinos at the hands of police haven’t drawn as much attention?

A poll last year found that 68 percent of Latinos feared that law enforcement officials — including both police and the Border Patrol

Published

9 years ago

July 22, 2015

Yvonne

#BrownLivesMatter : Why hasn't the deaths of Latinos at the hands of police haven't drawn as much attention?

Photo by Artem Podrez

The conversation of race relations often goes into correlation with talking about equal rights for black and brown people. But with the black lives matter movement going strong highlighting the deaths of Black people killed or brutalized by police officers, there is left to question what about the brown?

The black lives matter movement is a stark contrast to the attention Latinos, who are also being affected by police brutality, are getting. In contrast to the fatal shootings of African Americans such as Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Walter Scott in South Carolina, deaths of Latinos at the hands of law enforcement haven’t drawn nearly as much attention. Soledad O’Brien’s “Black in America” sheds some light on Black and brown people being targets of police, focusing in the New York City area, but there hasn’t been much attention after that.

Over the last five years in L.A. County, coroner’s data show that Latinos, who make up about half of the county’s population, also represent about half the people killed by police. Of the 23 people fatally shot by law enforcement in the county this year, 14 were Latino.

Have you heard of Antonio Zambrano-Montes? He was unarmed just like names like Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and killed by police officers. Little to no attention has been brought to this story. Zambrano-Montes was a Mexican migrant worker who was shot and killed by police officers on Feb. 10 in Pasco, Washington. Video footage appears to show Zambrano-Montes throwing rocks at police and then running away with his hands raised before the officers shot him, though the Pasco Police Department has defended its officers’ actions. The New York Times called the killing the Latino community’s “Ferguson moment.”

Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino was unarmed when he was shot and killed in California in 2013. A video has recently gone viral of Diaz-Zeferino and his friends raise their hands before police open fire on them, killing him with eight bullets.

What about Oscar Ramirez Jr.? Four days before Halloween in 2014 a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Oscar Ramirez Jr., along railroad tracks near Paramount High School. Deputies said the 28-year-old didn’t comply with orders and moved his arm in “a threatening manner.” Ramirez was unarmed.

The Ramirez family marched in front of the Paramount sheriff’s station and held vigils, but they struggled to find wider support for their cause like the Black Lives Matter movement. As the family grieved, the national Black Lives Matter movement picked up energy, in particular rallying the fatal shooting of Ezell Ford, a mentally disabled black man, by LAPD officers.

But the disparity between the two is rooted, at least in part, in historical context. No group in America has had an experience with police and institutionalized brutality than the black community. Police shootings of African Americans, men in particular, outweigh those of any other group. History shows that most of society’s comparisons are in black or white, really no in between. The fact of the matter is when you want to talk about equality for black and brown people, then you must include all black and brown people who are apart of the disparity too.

So this leaves to question why has major media news outlets fail to cover these stories on other minorities, particularly Latino’s who are also affected? Where as we seen in LA County, the number of police encounters with the Latino community is extremely highly and more than a few have been deadly. Granted the numbers could be attributed to the population, but nonetheless there is still a problem when it comes to policing in black and brown communities.

Last year, a study published by Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race found that “stories about Latinos comprise less than 1 percent of all main news media coverage, and the majority of these stories feature Latinos as lawbreakers.”

“Violence or discrimination against Latinos does not tend to resonate among most Americans because Latinos are generally not perceived as Americans but recent immigrants or foreigners with no deep roots and histories in the U.S.,” Frances Negrón-Muntaner, the center’s director and the lead author of the study, told The Huffington Post. “So, abuses of power or injustices toward Latinos remain out of sight and out of mind.”

Gustavo Arellano, the editor of the paper O.C. Weekly, told the Huffington Post,

“When it comes to Latinos — American media still only thinks of them as immigrants,” he said. “They can’t think of them as victims of police brutality or anything else but immigrants.”

Arellano, who has covered the Latino community and police violence in Southern California for two decades, blames the “laziness of the media” for failing to shine a brighter spotlight on cases like that of Zambrano-Montes.

“For me, killing an unarmed person is killing an unarmed person and the media should scrutinize that, and see Latinos as being unduly victimized by the police,” he said.

Whether mainstream media covers it or not, the Latino community has had a history of a complex relationship with law enforcement. Growing up in an urban community, I have seen first hand the mistreatment of black and Latino people. And that alongside myself some of my Latino counterparts didn’t have pleasant things to say about the police either.

In a Huffington post article, writer Roque Planas, found a poll last year found that 68 percent of Latinos feared that law enforcement officials, including both police and the Border Patrol,would use excessive force against them. In New York City, 27 percent of police street interrogations using the controversial “stop-and-frisk” tactic in the first three quarters of 2014 targeted Latinos, according to data from the New York Civil Liberties Union. This figure is far higher than the 12 percent rate for whites, but also well below the 54 percent for blacks. (Roughly 71 percent of New York City is white, a 2014 census estimate indicates.)

Read more of the interesting analysis here.

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Related Topics:Featured Latino voices race relations

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Social Justice

Former high school athletic director arrested and charged with using AI to frame principal

A former athletic director of a high school was arrested by Baltimore County Police after allegedly using new technology to impersonate a principal.

Published

9 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Unheard Voices Staff

Maryland principal framed Pikesville High School investigation

A former athletic director of a high school was arrested by police in Maryland after allegedly using new technology to impersonate a principal.

Table of Contents

Maryland principal incident

In January of this year, we reported that an audio was circulating on social media accusing Pikesville High School principal Eric Eisworth of making racist and antisemitic comments.

After an investigation, authorities concluded the audio was artificial intelligence.

Suspect arrested

Dazhon Darien, 31, was charged with disrupting school activities, after investigators determined Darien faked Eiswert’s voice and circulated the audio on social media in January, according to the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office. Darien’s nickname, DJ, was among the names mentioned in the audio clips he allegedly faked.

Maryland principal accused audio

In the audio, Eisworth allegedly claimed Black students were unable to “test their way out of a paper bag” and made “disparaging comments” about Jewish individuals and two teachers, the charging document said

“The audio clip … had profound repercussions,” police wrote in charging documents. “It not only led to Eiswert’s temporary removal from the school but also triggered a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school. The recording also caused significant disruptions for the PHS staff and students.”

Retaliation

Police say Darien made the recording in retaliation after Eisworth initiated an investigation into improper payments he made to a school athletics coach who was also his roommate. Darien is also charged with theft and retaliating against a witness.

Darien was released on $5,000 bond and waived an attorney at an initial court appearance, according to court records.

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Crime & Justice

Exonerated man on a mission to rebuild his life

C.J. Rice, a man who served more than 12 years behind bars for an attempted murder he was falsely convicted of, was officially exonerated on March 18, 2024. He is now on a mission to rebuild his life.

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2024

Unheard Voices Staff

Charles "CJ" Rice (Photo Source: CNN)

Charles “CJ” Rice was just 17 years old when he was convicted of a crime he did not commit.

Table of Contents

CJ Rice Exonerated

Now 30 year old Rice is using the injustice of the last 13 years to galvanize the life he almost spent behind bars after being exonerated and declared legally innocent of the crime he was convicted of in 2013 on March 18, 2024.

According to the GoFundMe, CJ wants to “embrace this opportunity” and become a paralegal.

With the help of Dream.org, the GoFundMe aims to help CJ start a new life with everything from a place to stay to clothes to wear as he builds a new future.

The CJ Rice case

CJ Rice, formally known Charles J. Rice, was convicted in a September 2011 shooting for attempted murder and sentenced to 30-60 years behind bars in 2013.

According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the South Philadelphia shooting left a woman identified as Latrice Johnson, a 6-year-old girl and two others injured.

Johnson called 911 after the shooting and described the suspects as two men running away in hoodies and black sweatpants but couldn’t fully identify them.

Through an initial investigation with victims in the hospital, Rice’s co-defendant, Tyler Linder, was identified as one of the shooters. Detectives interviewed Johnson while she was in the hospital and she identified 17-year-old Rice as one of the shooters running away although she hadn’t seen the teen in a few years. Rice had been friends with Johnson’s son when he was younger, according to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.

In her description, Johnson said Rice was wearing a hoodie and claimed that she was able to see his full face and long braids poking out the side of the hood. However, Rice’s arrest photo depicted him with shorter cornrows flushed against his head. Despite this, a case against Rice and Linder was built.

According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, among the evidence was a theory that the shooting was retaliatory, which wasn’t proven. That’s because Rice was shot and injured a few days prior. It’s alleged the suspects ran from the scene, and Rice’s counsel never used his medical records as evidence to help Rice’s case.

Rice’s case received national attention after CNN anchor Jake Tapper began reporting on it. His father, Dr. Theodore Tapper, is Rice’s former doctor and treated his injuries.

Although it was alleged that the shooters ran from the 2011 crime scene, this is something that Dr. Tapper believed Rice just physically couldn’t do at the time.

Officials believed the 2011 shooting involved gang affiliations, leading the DA’s Gun Violence Task Force to begin their investigation to see whether or not Rice could be re-tried for the shooting or to dismiss the charges in full.

This suggestion of motive and the sole faulty eyewitness identification of CJ led to his conviction on four counts for attempted murder.

A free man

Rice’s defense counsel filed a habeas petition to get CJ out of prison and have his conviction overturned.

On March 18, 2024, the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas granted the Commonwealth’s motion to dismiss all charges against Rice, officially making CJ a free man.

Read C.J. Rice’s story

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Social Justice

After more than 60 years, a championship HBCU men’s basketball team visits White House

An all-Black Tennessee A&I men’s basketball team won three back-to-back national championships at the height of the Jim Crow era, but were never recognized or invited to the White House. That changed on Friday.

Published

3 weeks ago

April 8, 2024

Jamaal Covin

YouTube Screenshot (CBS News)

This past weekend, the Tennessee A&I men’s basketball team, an HBCU squad that won a title more than 60 years ago, got a White House visit.

Table of Contents

Tennessee A&I made history

The living members of the Tennessee A&I Tigers basketball team were honored by Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House.

“This is the greatest day of my life,” said George Finley, a player on the Tigers team, said to CBS News.

Credit : Tennessee State University

The Tennessee A&I Tigers men’s basketball team was the first HBCU team to win a national championship in 1957, and made history again by becoming the first college team to win three back-to-back national titles from 1957-1959.

“I thought this would never take place,” said Finley, who was part of the 1959 championship team, told the network. “[Winning] the championship was big, but it wasn’t as big as being here with [Vice President] Harris today.”

The challenges

In a time of segregation and the Jim Crow era, Black teams were often not recognized for their achievements but the team finally got their just due.

Harris hosted six members of the team in a meeting along with their family, friends, and those close to the group of former athletes. Henry Carlton, Robert Clark, Ron Hamilton, Ernie Jones, George Finley, and Dick Barnett joined Finley in the Roosevelt Room at the White House.

Tennessee A&I is now known as Tennessee State University.

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