Centro Civico Mexicano
155 South 600 West
Salt Lake City, Utah
The Mexican Civic Center and the Mexican Consulate sponsored two public
hearings for the Hispanic community of Salt Lake on August 16th and August
20th, 1998. About 60 people in total attended; the meetings were conducted
in English with Spanish translation. The following are a few excerpts from
the meeting:
| Task Force Members present:
August 16th:
August 20th: Mr. H.L. "Pete" Haun
|
Subcommittee Members present:
August 20th:
Staff:
|
Perception: Hispanics are often mistaken to be "criminals" and are therefore harassed and abused simply because they "fit the description."
Female participant (Martha):
"About six months ago I had an experience with the police department.
I was very unhappy. This has never happened to me in all the years of my
life that I've been here. I felt really, really bad, and I don't know if
it was my skin [color]. There was six, seven police officers that come
in front of my house. I was going to an emergency. The policeman pulled
me over and grabbed me. He didn't give me two seconds to explain to him
that I was going to my emergency. He told me to shut up. He says, "I'm
going to arrest you if you don't keep mouthing off." And then he said,
"Just a minute. Let me check." He looked at me, and he thought I was Mexican,
and the always pick on Mexicans and ethnic people. And I felt really bad.
It's the first time I've ever experienced something like that. They didn't
take me to jail or anything because I was cooperating, but I told him,
"If something happens to my mother and I go in that house and she's dead,
the police department's going to be sued."
Male Participant (Alejandro Laguna):
"Approximately six months ago, I was coming home at about 2:30 in the
morning, when I saw that a sheriff of that area had a person lying on the
floor, stepping on his head. Since it wasn't my problem, I went straight
home. The next day, I went to a restaurant where the majority of the staff
are Mexican people. One of my friends who works there looked a little bit
out of sorts, and he said, "Last night when I got off of work at 2:00 in
the morning a police officer stopped me right here in front. I was on a
bike. He flashed his flashlight at me and he ordered me to stop. He threw
me on the floor, handcuffed me, he was stepping on me, and he said that
I had drugs on me. I explained to me that I was getting off of work and
that was all." But he had him laying there for an hour with his foot on
top of his head."
Female participant (Hilda Roveta):
"About four Mexicans who were in the supermarket Food For Less, at
about 3300 South and 3000 West, were making purchases. It was wintertime
and they had their jacket on top of the shopping cart. And they put a bottle
of mayonnaise that they had bought next to their jacket. One of the security
guards thought or assumed that he had put that mayonnaise jar there to
steal it. When they arrived at the cashier, they put all their groceries
there, including the mayonnaise, and three security guards came up and
grabbed them forcibly and took them to the back of the store. None of them
could speak English, and none of the security guards could speak Spanish.
They did a complete search of them, and they asked the officers why this
was happening to them. The officer answered to them that it was because
they were stealing a mayonnaise jar. The Mexican responded, how is it possible
that after spending $159 on groceries he was going to steal a bottle of
mayonnaise? At that moment they checked their receipts and realized that
they had made a grave mistake. They immediately signaled with their hands
that they could leave, but never asking-- or apologizing or asking for
forgiveness. "
Male participant:
"I was coming home Friday at about 7:30 in the evening, and I saw my
son and a friend of his who had slept over at the house visiting. My son's
friend has dark skin and he took him to get to know the school where he's
at now. Four police officers detained the two of them, who are 14 years
of age. They just had their T-shirts on. They frisked them and they told
them, "Are you trying to steal from the school?" To me it's illogical.
I called the police the next day to file my complaint with the authorities
but there was an answering machine so I left my message. To this day they
still haven't communicated with me. However, the police did contact the
mother of my son's friend, and the police told them that since he was black
that he though that he belonged to a gang."
Male participant (Adolfo Barragan):
"This case is about three guys who were detained in Logan and charged
for raping some young girl. There was never an arrest warrant issued against
them. The police officer who arrested them is a friend of the young girl.
He had asked them to accompany him to talk about the subject only. He doesn't
speak Spanish, one of them doesn't speak English and the other two understand
but don't speak it. The police said that the interrogation was sufficient
enough reason to arrest them. They've been in jail for five months and
they are being prosecuted. They haven't found any proof until now. The
only proof against them is the police officer's testimony."
Male participant (Thomas Perez):
"About a year ago, I had the misfortune of seeing an incident from
the window form the upper floor, and it was about a person who was standing
at the sidewalk on 2nd South and 600 West. Two members of the police from
Salt Lake City arrived, thinking that this person was selling drugs or
waiting for clients. They arrived and they grabbed him and they threw him
on the floor. They had him lying down with their shoe on him. He himself
gave them his identification, and they realized that he was no delinquent,
but they had already mistreated him a lot."
Male participant (Professor William Gonzales, U of U):
"A young folk from Central Mexico that was about 19 or 20 came up here
to work. Well, he's got a job up there in the canyon as a dishwasher and
he's been pumping a bike up there in all this heat, coming back and forth.
Finally, he was able to get some money and to buy himself a car. Next time
driving down, he hits a bump, the rear wheel kind of shakes, the cop stops
him, pulls up, throws him up against them, frisks him, and he ends up losing
the car. The only thing the kid wanted was a car so he could go to work
and get to work on time."
Male participant (Ramon Garcia):
"This is about my son, it happened back in 1993. He got set up by the
cops and the FBIs. He got sent to jail for about three years for something
that they set him up to do. He was killed, he got ran off the road in Bangerter
Highway and nobody knows who did it. The West Valley cops did not let me
have an autopsy done on him. The highway patrolman that investigated him
had said that he was on drugs and alcohol, but still at the time they didn't
let me have an autopsy. I had to fork out $1,200 to hire a person to do
an autopsy on my son. My son came out negative on drugs, negative on alcohol,
he was clean. Where is the justice at right there?"
Female participant:
"I would just like to speak to the practice of profiling by the police
department. While this is unconstitutional, it occurs on a systematic basis.
I myself have experienced this. On a Saturday afternoon while driving to
the movies with a friend of mine, I was pulled over by a police officer
after no moving violations had occurred. I was pulled over, asked if I'd
been drinking. There was no refreshments of any type in my vehicle to indicate
that I'd been drinking, soda even. I was asked for a driver's license,
insurance, registration, any sort of excuse to give me a ticket or cite
some type of offense. "
Male participant:
"I know that there's racists on the police force. I have a friend who's
sleeping on the lawn, and a police officer came up and kicked him. The
cop thought he was drunk. And my friend got up and said, "I'm just sleeping.
Why are you bothering me?" And the cop says, "Relax. I'm on to you." And
he rolled up his shirt sleeve and he had a Nazi swastika on his shoulder."
Male participant (Heber Rodriguez):
"Police abuse is a reality that has been accepted even by Mr. Howard
Shaper, the police commissioner of New York. He didn't believe that any
system could exist which could end police abuse as long as an officer had
racial prejudices. And what guarantees can the chief of police gives us
that none of his agents have racial prejudices? None. And they want to
sell us on the idea that some civilians in our community would collaborate
in the effort to train those police officers. The act of imposing a police,
which is a military dictatorship, is due to the fact that Mr.'s Hatch,
Ortega, Kennard and Cannon, and Mrs. Callahan accuse all the illegal aliens
of being criminals."
Male participant:
"I want to denounce something that I know is happening here in Salt
Lake and different police forces around the U.S.A., and it is the fact
that fascist groups, white supremacist groups, have been infiltrating local
police forces, the INS and the military for years. I know for a fact that
there is at least one NeoNazi on the SLPD bicycle squad. I see police a
lot in my job and I've heard some of the comments that have been made.
I've seen an SS tattoo on this particular officer's arm."
Male reporter (Quico Cornejo):
"About two months ago I was walking home and I saw that there was a
church on fire at approximately 200 South 1100 West. I took my video camera
out, and when the police officer saw me he said I couldn't be in that area.
I showed him a press pass, it was signed by Chief Ortega, and I told him
I worked for Channel 38 TV. He said, "I don't care who you are, you are
not supposed to pass this line." I filmed for about five minutes, then
Channel 13 pulled up. They didn't have to show any ID and they went right
past and stated filming. I approached the police officer and I asked him
what the reason was for this and he told me that he didn't have to give
me any explanation."
Male reporter (Quico Cornejo):
"I was filming at the Salt Palace, a very famous group from Mexico
was there. I was filming when there was a fight between two people in the
back . I approached the area, my camera was off, and a police officer saw
me and without asking me anything, he pushed me bruskly and kicked me out
of the area. "I don't care who you are, you have to leave this place now,"
he said. I told him I wasn't going, and my Spanish blood started surging
and I got really mad. He told me that I wasn't supposed to raise my voice
to an officer of the law, but I told him if he treated me that way, yelling
at me and pushing me, that he would receive the same treatment from me.
He said he was going to arrest me. I answered, "If you think that that's
sufficient cause to arrest me, then go ahead." For the second time, he
asked me to leave and I told him, for the second time, that I worked for
the media. He said, "You didn't show me any identification." I answered,
"You didn't ask me for any identification." Then two officers approached
me, took me aside and asked for my identification. I showed it to them.
They said everything was okay, to forget about the problem."
Male participant (Adolfo Barragan):
"This is a case in Layton about an individual who went to look for
work and when he was going there, he was stopped by an undercover police
officer and when he presented his documentation, he was arrested. The person
in charge of hiring, after receiving this Mexican immigrant's documents,
turned him in, and this immigrant was fined $300. And supposedly the police
force cannot process this type of case, but they are doing it in this area
of the state which is Layton and Ogden."
Male participant (Adolfo Barragan):
"The immigration services abuse the idiosyncracies of the Mexican immigrant.
Since the Mexicans are used to always responding to authority, without
having any rights, they are confessing to their crimes without having been
read their Miranda rights. We have the case of one family that was detained
at 7:00 in the morning and at 12:00 that same afternoon they were already
in Tijuana. This family was going to serve as witnesses for the young man
who's in jail. Now he doesn't have any witnesses.
Perception: The law enforcement system lacks diversity which could be used to establish a better relationship with minority communities.
Male reporter (Quico Cornejo):
"I offered to work as a full-time police officer to Chief Ortega, and
he laughed. I told him it wasn't a joke, that I was willing to work full-time
as a police officer. I told him that it wasn't because of the money (everyone
knows me in the Hispanic community and I make about twice what a police
officer makes). I told him I wanted to do it because I wanted to help the
community. I speak perfect English, and I told him, "You could test me
if you want." And a lieutenant answered to me that I have a Spanish accent
when I speak English. So I said, "Do you want me to work with the Hispanic
community or the Anglo community?"
Male participant (Professor William Gonzales, U of U):
"We had a volunteer partnership organization [in the 70s] and we started
studying the Hispanic situation. We established a relationship with the
police in Salt Lake because when we had Mexican dances, the police would
arrive with dogs. So we started studying and they started saying that the
Mexican didn't have the height to be a police officer in Salt Lake, but
yet they were going off to fight in Vietnam."
Perception: People working in the legal system often do not use adequate interpreting services when dealing with people who don't speak English.
Male participant:
"I work at the Mexican Consulate in the area of Protection, and I've
become aware of the fact that there is a lack of certified translators,
especially in the Gunnison prison in Draper. A lot of times prisoners complain
to us because they're hurt and need medical attention, but they frequently
don't get help."
Male Probation Officer (Tony Yapias):
"I'm a probation officer for juvenile court and I have seen over a
thousand cases that deal with Latinos. I think a lot of the problems happen
when police officers are making the arrests. One of the most common things
that I've seen is the lack of professional translators at the time of the
arrest. Many reports that I've read assume the allegation was a drug sale,
for example, but oftentimes the detainee doesn't really understand his
rights in regards to why the officer is making the arrest. So when I have
gone to talk to these individuals, many don't really understand why they
were incarcerated. There are occasions where I have seen stories are totally
different from the time of the incident to what's being written in the
report. Many of those cases never go to trial. Probably 80 to 90 percent
will end up getting adjudicated on a pretrial or at some level in the system
because they're admitting something that sometimes they should have never
admitted to."
Perception: Many Hispanics do not understand the legal system.
Female participant (Deyanira Ariza):
"I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of illegals that come to me
seeking legal help, and I'm surprised by the ignorance, because there is
no adequate system that teaches them, helps them, what is accessible to
them. "
Male participant (Lee Martinez):
"I think one of the things that should be added in the police officers'
curriculum is common courtesy. I think the police officers sometimes forget
that they are the public servants. And once they rough somebody up, once
they found out it might be the wrong person, they neglect to come back
and just say, "I apologize, now that we recognize it's not you, we apologize
for the situation and we hope you understand." I think what I've heard
over the last couple of days were several people who said, "All I wanted
was an apology."