Anti-Gang Continued

It seems that it was not very hard at all to find a case of racial profiling in Sunnyside Washington. I simply asked my friends if they had heard of any cases and it turns out that it actually happened to one of them. Jerry was a case of racial profiling. It was his sister’s graduation and he was wearing shorts, Hawaiian shirt, and a shaved head. I guess the shaved head must of done it because he was confronted by a Sunnyside Police officer while making a trip to the restroom, he was asked if he was a gang member. Obviously a gangster will not wear shorts with a Hawaiian shirt, so was it the shaved head that made him look like a gangster, or was it the shaved head and the fact that he is Mexican. This is just one case that I did not have to look to far for. It had happened to a friend here at the university so I think that if I dig a little deeper their will be allot more cases of this happening in Sunnyside.

Mistreatment of immigrants in INS detention facilities.

The bad treatment in INS detention facilities has proved to be violation of human rights. The simple fact that a person is not American does not give anyone the right to violate them as human beings. This has been the case in detention facilities across the nation in the past couple of years. With the new program ICE which intends to cleanse the country of illegal immigrants, the detention facilities have over populated and the mistreatment of prisoners has escalated. The mistreatment alone ids an understatement when you consider that there has been 62 deaths in the past three years in INS detention facilities. This is a very high number. In a place where prisoners are treated fairly this many people never die. INS officials have argued that they do what they can , they claim to have spent 98 million dollars to care for “illegals” in these facilities. When someone spends that much money the death rates should not be tat high. In the case of Victor Vargas, he died simply because INS of Los Angeles would not permit him to take his medication. Vargas suffered from HIV, but even so many live long lives with this disease as long as they take their medication. The detention facility basically killed him by not allowing him to take his medications. This is not the only case another case a pregnant women out of El Paso, Texas died in a detention center of this kind. It is not in one city but all around the country. The INS treats immigrants like if they are an animal or something and they claim to spend millions. Why don’t they just deport these immigrants instead of keeping them incarcerated for months in some cases.

Anti Gang Ordinance in Sunnyside

The anti-gang ordinance is an effort to stop a wave of violence that has troubled the Sunnyside community for some time. This ordinance says that it is illegal to be a member or affiliated with any gangs or gang activity. This ordinance while trying to do a good for the community has sparked conflict within the community. It has generated huge debate because many community members feel like this is a way of racial profiling. Many feel that this ordinance is being used to target specially Latinos. This ordinance to me is a good attempt to fight crime but an inefficient method. The city of Sunnyside is one of the only ones in Washington to implement this drastic ordinance. To me it is not a good method because of the way it is done. Targeting someone because they wear to much blue or to much red, is not the way to go about fighting crime. This reminds me of the Zoot suit rioters not for the riots, but for how these rebelling teens are distinguished by what they are wearing. Many teens in Sunnyside are not affiliated with gangs but dress with that "cholo" look, now does that make them gangsters? No. Well this ordinance has gone to far it basically limits to what someone can wear, how low someone can wear their pants it’s just to much. Even though many community members did not like this ordinance it went in affect and it immediately identified more than 200 gang members. How would officers identify so many gang members so fast? It’s simple if someone looks gangster, walks gangster and dresses gangster than they are. That is basically how officers go about deciding who is and who is not. I don't know about you but I think it’s not right and something should be done, it should be amended and fixed so that racial profiling disappears. It will be successful once someone can walk down the street and wear what ever they want and not be considered or viewed as a gang member.