Thread: Criminals launch war on Latinos

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Editorial 11/09: Criminals launch war on Latinos
November 9, 2005

Battling the highest violent crime rate among the nation's large metropolitan areas is hard enough for Memphis police.

Add to that the rash of indictments facing officers allegedly caught in illegal drug heists, obstruction of justice, extortion, conspiracy, transporting drugs and prostitutes across state lines and plotting a burglary.

And as a report in Sunday's editions of The Commercial Appeal revealed, police also face a serious challenge in a crime spree that has created a crisis for the local Spanish-speaking community.

A deadly rampage in Binghamton last July illustrated the difficulties police face in investigating crimes against Latino residents and persuading members of the community that officers are on their side.

Two brothers were killed in a robbery outside their home that night and a third was seriously wounded. Officers responding encountered a confused and frightened crowd.

They wound up using pepper spray to keep one of the victims' brothers away from the crime scene and handcuffing another. Five minutes passed before a Spanish speaking officer arrived to help calm things down.

Robberies in which the victims are Hispanic are up 70 percent in the last year and now account for about 25 percent of all robberies in Memphis, police say.

The familiar pattern: The victims are laborers who are less likely to speak English, less likely to report the crimes for fear that they will be deported for immigration violations and more likely to be carrying cash from their last pay day.

The perpetrators typically are African-American men, and the Binghamton case so alarmed the Hispanic community that some members were calling for retaliation.

Attempting to keep this powder keg from blowing obviously is an important task for police. They have been making progress through the work of a small Spanish-speaking Hispanic Action Response Team (HART), language training for additional officers and a live crime-prevention show on Radio Ambiente, WGSF 1210 AM, hosted by a Spanish-speaking officer.

The initiative is destined to grow more critical as Spanish-speaking workers continue to find opportunities in and around Memphis.

Fueled by immigrants from Latin American countries as well as American cities such as Los Angeles and Houston, the official Hispanic population more than tripled in the Memphis area in the decade between 1990 and 2000, growing to 27,520. A more realistic count that included illegal immigrants would be much higher. Creating a safe atmosphere for this vulnerable population will not be easy.

Police will need the help of the Hispanic community, whose efforts to preserve and protect their culture, while discouraging the formation of Latino gangs, can have positive effects on police-community relations.

The importance of improving that relationship extends well beyond the community itself, as any serious effort at retaliation would be hazardous for the community at large.

TSK! TSK!!