Let’s talk about Latinos lives : They are racially profiled, too

Four Latinos have been killed in the same week when we heard about Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

Criminal justice system

When there is talk about injustices in the criminal justice system, many fail to point out the systemic oppression of Latinos as well.

Latino’s have also felt the brunt of unequal justice and racial profiling amongst police officers. In New York, notorious for their Stop & Frisk policy, the highest percentage of those stopped are Black and Latino men.

Mainstream media rarely talks about Latino’s, and yet there are a part of a group that is being marginalized by the system as well.

Latinos profiled by police

The media never focused on Latinos,” Gloria Hernandez, who organizes with Stolen Lives in Fresno, told teleSUR. She said that over 80 percent of victims of police killings in Fresno since 2000 were Latino, but that international media only comes to report on incidents when a white person dies—such as this week.

telesurtv.net Reports:

“Police shot and killed 24-year-old Melissa Ventura, a mother of three, on Tuesday in Yuma, Arizona. Official accounts say she was holding a knife when they shot her and that they were called for a case of domestic violence.

The day before, police in San Jose, California were called to Anthony Nuñez’s house, who the police chief said was then described as suicidal. Nuñez reportedly left the house with a gun when police arrived, and after 14 minutes of police trying to convince him not to kill himself, they shot Nuñez instead. He was 19 years old.

Two Latinos were killed by police on Sunday: Pedro Villanueva from Fullerton, California and Raul Saavedra-Vargas from Reno, Nevada.

Villanueva, 19, was reportedly fleeing uniformed police in his car when undercover highway patrol officers shot at his moving vehicle—a tactic banned by major police departments.”

To explain the difference between Latino and African Americans when it comes to police shootings, there is a history of more documented police shootings of black people.

That is true, but there is well documented evidence of racial disparity when it comes to black and brown people. So why haven’t we seen more protests like the black lives matter movement of Latino’s? Gloria Hernandez said it could be because of the culture.

Hernandez told TeleSur the culture of silence after the police killings of Latinos, in contrast to those following Black killings. The mentality among young Latinos to “not snitch,” she said, comes from cops who are “starting to gear up and starting protecting to their own.”