BY XOCHITL LEAL
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - "Don't beat me 'cause I'm
Latino," stated placards carried by some of the 200 protesters
here November 8. Chanting "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, racist cops have got
to go!," participants marched to the local police station in
the Downtown Eastside.
The march was called in response to police brutality in the area. "The public has to respond to this racist targeting of Latin Americans as drug dealers and the issue of police violence in this community," stated Tara Scurr, a member of the Christian Task Force, who spoke at the rally. Hugo Hernández, who is Guatemalan, was assaulted by police on October 27. As Hernández described the incident at a community meeting a few days later, he had just left a club in the Downtown Eastside, when two men approached him for a cigarette and some spare change. As he reached into his pocket, two police cars drove up with their lights flashing. They grabbed him by the throat, pushed him up against a wall, and told him to open his mouth. They punched him in the stomach, knocked him to the ground, and kicked him from all sides.
In response to the demonstration, cops are trying to justify their brutality by claiming Hernández is a drug dealer. "Drugs are not the issue here," said Hernández's lawyer, Phil Rankin. "He's not being charged with anything. He shouldn't have been beaten."
According to Ingrid Cruz of Store Front Orientation Services (SOS, a drop-in center for refugee claimants), police have been stopping Latinos in the Downtown Eastside and demanding to see their papers. In some instances, she said, the police have written "Drug Dealer" on the person's documents. These documents are the only identification refugee claimants possess and must be presented to the immigration refugee boards for their hearings.
Xochitl Leal is a member of the Vancouver chapter of the Young Socialists.