208 Arrested at Puerto Rican Day Parade

June 12, 2007 NEW YORK TIMES: “208 Arrested at Puerto Rican Day Parade, a Steep Increase”

I was there. I was trying out my skate skills. I want to go back to skating now I’ve moved back to New York City, and roller-skate the way I used to 20 years ago. So I went to Central Park and skated around, unintentionally running into the huge crowds and heavy police presence on the roadway.

The police claim the massive arrests this year were because of the Latin Kings, a Puerto Rican “street gang.” They didn’t have permission to march in the Puerto Rican Day Parade, and were supposedly attending anyway. So lots of people got busted.

Legal Aid lawyer Edward McCarthy is quoted in the NY TIMES on how the arresting was done. “People said they were being told by the police that they needed this group to turn the corner; then when they obeyed, the police were waiting around the corner.” Typical. Use compliance to trap the innocent. A number of non-gangmember types, committing no crimes, were reportedly “swept up with the crowd,” arrested, booked, arraigned, released.

Why is this happening? What purpose does it serve? People of color are processed, branded – for life. For the rest of their lives they will have a criminal record, and they will be in a national “gang database” as “gang-affiliated.” That makes them second-class citizens. Easier for the criminal law enforcement system to handle.

The charges will be dropped, lawsuits will be filed, civil rights lawyers will win a cash settlement for their clients, new rules will be written. But there’s really no need for any “new rules.” Everybody knows the 4^th Amendment prohibits this stuff. And as the immigration rights police riot in Los Angeles showed, the rules are sometimes little more than suggestions to be disobeyed at will. And our government is paying these people court awards with tax money – their money.

And the “new” rules will not include, and the courts will not order, the removal of their names from the “gang database.” That’s how it works.