[News] Police in Puerto Rico Are Accused of Abuses in Justice Dept. Report

[Anti-Imperialist News]

September 8, 2011


Police in Puerto Rico Are Accused of Abuses in Justice Dept. Report

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/us/08police.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print

By 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/charlie_savage/index.html?inline=nyt-per>CHARLIE 
SAVAGE and 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/lizette_alvarez/index.html?inline=nyt-per>LIZETTE 
ALVAREZ

WASHINGTON ­ In a blistering condemnation of the 
second-largest police force in the United States, 
the Justice Department is accusing the Puerto 
Rico Police Department of a “profound” and 
“longstanding” pattern of civil rights violations 
and other illegal practices that have left it 
“broken in a number of critical and fundamental respects.”

In a 116-page report that officials intend to 
make public Thursday, the civil rights division 
of the Justice Department accused the Puerto Rico 
Police Department of systematically “using force, 
including deadly force, when no force or lesser 
force was called for,” unnecessarily injuring 
hundreds of people and killing “numerous others.”

The report, a copy of which was obtained by The 
New York Times, says the 17,000-officer force 
routinely conducts illegal searches and seizures 
without warrants. It accuses the force of a 
pattern of attacking nonviolent protesters and 
journalists in a manner “designed to suppress the 
exercise of protected First Amendment rights.”

And it says investigators “uncovered troubling 
evidence” that law enforcement officers in Puerto 
Rico appear to routinely discriminate against 
people of Dominican descent and “fail to 
adequately police sex assault and domestic 
violence” cases ­ including spousal abuse by fellow officers.

“Unfortunately,” the report found, “far too many 
P.R.P.D. officers have broken their oath to 
uphold the rule of law, as they have been 
responsible for acts of crime and corruption and 
have routinely violated the constitutional rights 
of the residents of Puerto Rico.”

The report is likely to intensify a sense of 
distress among the nearly four million American 
citizens who live on Puerto Rico, where violent 
crime has spilled into well-to-do areas. While 
violent crime has plummeted in most of the 
mainland United States, the murder rate in Puerto 
Rico is soaring. In 2011, there have been 786 
homicides ­ 117 more than at this point last year.

Rather than helping to solve the crime wave, the 
Puerto Rico Police Department is part of the 
problem, the report contends. In October, the 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_bureau_of_investigation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>Federal 
Bureau of Investigation arrested 61 officers from 
the department in the 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/us/07fbi.html>largest 
police-corruption operation in bureau history. 
And the arrest of Puerto Rican police officers, 
the report says, is hardly rare.

 From January 2005 to November 2010, it said, 
there were more than 1,709 such arrests for 
offenses “ranging from simple assault and theft 
to domestic violence, drug trafficking and 
murder.” During a comparable period, the New York 
Police Department, with a force about twice the 
size, had about 607 such arrests.

“The degree of police corruption and criminal 
misconduct in Puerto Rico is high and contributes 
to the public safety and civil rights crisis,” 
the report said. “More P.R.P.D. officers are 
involved in criminal activity than in any other 
major law enforcement agency in the country.”

A “finding” by the civil rights division of a 
pattern or practice of constitutional violations 
by a police department is a precursor to a 
lawsuit, which either goes to trial or, if the 
local authorities agree to changes, may be 
settled on the day it is filed. The division has 
17 such investigations open, including in New Orleans, Newark and Seattle.

Its investigation of the Puerto Rico police, 
which began in July 2008, resulted in one of the 
most extensive such critiques the department has 
ever produced. It condemns nearly every aspect of 
the force ­ its hiring and training practices, 
the way it assigns and promotes officers, and its 
policies governing officer behavior and accountability for misconduct.

The report recommends 133 remedial measures that 
would amount to a sweeping intervention. It is 
likely to create a political headache for Puerto 
Rico’s governor, Luis G. Fortuño, a Republican 
who took office in 2009 and, as chief executive, oversees the department.

Mr. Fortuño has been criticized for his 
administration’s handling of a series of mostly 
nonviolent demonstrations by students and workers 
to protest higher university fees and government 
layoffs. Riot police hit protesters, bystanders 
and journalists with batons and used pepper spray 
and choke holds, in incidents that were 
videotaped and are discussed in the report.

Two months ago, Mr. Fortuño named a new police 
superintendent, Emilio Díaz Colón, a former 
National Guard adjutant general. During his 
confirmation, Mr. Díaz said he would not shy away 
from doing what was necessary to “convert the 
Puerto Rican police into an example of a 
disciplined, effective” force, but also said he 
did not plan any immediate major changes.

“We all recognize that there have been challenges 
at the Police Department that pre-date the 
governor’s administration,” Edward Zayas, a 
spokesman for Mr. Fortuño, said on Wednesday. 
“The governor has always acknowledged that the 
Puerto Rico Police Department needs reforms. 
However, he did not wait for any report from the D.O.J. in order to act.”

The Justice Department began the investigation in 
part due to complaints by the American Civil 
Liberties Union. In June, when President Obama 
visited the island, the A.C.L.U. sent him a 
<http://www.aclu.org/human-rights/aclu-calls-president-obama-address-police-brutality-puerto-rico>letter 
contending that the police had “engaged in a 
level of brutality against U.S. citizens” with a 
degree of impunity that “would not be tolerated in the 50 states.”

While the report said Puerto Rican officials 
cooperated with the investigation, it was 
hindered by poor record-keeping. For example, the 
Puerto Rico Police Department reported 39 rapes 
last year ­ a figure the report portrays as 
unbelievable because nearly every other 
jurisdiction has far more rapes than murders.

The report focused on the “rampant” use of 
“unnecessary or gratuitous” force, a problem made 
worse by the use of tactical units ­ heavily 
armed officers who are poorly trained and steeped 
in “violent subcultures” ­ for ordinary police 
work. It says such units frequently “rely on 
intimidation, fear and extreme use of force to 
manage crowds and are often deployed to 
low-income and minority communities on routine patrols.”

The report also recounts many “illustrative 
incidents” and includes a nine-page appendix 
listing dozens more. One example it said 
exemplified “many of the deep-rooted deficiencies 
that continue to plague P.R.P.D.” was the killing 
of Cáceres Cruz in August 2007 by a tactical unit officer.

Mr. Cruz was directing traffic near a birthday 
party when three officers drove by and thought he 
had insulted them. They told Mr. Cruz he was 
under arrest and wrestled him to the ground, 
during which time one officer shot himself in the 
leg.The officer then repeatedly shot Mr. Cruz, 
who was lying on the ground, in his head and body 
before they drove off. An internal investigation 
cleared them of misconduct. But after a video of 
the incident surfaced in the news media, one 
officer was convicted of murder. It emerged that 
seven complaints had been filed against him, but had been largely ignored.

“The tragic events surrounding the Cáceres Cruz 
shooting served as a stark reminder of P.R.P.D.’s 
institutional dysfunction,” the report said.

Charlie Savage reported from Washington, and Lizette Alvarez from Miami.




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