DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND CRIMINALIZATION

BY R.P.

It’s really a shame that in the year 2015 there is still substantial evidence for systematic racism in the police force. Police officers, amongst many others, view African American’s, and Latino’s as a threat no matter what the circumstance. More Latinos are incarcerated than Whites, and more African Americans are incarcerated than Whites and Latinos. A lot of these issues come from the fact that many of the low income areas of New York City are now, or were once areas of Latino or African American dominance. Since these areas were underprivileged and typically poor, there were high rates of crime and violence. The issue now is that police still view specific races as violent, while that’s not the truth. What are the effects of Latinos being viewed as criminals on the Latino population as a whole, and what happens to these Latinos who are seen as criminals? In this blog post I argue that there is an issue in law enforcement causing a widespread stereotyping of people of color which leads to more and more Latinos in prisons.

Since 1848 (when the Mexican American war ended), Mexicans and other groups of Latino descent seem to be discriminated against in the US Criminal Justice System, which is “infused” with racist ideas of the Latino as dangerous “aliens” (Morin, 2008). The stereotype of Latinos to be criminals has persisted through the years because of the U.S. Law, media, and society from around 1848 to now. For example, Latin American immigrants are usually recognized as “underserving” by law enforcement, and are more likely to have negative incidences with the criminal justice system (Morin, 2008). From the years 1971 to 2001, Latinos experiences a major increase of the rate of being in prison (ten times increase) (Morin, 2008). Another substantial increase for Latinos was from 1985 to 1995. In 1985 10.9% of all inmates (federal and state prisons) were Latino, and in 1995 the percentage rose to 15.5% (Morin, 2008). Another scary statistic is that as of 2003, 4% of ALL Latino males in their 20s were incarcerated, while the number was only 1.5% for White males in the same age group (the number for African Americans is 12% for those who are interested)(Rios, 2006). Finally, in a lifetime Latino males have a 17.9% chance of going to prison, while a White male has a 5.9% chance, Latino males have nearly a three times greater chance of going to prison than a White male (Morin, 2008). These examples and percentages aren’t just coincidental. Since around the 1960s, politics has shifted from being about the war on poverty, to the war on drugs or the war on crime. This shift has linked poverty with crime, “especially poverty in ‘minority communities’”, such as Latino oriented neighborhoods in NYC (Morin, 2008). It’s not right that people of color have such a higher chance of going to prison than whites. It’s all because of the stereotypes, there is a higher potential for racial violence as a consequence of bad data, and bad policing (Muhammad, 2010)

This systematic racism affects children of Latino descent in more ways than one. First off, the young adult “deviants” are built up to be criminals based on the media, and they face criminalization starting as early as 8 years old (Rios, 2006). These kids are built up, realizing that adults of the same race as them are feared by the police, and that they are viewed as criminals. They shouldn’t be brought up in a world where they learn that everyone will look down on them their entire lives. That is going to cause an array of issues in itself! I mean, 95% of all “juveniles” sent to court are youth of color (Rios, 2006), which does include African Americans, Latino, and many other races but that is a significant difference compared to white children. In New York City in the 1920s, it was found that black youths were twice as likely to be arraigned in Children’s court as white youths (Muhammad, 2010). Again, this isn’t a coincidence it’s a systematic problem of racism in the police force and any law areas associated. We need a complete reform, the year is 2015, “racial stereotypes” shouldn’t be so prominent in law enforcement anymore and it’s so unfortunate and unfair that it is. 

Works Cited

Morin, José Luis. “Latinas/os and US Prisons: Trends and Challenges.” Latino Studies 2008: Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. 2010. “The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America.” Web. 22 Sept. 2015

Rios, Victor M. “The Hyper-Criminalization of Black and Latino Male Youth in the Era of Mass Incarceration.” Web. 22 Sept. 2015

Soto, Daniel Vidal. “Gentrifying New York City’s underground.” Latino Rebels 2014: Web. 22 Sept. 2015.