Latinos..Ripped From the Headlines

Articles - News, Politics and Issues

Last June, the Puerto Rican Day parade in New York was followed by sexual assaults upon women by various groups of young men made up of Blacks, Whites and Latinos. Some policemen were criticized for not paying attention to the women who reported assaults. A few of the police defended their apathy by saying Puerto Ricans would have complained if any arrests were made.

Unfortunately, because the media decided to run with the story given by those very few bad cops, the entire department was stereotyped as apathetic and intimidated by "political correctness" run amok. Puerto Ricans were stereotyped as feeling above the law and opposed to basic law enforcement and personal responsibility. People seemed to accept that Puerto Ricans, for some reason, did not want criminals punished for their crimes. The facts of that day are that many good police officers enforced the law over 3,000 times in a crowd of 2.5 million. This is typical for any large carnival atmosphere. There were also hundreds, if not thousands, of good Puerto Ricans celebrating their heritage with an emphasis on human rights in Vieques and the activist, lawyer and scholar, Pedro Albizu Campos.

Read more: Latinos..Ripped From the Headlines