P.R. Police/Policia Corrupt and racist

[thriller56]

(CNN) -- Puerto Rico's police department has a long pattern of violating citizens' constitutional rights through excessive force and unwarranted searches, the Justice Department said in a report released Thursday.

The analysis by the department's civil rights division found that the U.S. territory's police force is "broken in a number of critical and fundamental respects."

Bucking the trend of decreasing crime in the United States, violent crime in Puerto Rico increased 17% between 2007 and 2009. The territory has also seen a number of large protests in past years over issues such as the cost of public education and job cuts.

Police confronted these challenges with too heavy a hand, the report states.

In response to student protests in August 2009, police used chemical agents, batons and physical force against protesters, according to the report. Protesters at other demonstrations have been met with choke holds and rocks thrown by police, the report says.

Puerto Rico has used excessive force that has violated and suppressed people's right to exercise free speech, the Justice Department says. There is also evidence of unlawful search and seizure that violate the Fourth Amendment

Many of the abuses come from the police department's strategy of sending tactical officers for community policing, according to the report.

The Justice Department also found that the police department fails to police sex crimes and cases of domestic violence, and discriminates by targeting people of Dominican descent.

"We find that these deficiencies will lead to constitutional violations unless they are addressed," the report says.

It is a "longstanding practice" of the department to use force -- including deadly force -- in cases where lesser force or no force would have sufficed, the report states, adding that hundreds of people have been unnecessarily injured.

The Justice Department also contends that there are problems not just with the way the Puerto Rico police department carries out its functions, but among the officers themselves.

Between 2005 and 2010, there were more than 1,700 arrests of police officers on charges ranging from theft to murder, the report states.

Current police policies fail to guide officers, and there is a lack of oversight by superiors, according to the report. Training is also insufficient, it says.

Go to Human rights Forum on this site, and you will see my experience under the post Racism in PR from 2000. I'm proven correct. Puerto is not a Racial Utopia like you guys claim.

[MikeRavens]

they are getting an example how things are going to be under a REPUBLIC.........sounds like a mini version of Mexico.


y despues los independentistas no quieren a los federales y su juridiccion en la isla.....the feds are putting a light to this and making it aware there is a problem.