Puerto Rico Cops Just as Bad as Mainland American Cops
Puerto Rico! The island that just won't become our 51st state, no matter how much we bat our eyelashes. Still, as a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico has the right to have a police force just as brutal and corrupt as any in the USA.
According to a new Justice Department report leaked to the New York Times, the 17,000(!)- member Puerto Rican police force is... very American!
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." ...
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." ...
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.
There's just... something... so... familiar about it all. I can't quite put my finger on it.
In unrelated news, it looks like the innocent woman who was shot to death while sitting on her stoop during the rowdy West Indian Day parade last weekend was killed by a police bullet.
