Many latinos and other groups of people that were not white people with money experienced police brutality. Police brutality was one of the many barriers that latinos and other lower class groups faced in the 1960s. For decades, police officers have abused minorities just to exert their power. Police officers would falsely accuse people because of their appearance and then the minority wouldn't receive proper representation nor did they have money to get bail. Many innocent lives have been taken and continue to be taken by police officers who believe they are more important and who believe that minority groups are some type of threat to the community. The fight against police brutality was an endless fight for the Young Lords Organization and many others who constantly had to deal with racist police officers.
This is a flyer from a rally organized by the Young Lords Organization that was advocating for two men who were murdered by police officers and to advocate for the poor people who were being removed from their houses (Memorial).
This document states that on three different occasions police officers raided Mrs.Mercado, who was pregnant at the time, without a warrant (Community Organizations).
A collage of the march that occured to Manuel Ramos' funeral and later to a police station (Young Lords Organization).
The day of Manuel Ramos' death the Young Lords Organization(YLO) members were attending a birthday party in the home of the Young Lords co-founder Orlando Dávila. That evening while people were inside, Manuel was outside, and those inside heard a loud commotion so they went outside to investigate. Outside they encountered a stranger—later identified as off-duty Chicago police officer James Lamb— waving a gun around near an unnamed YLO member. Witnesses claimed that after one of the partygoers told him to calm down, Lamb turned towards the doorway to Dávila’s home and fired two shots. The first bullet struck Manuel Ramos in the head near his right eye, killing him. The second bullet hit Raphael Rivera wounding him. Despite witness accounts that the shooting had been unprovoked, Lamb was never arrested, charged, or reprimanded in any way for the attack. Instead, the responding officers immediately arrested four veteran Young Lords members—Orlando Dávila, Pedro Martínez, Jose Lind, and Angel del Rivero—who were each charged with aggravated battery against Lamb(Gonzales 14).
The fact that officer Lamb was never arresred, charged, or reprimanded for murder and attemptive murder was a sign of how messed up the system was. A racist person who isn't used to new things might have a fear of change and perhaps that is why Lamb decided to fire his gun, but it still didn't justify his actions because he was supposed to protect the community from danger, not cause it. This unjust action angered the Puerto Rican and Latino community, but they didn't riot like they did for the murder of Arcelis Cruz on the day of the Puerto Rican parade. Instead, the YLO decided to peacefully protest. Peaceful protest allowed them to confront law enforcement directly and to express their voices without causing harm to other members of the community(Beliz 13). The YLO saw that peaceful protests were more effective because the attention they were receiving from the media was more positive and they weren't turned into the criminals of the story.
Image from the YLO newsletter showing how they were treated (Young Lords Organization).
(Freedom Now section) seven Latino men were accused of murdering a cop but they were found not guilty after 18 months when the wife of another cop that was present confirmed that her husband killed his partner after being under the influence of alcohol, later members of the YLO were charged with fleeing with a robbed car (Young Lords Organization).
Over the course of one month Cha Cha had seven encounters with police officers and had to go to the police station. Police officers were trying to scare the people who were fighting for their rights by harrassing leaders like Cha Cha Jimenez (Hands Off).