Phoenix patriots who took up their posts at the Macchualli Day Labor Center on January 1 2008 expressed a very clear mission: to so inhibit the Center’s enabling employment for illegal alien day laborers as to cause its closure.
These patriots had on their side the Rule of Laws:
· The Arizona Employer Sanctions law, suspending the business license of any employer knowingly hiring or enabling the hiring of illegal aliens
· Land use and zoning limitations established for the property at 16801 North 25th Street (Bell Road & North 25th Street) by the City of Phoenix prohibited the operation of such a facility
· The 1-year Temporary Use Permit (issued in 2003 and renewed in 2004) had long expired—the center was operating a business with no permit.
Members of the Macchualli Protest Team (MPT) took their positions in front of the DLC at about 6:30 every morning, “armed” with video cameras to record the vehicle licenses and logos of “employers” arriving to pick up day laborers, protest signs, US flags, and signature petitions for two current ballot initiatives. Because their activities were legal and entirely in compliance with the US Constitution, they expected the Community Relations Bureau detectives and officers assigned to the site to fulfill their sworn oath to impartially and objectively enforce the law.
They were shocked to observe and experience the biased conduct of police staff whose sole mission seemed to be serving as public-funded security officers to protect the operation of Salvador Reza’s Day Labor Center.
After 90+ days of monitoring, the previously brisk business at the DLC had virtually stopped. But their success in curbing legal activity carried a personal price—increased physical danger at the hands of Salvador Reza, his DLC associates and its neighborhood supporters. Police who should have been protecting everyone by enforcing the law either mumbled the usual bureaucratic “there’s nothing we can do” or were openly hostile to them, allowing tension and the potential for violence to increase.
Members of the Macchualli Protest Team strongly support Phoenix Police Officers and recognize the difficult job they face in fulfilling their sworn oath with impartial enforcement of the law. In the Team’s decision to file a misconduct complaint against a police officer, the last thing they intended was to make that job more difficult.
In considering their options for resolving the issue, the Team immediately recognized that major news media would offer no help in publicizing the shameful refusal of a Phoenix CRB detective to do his job. Indeed, bias of the mainstream news media has been instrumental in exacerbating the problem.
Having said that, MPT members knew that the officer misconduct they observed and experienced Is not representative of Phoenix Police Officers. They also realized that their continued silence in the face of misconduct by some CRB detectives was making the situation worse; past injuries to citizens and damage to property would increase. They came to realize that experiences like theirs are the very reason for the existence of the Internal Investigation Process that exists in every US police department, giving citizens a means of redress against the misconduct of a few bad apples on a police force.
Their first choice of remedies was to publicize the problem and give the Phoenix PD the opportunity to “clean their own house.” They chose whose conduct seemed the worst and filed a compliant of officer misconduct with the Phoenix Police Department’s internal investigation unit, the Professional Standards Bureau.
The Subject: Detective Al Ramirez of the Community Relations Bureau.
To share with other US patriots the events that led to the difficult decision to claim misconduct by a police officer as well as acquainting other patriots nationwide with this remedial tool, we’ve published a copy of the complaint filed against Detective Al Ramirez with the Phoenix Police Department's P’ofessional Standards Bureau. To minimize endangering their safety from the threat of retaliation against them, names of individual Team Members have been disguised.
Read the dates and details of Ramirez’ misconduct as submitted to the Phoenix PD in the following post.
For other US activists who want more information about this remedy, leave your request and e-mail address in the comments following either of the posts. Comments aren't publicly displayed, so your e-mail address will remain private.
A member of the Macchualli Protest Team will contact you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment