Island of Impunity - American Civil Liberties Union

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a witness. She told the ACLU, “I went every day, every afternoon, so I could shed some light on what happened because the investigation was closed.” 110 She hired a private investigator, who found that her son was first shot in his front left shoulder at about 7:00 p.m., shortly after which Jiménez de Jesús received a call from police stating that her son had been brought to the local police station. 111 The investigator located an eyewitness never interviewed by the PRPD who saw officers shoot her son in the shoulder and subsequently load him into a patrol car. 112 According to the private investigator’s findings, the other seven gunshot wounds to Polaco’s back were later inflicted after he had been loaded onto the agents’ patrol car. Although the Carolina hospital was located only a 10-minute drive from the location where police took Polaco not a cemetery.” into custody, police agents delivered Polaco to the hospital one to one-and-a-half hours later, at 8:35 p.m., dead on arrival. 113 Police had claimed they acted in self-defense, but the private investigator found that Polaco was unarmed and only had a dollar and his house keys in his pocket; the officers were wearing bulletproof vests and carried firearms. 114 “If my son broke the law he belongs in a jail cell, The police officers involved in Polaco’s arrest and killing were never subjected to any disciplinary measures, and the ACLU has documented the involvement of one of the two involved officers in a recent police beating of 62-year-old Julio Cirino in his home that left him unconscious and hospitalized for a blood clot in his brain and other injuries. The officer, Isaac Joel Pizarro Pizarro, was later shot and killed in an unrelated incident in December 2011. The other officer is now reportedly working for U.S. Border Patrol. Moreover, the ACLU of Puerto Rico recently obtained a memo on PRPD letterhead by a police psychologist, dated one year before the officer shot Polaco, stating that one of the officers implicated in Polaco’s shooting should not be rearmed. This suggests that the PRPD failed to disarm the high-risk officer, a pervasive problem that we documented in other cases, as detailed in Section VIII of this report. Jorge Polaco’s mother Ruth told the ACLU, “My wish is that the guilty pay, that those responsible pay their due, that they end up in jail. If I killed someone, I would be in jail,” adding, “If my son broke the law he belongs in a jail cell, not a cemetery.” 115 She says she is still seeking justice, and cannot rest until she knows the truth of what happened to her son. She told the ACLU, “I have never had any peace or tranquility. I have continued searching and searching to learn what happened to my son that day.… This pain that I have, it is so enormous. And my pain and misery is worse because the police never did an investigation…. I’ve always wondered where they took him and what they did to him during that hour-and-a-half. What I need to know is: what happened?” 116 American Civil Liberties Union | 47
Puerto Rico Police Department officers assigned to tactical units regularly use excessive force while on routine patrols and at checkpoints in predominantly low-income, Black, and Dominican communities. During encounters with civilians in these communities, officers routinely use excessive force or resort to force unnecessarily and inappropriately. Dominican immigrant Joel Félix was brutally beaten by police while he was walking home alone one night. The officers left him dying on the sidewalk. He required emergency life-saving surgery because of internal bleeding and organ damage to his spleen and liver caused by the police beating. Photo Credit: ACLU (2011) 48
Page 1 and 2: Island of Impunity Puerto Rico’s
Page 3 and 4: Island of Impunity: Puerto Rico’s
Page 5 and 6: ii. Second Protest at the Capitol..
Page 8 and 9: Glossary of Abbreviations ACLU AFL-
Page 10 and 11: American Civil Liberties Union | 9
Page 12 and 13: I. Executive Summary The Puerto Ric
Page 14 and 15: of PRPD officers’ use of deadly f
Page 16 and 17: In responding to entirely peaceful
Page 18 and 19: In July 2011, during his confirmati
Page 20 and 21: Existing PRPD policies fall short o
Page 22 and 23: on the family, but one of the broth
Page 24 and 25: Effectively implement policies by t
Page 26 and 27: II. Background: The Puerto Rico Pol
Page 28 and 29: are unlikely to file and pursue com
Page 30 and 31: weapon, or firearm modified to oper
Page 32 and 33: III. Shooting to Kill: Unjustified
Page 34 and 35: The mother of José Alberto Vega Jo
Page 36 and 37: Jaime Amell 24 November Ilaraza Ru
Page 38 and 39: Jirón Suero Pinales 19 August 21,
Page 40 and 41: Heriberto Marcial Hernández 44 Aug
Page 42 and 43: Jorge Luis Polaco Jiménez 28 Octob
Page 44 and 45: to rob them at gunpoint; the agent
Page 46 and 47: as far as nine years earlier. 94 Th
Page 50 and 51: IV. Police Brutality against Low-In
Page 52 and 53: “They lifted my head, and I could
Page 54 and 55: The ACLU interviewed 20-year-old Lu
Page 56 and 57: One of the cases documented by the
Page 58 and 59: Félix was 24 years old, he was wal
Page 60 and 61: V. Billy Clubs versus Speech: Exces
Page 62 and 63: a. Chilling Effect on Constitutiona
Page 64 and 65: and lungs that can lead to death, a
Page 66 and 67: Left, police pepper-spray student p
Page 68 and 69: Most problematic, the PRPD’s orde
Page 70 and 71: now, because one has laid his hands
Page 72 and 73: VI. Documented Cases of Police Abus
Page 74 and 75: an opposition party. 234 The closur
Page 76 and 77: Riot Squad officers also pepper-spr
Page 78 and 79: “I never, I never thought I’d l
Page 80 and 81: file reportedly revealed he had mor
Page 82 and 83: PRPD officers used painful pressure
Page 84 and 85: c. Police Abuse against Protesting
Page 86 and 87: The Riot Squad officers then attack
Page 88 and 89: At approximately 8:00 a.m. that mor
Page 90 and 91: Police intercepted the picket line,
Page 92 and 93: him to the ground and hit him with
Page 94 and 95: is not near the students who would
Page 96 and 97: administration for the university i
Page 98 and 99:
shields of wood and plastic, some s
Page 100 and 101:
On the first and second day of clas
Page 102 and 103:
American Civil Liberties Union | 10
Page 104 and 105:
VII. Failure to Police Crimes of Do
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Nurse Wanda Camacho, in a family ph
Page 108 and 109:
Sasha Hernández Alemar Iris Nidia
Page 110 and 111:
Frances Feliciano Cappas Aida Cruz
Page 112 and 113:
Brunilda Torres Sánchez Eulalia Te
Page 114 and 115:
a full investigation into these and
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eceiving about 15,525-17,466 compla
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the same police department that emp
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VIII. Total Impunity: Failure to In
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a. Seriously Flawed Investigation P
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the complaint, the lack of notice a
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Lawyer Hans Perl-Matanzo, who has r
Page 128 and 129:
and was appointed as the Federal Co
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The officer may file an internal ap
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taken by a bystander; the involved
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IX. A Lawless Police Force: Lack of
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The PRPD’s order governing the us
Page 138 and 139:
of services by members of the Polic
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e. Lack of Transparency: Failure to
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X. Relevant Constitutional and Huma
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protection and remedies. 489 These
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message, by means of protest or oth
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d. Human Rights Standards on Freedo
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Page 152 and 153:
XI. Recommendations Based on the AC
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Develop and implement clear and com
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force and provide a detailed descri
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Data collection and transparency: T
Page 160 and 161:
Organizational culture and attitude
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Ensure that any consent decree or o
Page 164 and 165:
XII. Methodology and Acknowledgemen
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Page 168 and 169:
26 Id. Rico Police Department, and
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66 Id. 67 Id. incidente en detalle,
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131 Id. 132 Id. 133 Id. 134 Id. 135
Page 174 and 175:
202 Id. 203 Deborah Blum, About Pep
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263 Id. 264 ACLU interview with Sha
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328 Id. 329 Id. 330 Id. 331 Id. 332
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381 Id. 382 Tendencias PR, Compendi
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Island of Impunity: Puerto Rico’s
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