How Cops Have Targeted Communities of Color for Decades

We look at the long history of police brutality against Latinos in Chicago. Latinos, especially immigrants, have faced police violence and killings for decades, and have a long history of fighting back against brutality through community organizing and activism. But their stories have received little news coverage. We speak with Lilia Fernández, a professor of history and Latino studies at Rutgers University and the author of Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago. We also speak with Flint Taylor, an attorney with People’s Law Office and author of The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We continue to look at the long history of police brutality in Chicago, now turning to an often-overlooked and underreported issue, police abuse of Latinos. Latinos, and especially immigrants, have faced police conflict, violence and even killings, for decades, and have a long history of fighting back against brutality through community organizing and activism. But the violent policing of Latinos has received little news coverage.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by a historian who has chronicled the police mistreatment of Latinos in Chicago. Lilia Fernández is a professor of history and Latino studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She’s the author of Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago. She also happens to be married to Juan, our co-host Juan González. Still with us, Flint Taylor, attorney with People’s Law Office, who has represented survivors of police torture in Chicago for nearly half a century. His new book, The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago.

Professor Fernández, it’s great to have you with us. Can you talk about how the torture machine, dealing with racism and police violence in Chicago, the significance of it,…

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