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Boston police face lawsuit over listing hats and selfies as gang symbols
Source: The Guardian
Boston police face lawsuit over listing hats and selfies as gang symbols
Legal action seeks transparency over little-known points system used to designate gang affiliation without allegations of criminal activity
Sarah Betancourt in Boston
Wed 21 Nov 2018 23.00 GMT
For Boston police department, the Chicago Bulls hat was a sign.
When high school student Juan Perez – not his real name – was pulled over by police in late 2016, his cap became an unlikely link in a chain of events that landed him on a police database of suspected gang members, and has left him in fear of being deported.
For two years, Boston police have used a system – nicknamed the “gang packet” – which awards points for choice of clothes and social media selfies, and are used to designate “gang affiliation” without any accompanying allegations of criminal activity.
Little is known of the specifics of the Boston police department’s system of tracking and sharing information about young people it alleges to be involved in gangs. Now, a coalition of civil rights organisations could finally blow the lid off the secrecy that surrounds the practice, after filing a lawsuit against the Boston police department and the city of Boston seeking greater transparency about its database of suspected gang members.
“Law enforcement is allowing young people to be targeted and deported even without criminal activity,” said Carol Rose, executive director of Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “In order to make Boston a safe city for all its residents, we must meaningfully address discriminatory policing and confront the role the gang database plays in the lives of young people of color in our city.”
-snip-
Legal action seeks transparency over little-known points system used to designate gang affiliation without allegations of criminal activity
Sarah Betancourt in Boston
Wed 21 Nov 2018 23.00 GMT
For Boston police department, the Chicago Bulls hat was a sign.
When high school student Juan Perez – not his real name – was pulled over by police in late 2016, his cap became an unlikely link in a chain of events that landed him on a police database of suspected gang members, and has left him in fear of being deported.
For two years, Boston police have used a system – nicknamed the “gang packet” – which awards points for choice of clothes and social media selfies, and are used to designate “gang affiliation” without any accompanying allegations of criminal activity.
Little is known of the specifics of the Boston police department’s system of tracking and sharing information about young people it alleges to be involved in gangs. Now, a coalition of civil rights organisations could finally blow the lid off the secrecy that surrounds the practice, after filing a lawsuit against the Boston police department and the city of Boston seeking greater transparency about its database of suspected gang members.
“Law enforcement is allowing young people to be targeted and deported even without criminal activity,” said Carol Rose, executive director of Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “In order to make Boston a safe city for all its residents, we must meaningfully address discriminatory policing and confront the role the gang database plays in the lives of young people of color in our city.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/21/boston-police-gang-assessment-database-immigrants-lawsuit