FBI to Investigate Police Violence Against Latinos, African-Americans in Bridgeport, CT
The FBI confirmed on this day that it was investigating allegations of racist violence against Latinos and African-Americans by the Bridgeport, Connecticut, police.
Eleven complaints had reportedly been filed by victims of police brutality in an incident on May 20th. A four-hour riot, that included rock-throwing and fire-bombing, erupted when the police arrested the local leader of the Young Lords, a militant Latino group. He was charged with trespassing for trying to enter the group’s store-front office after being evicted by the landlord.
The FBI investigation was the result of actions by Burton Weinstein, a local attorney associated with the county chapter of the ACLU, who is represented five of the 11 complainants. He contacted two members of Congress, who in turn brought the incident to the attention of the Justice Department. One of Mr. Weinstein’s clients was seized while on his porch, and then repeatedly beaten with rifle butts by police officers.
Through most of its history, the FBI did not investigate complaints involving racism by local police. The investigation here reflected the changed political climate resulting from the civil rights movement. Many FBI actions, in fact, were overtly racist, including primarily its vicious vendetta against Rev. Martin Luther King.
Federal investigation of police misconduct took a new direction in 1994 with the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (September 13, 1994), which authorized the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to investigate police departments for possible “pattern or practices” of violations of constitutional rights. The law authorized the Civil Rights division to bring civil suits against departments and obtain consent decrees mandating sweeping reforms. The first consent decree involved the Pittsburgh Police Bureau on April 16, 1997. Other consent decrees involved Los Angeles, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Baltimore, among others. The Civil Rights Division also obtained a consent decree against the Ferguson, Missouri, Police Department on March 4, 2015.
Read the Kerner Commission report on the riots of the 1960s: National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Report (1968)
Read about Hoover and the FBI: Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (1991)