Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Complainants are an organization and several of its members who have been
subjected to arrests without probable cause, repeated harassment, loss of their jobs,
imprisonment, physical assaults and damage to their reputation by officers of the Greensboro
Police Department on account of their race, ethnicity and national origin. Upon information and
belief, the Greensboro Police Department (hereinafter “GPD”), administered by the City of
Greensboro, is a recipient of federal financial assistance. (Ex. A). Therefore, the actions of the
Department as detailed herein, are in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Complainants seek remedies for the intentionally discriminatory acts by the respondents which
include targeting the Almighty Latin Kings and Queens Nation (hereinafter “ALKQN or Latin
Kings”) and its members for harassment without cause because of their race, ethnicity and
national origin. In addition, Complainants seek remedies for the policies and practices of the
GPD that have a disparate impact on them on the basis of their race, ethnicity and national
origin; and thereby subjects Complainants to discrimination on the basis of their race, or national
origin.
The GPD has systematically discriminated against and harassed ALKQN members since
the group’s formation in 2005. There is evidence showing that the Greensboro Police
Department’s anti-Latino bias causes it to intentionally target ALKQN members for deportation,
bring baseless charges against them, and subject them to unlawful and discriminatory traffic
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On November 3, 1979, a group of Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi members descended upon
an anti-KKK rally, shooting five marchers dead. The Greensboro Police Department did not
provide officers for the march as was its normal practice for any type of protest. An all-white
jury acquitted the accused murderers, but in 1985 a judgment of $350,000 was entered against
the city of Greensboro—including five police officers—for having violated the marchers’ civil
rights. Despite opposition from the Greensboro City Council, in 2005 Greensboro residents
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II. History of Greensboro’s chapter of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation
Jorge Cornell, a United States citizen of Puerto Rican descent, felt motivated to create the
Greensboro ALKQN chapter in September of 2005. This was the year that Cornell, a New York
transplant, began exploring his adopted city and discovered that Greensboro Police Department
officers were mistreating Latinos. As Cornell talked to Latinos around the city, he discovered
that GPD officers were searching the homes of undocumented immigrants without warrants.
Cornell even heard stories of undocumented women who had been raped by police officers but
did not report the crimes for fear of deportation.
The turning point for Cornell came one night in 2005 when he witnessed GPD officers
enter a local bar immediately following a car accident involving Latinos and falsely charge four
innocent Hispanic men with hit-and-run. After this incident Cornell decided to start a chapter of
ALKQN as a way of uplifting the Latino community and giving a voice to Greensboro’s
voiceless undocumented immigrants.
Since founding ALKQN, Cornell has had a strict policy against members committing
crimes, including using or selling drugs. This corresponds to Cornell’s vision of ALKQN as a
tool for uplifting, rather than destroying, the community. If an ALKQN member is discovered to
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My goal is to bring peace to the streets, black, brown, come together as one. I’m asking for all
Bloods, Crips, MS-13, Sur Trece, everybody out there that represents something to put your
weapons down and let’s come to a table, so we can talk peace.
III. History and philosophy of the Greensboro Police Department’s gang unit
In 2005, Jorge Cornell went to the courthouse where his fellow ALKQN members
Randolph Kilfoil, Daniel Vasquez and Robert Vasquez were being held under arrest awaiting a
hearing with the Magistrate. Cornell went to find out what his friends’ charges were and how
high their bonds would be set. Cornell took a seat behind a glass window, from where he could
see his biological brother Randolph Kilfoil being questioned by the Magistrate. When Kilfoil
failed to answer one of the Magistrate’s questions, a GPD officer smacked him in the back of the
head. Cornell banged on the glass and told the officer not to hit his brother. The officers
arrested Cornell for contempt and threw him in a cell.
From the cell, Cornell could still see everything that was going on. He saw the officers
mace Kilfoil, Daniel and Robert, and handcuff the mens’ arms and feet. After the men had been
completely restrained and maced, white Officer R.A. Watkins stormed into the room and began
beating the men with his night stick. Cornell yelled out, “They’re handcuffed, you don’t need to
do that!” Hearing this further enraged Watkins, who began to jam his night stick through
Cornell’s cell bars and attempted to open the cell doors. This was Cornell’s first encounter with
Watkins, who would later join the gang unit and become a prominent harasser of ALKQN
members.
Prior to 2007, Officer Ernest Cupasin (sp) was the Greensboro Police Department’s one-
man gang unit. He regularly harassed ALKQN members. For example, when a group of
ALKQN members would play soccer or some other sport, Cupasin would call up a whole fleet of
police vehicles to disrupt the peaceful game.
In November of 2007, the Greensboro City Council created a gang unit to address
growing community concern over the gang activities of the Bloods, Crips, SUR 13, MS 13,
Norteno, Rubio 18, Southside 13, TCS 13, TRG, VGS, Vice Lords, and ALKQN. (Ex. L at.1-3)
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Over the last eighteen months or so the Greensboro Police Department’s Gang Unit has had a
stepped up focus on gang activity. This has been focused mainly on Latino gangs. When I
indicated that there was other more serious gang activity than the harassment type activities in
which we were engaged, Sergeant Sizemore said that his image of a gang member is a Latino
male.
Press Release, Officer A.J. Blake, Public Statement by Greensboro Police Officer A.J.
Blake (June 2, 2009) (on file in the Beloved Community Center’s “News & View” archives).
Blake went on to add that Sizemore—who was taking orders from Captain John Wolfe—had
instructed Blake to focus attention exclusively on ALKQN and to charge ALKQN members
“with any possible violations that we could.” Keith Barber, ’09 Local News in Review,
Yes!Weekly, December 30, 2009.
On December 1, 2007, one month after the gang unit’s formation, ALKQN leader Jorge
Cornell had parked in his friend’s driveway and was walking toward her house to pick her up for
a party when about thirty GPD cars pulled up and officers walked toward Cornell’s car with guns
drawn, ordering him back in his vehicle. Cornell obeyed the order, returning to his car and
sitting with his hands on the dashboard. The officers then ordered Cornell out of the car and told
him to get down on his knees and put his hands on his head. They next had Cornell lay down on
the ground and as he lay prostrate Officer Finch twisted his arm behind his back and handcuffed
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A. Intentional Discrimination
To prove intentional discrimination, one must show that the recipient’s awareness of the
complainant’s race or national origin caused him to treat the complainant in a discriminatory
manner. Elston v. Talladega County Bd. of Educ., 997 F.2d 1394, 1405 n.11, 1407 n.14 (11th
Cir.), reh'g denied, 7 F.3d 242 (11th Cir. 1993). The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation,
also known as the Latin Kings, is widely known as a Latino gang having originated in Latin
America. The fact that GPD officers are aware of ALKQN members’ countries of origin is
proven by the fact that the officers regularly attempt to have members deported. Former gang
unit officer Blake reported that while the police were investigating a shooting apparently
motivated by revenge for an injury caused to ALKQN member Anthony Vasquez, Matt Allred, a
white GPD detective, “…suggested charging Vasquez with attempted murder with the
understanding that the charge would be dismissed, but also knowing that Vasquez could be
threatened with deportation because of his residency status.” Jordan Green, We’re Going to Give
Them the Indication We’re Harassing Them, Yes!Weekly, June 17, 2009, at 12. Blake also
reported that his white boss and sergeant, Ronald Sizemore, “would frequently discuss the option
of calling in US Immigration & Customs Enforcement to deal with the Latin Kings.” Id. Given
Sizemore’s high rank and the smallness of the gang unit, it is highly likely that if both Sizemore
and Allred use knowledge about ALKQN members’ countries of national origin to try to deport
them, other gang unit officers are following the same practice. As Officer Blake put it: “Part of
the reason my sergeant wants to focus on Latinos is he assumes he has the ability to deport them
all.” Id.
Discriminatory intent may be inferred by examining statements by decision makers.
Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Hous. Redevelopment Corp., 429 U.S. 252 at 266-68 (1977);
Elston, 997 F.2d at 1406. Former officer Blake’s complaints concerning white officers’ racism
toward Latinos date back to 2006, when Blake reported that white sergeant Hafekaneyer had
described Latinos as wet-backs and said that Latinos all looked like illegal aliens. Press Release,
Officer A.J. Blake, Public Statement by Greensboro Police Officer A.J. Blake (June 2, 2009) (on
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B. Disparate Impact
The Supreme Court has held that a Title VI violation exists where a protected group
suffers a disparate impact, despite the recipient’s lack of discriminatory intent. Guardians, 463
U.S. at 582, Alexander v. Choate, 469 U.S. at 293. Likewise, the Department of Justice, which
funds the Greensboro Police Department through the Office of Justice Program grants, has
enacted regulations which state that a recipient of Department funds may not administer a
program in such a way that the effect is to subject individuals to racial or national origin
discrimination. 28 C.F.R. § 42.104(b)(2).
Many of the practices the gang unit employs in its campaign against ALKQN, such as
unlawful traffic stops and searches, and unjustified visits to places of employment, are
undoubtedly not facially neutral. The gang unit would argue, however, that its overall strategy of
targeting ALKQN’s leadership is neutral on its face since the strategy aims to prevent ALKQN
from recruiting new members and thereby minimize the criminal threat that ALKQN poses to the
greater community. Captain Wolfe, in effect, attempted to make this argument in the letter he
wrote to former Chief Bellamy in February of this year. (Ex. L) In this letter, Captain Wolfe
refers in very broad terms to the dangerousness of ALKQN, without bothering to compare this to
the degree of danger posed by other Greensboro street organizations. However, supposing for
the sake of argument that the GPD’s policy of targeting ALKQN is facially neutral, there is still a
Title VI violation since the effect on ALKQN members, most of whom are Latino, is adverse.
Judging from the testimony of former Officer Blake, testimony by various local clergy members,
Greensboro newspaper headings and Complaint Review Committee reports from the past several
years, there is no indication that non-Latino gang members have been adversely affected at all by
the gang unit’s gang suppression policy, let alone affected adversely in the same proportion as
ALKQN members.
There is also statistical data proving that ALKQN has been disproportionately and
adversely impacted by the gang unit’s harassment. An analysis of the statistics available from
the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts indicates that the conviction rate for all
felony charges filed in Guilford County (of which Greensboro is a part) is 65.4 percent. In
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The Office of Civil Rights has found that a recipient agency violates Title VI by failing to
maintain an adequate complaint procedure. U.S. v. City of Columbus, Ohio, 99 CV 1097 S.D.
Ohio, 2000. The OCR brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 14141 against the City of Columbus
for failing to adequately and fairly adjudicate or review citizen complaints, adequately discipline
officers engaging in misconduct, and adequately investigate incidents involving officers’ use of
force Id.
If a Greensboro citizen complains to the police department about mistreatment by an
officer but is unsatisfied with the department’s “determination,” the citizen may then file an
appeal with the Human Relations Commission’s Complaint Review Committee (CRC). In the
first part of the appeals process, the citizen sits down with a CRC employee to give an
accounting of what occurred during the citizen-officer interaction.
The CRC employee then drafts a report which is sent to the police department. (Exs. C-I)
Depending on the nature of the complaint, the CRC may include with the report a request for
video or audio footage, or other very specific information concerning the incident in question.
Upon receipt of the report, the GPD’s Professional Standards Division conducts an internal
investigation into the incident and then sends its response, in the form of an administrative
report, to the CRC.
In a presentation given to city council on June 16, 2009 concerning suggested ways to
improve the CRC, Greensboro CRC employee Wayne Abraham reported that “quite frequently
we have to ask for additional information beyond what’s given to us in the administrative
reports.” City of Greensboro’s video of 06/16/09 City Council Meeting, http://greensboro.gran
icus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2. Given the GPD’s lack of cooperation and the increase
in the volume and complexity of complaints to the CRC, Abrahams suggested giving the CRC
increased powers, including: the ability to subpoena witnesses; the ability to access all audio and
video sources of information; access to police officers’ personnel files so as to determine
whether there is a pattern of complaints against certain officers; and the power to initiate
investigations into events brought to the CRC’s attention by media outlets and community
members. Abraham also expressed the need for the CRC to be informed of what specific
disciplinary actions are being taken against an officer after it has been determined that an officer
violated a law or policy, so that the CRC can pass this information along to the complainant.
Finally, Abraham requested that the GPD send letters to complainants upon completion of an
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First, Complainants seek a change in the policies and practices of the Greensboro Police
Department that are causing the discrimination against them. The GPD must either dismantle the
gang unit or radically retrain the gang unit. Part of a radical retraining would include
abandonment of the “suppression” policy, which has resulted in provocation, stretching of legal
limits and putting into place a two tier law enforcement system, one for “first” class citizens and
another for “second” class citizens, or “gang members.” ALKQN members insist that, in the
event the gang unit is not dismantled, it at least be restructured in such a way so as to be made up
solely of gang expert officers hired from outside the Greensboro Police Department.
Second, there needs to be stronger ongoing oversight. While serving as Chief of Police,
Tim Bellamy addressed city council and recommended there be greater citizen oversight of the
police department. “It’s going to build more trust in the community, and more trust within the
department.” Jordan Green, Charges of Corruption Put GPD Under Scrutiny, Yes!Weekly, May
26, 2010, at 15. Specifically, the city of Greensboro should grant the CRC the increased powers
that it requested at the city council meeting last year, including the power to subpoena witnesses,
to access all audio and video sources of information, to access to police officers’ personnel files
and to initiate investigations even when a formal complaint has not been filed. See: City of
Greensboro’s video of 06/16/09 City Council Meeting, available at
http://greensboro.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?vi ew_id=2.
Third, given the extremely low felony conviction rate amongst ALKQN members, the
GPD should hold quarterly meetings with the Guilford County’s District Attorney’s Office to
obtain information about, and discuss, instances in which judges and district attorneys have
dismissed charges for lack of prosecutorial merit. The GPD should then use this information to
improve its policies, practices and training.
The following additional measures should also be taken to insure that the Greensboro
Police Department changes its discriminatory practices and policies: 1) The GPD should
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Conclusion
As Jorge Cornell stated at a press conference in 2009: “The gang unit has…attacked us
personally. The members of our nation have been wrongly jailed; our names have been drug
through mud. We have had to pay money for bail and for lawyers. We have been fired from our
jobs. We are finding it hard to find a place to live. All of this is happening because of the gang
squad and it is wrong.” Building Peace, Unity and Justice in Greensboro, SCSJ blog from
7/13/09; http://southerncoaltion.org/node/129.
For all of the above stated reasons, we ask that the Department of Justice open an
investigation into the discrimination against ALKQN as soon as possible. The Complainants,
Jorge Cornell and the other ALKQN members, are prepared to assist the Department in any way
in the investigation.
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Anita S. Earls
Southern Coalition for Social Justice
115 Market Street, Ste. 470
Durham, N.C. 27701
919-323-3380 ext. 115
Attorney for Complainants
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