CRANSTON - Protesting what they called racial profiling and improper immigration enforcement by several local and state police departments, about 40 community members and students gathered Wednesday in biting cold in the parking lot of local police headquarters.
"We don't care if it's snowing. We don't care what it is. This is wrong," said Mary Kay Harris, a member of Direct Action for Rights and Equality, a Providence-based group working on behalf of low income minority groups.
Shannah Kurland, a member of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, which organized the event, agreed.
Police practices are "tearing our communities apart," she said. State and Cranston police could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The protestors held banners and signs reading "We are all human," "No one is illegal," and "Support Immigrant Rights," drawing occasional supportive honks from passing vehicles.
The event was prompted by reports of people being incarcerated for days because of expired licenses, according to the organizers' press release. The release also denounced what it called police acting as immigration agents.
"Local police departments are taking it on themselves to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement and throwing people into deportation proceedings, usually with only a misdemeanor charge of driving without a license," the press release charged.
Studies of traffic stop statistics by Northeastern University and the Rhode Island Justice Commission in recent years have shown that race plays a role both in whom Rhode Island police pull over and whether they search the vehicle.
On Thursday attendees also expressed outrage at Gov. Donald Carcieri's '65 executive order in March that allows officers to perform the duties of ICE agents after training and also allows police to check the legal status of people taken into custody.
Carcieri "overstep(ped) his power," said Lindsey Gaydos '09, a member of the Student Coalition for Immigrant Rights who was one of the protestors. The pressure on immigrants resulting from the governor's order has led to racial profiling, Gaydos said.
"Immigration policy needs to be reformed," she said. "It just comes down to a matter of human rights."
Tam Tran GS, also a member of the coalition, said similar issues have affected her friends and family in Los Angeles. She said she wanted to get involved in Rhode Island since it will be her home for the next few years.
