In Colorado, ICE smashes the window of a car with a 1-month-old inside, his mother crying out, “There’s a baby in here!”

A family of four in Chicago is surrounded at Millennium Park by heavily armed and masked immigration agents, while the 8-year-old daughter clutches her doll and sobs. The mother holds her 3-year-old son while all of them are detained.

A 6-year-old, her 19-year-old brother and mother are stopped at a immigration check-in in New York and detained.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a 13-year-old recently in Massachusetts and whisked him away to Virginia.

These incidents are not exceptions, but a common story. In the New York City area, for example, ICE has detained at least 50 children.

Though immigrant youth have been targeted, U.S.-born Black children have not been spared. About 300 federal agents executed an immigration raid, resulting in shocking and heartbreaking scenes in a South Side apartment building in Chicago. Crying children being led out of their apartment as it was tossed. When community members in Chicago denounced the zip-tying of children, who were also separated from their family members, an ICE officer was overheard saying “f— those kids.”

In addition to the initial violence of the stops, children have been incarcerated in spaces not made to hold them. Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana is designated for adult males but has had at least 18 children detained between January and July. Meanwhile, even facilities designed to imprison families have major problems, including delayed medical care for children, extreme temperatures and undrinkable tap water — and the government is charging children and families money for bottled water.

The administration is also arguing in court to reduce the protections on detained children, including limits on how long they can be held and requirements of providing sanitary conditions for children.

In parallel to the abuses within the immigration enforcement system, the government is trying to fill youth incarceration facilities by encouraging “tough on crime” approaches, even when crime is the lowest it has been in decades. President Trump recently claimed in Washington that “caravans of mass youth rampage through city streets at all times of the day” — which is not true.

Instead of policies that reduce crime, we get this rhetoric of locking up “bad children.” After a significant drop in the last two decades, youth incarceration rates are increasing. Racial disparities in youth imprisonment are the widest they have been in decades, even though crime is at historic lows. Youth behavior has not become more violent, but adult reactions to youth behavior have become more punitive. More laws and policies actively punish young people for minimal infractions.

The administration is also seeking to remove youth from their homes and put them into government custody. These “welfare checks” are at times being done by FBI or Homeland Security agents instead of those trained in social welfare. And yet once youth are in government custody, they are not protected.

Targeting communities of color and immigrant communities, the Trump administration is using every tactic it can dream up to break apart families. One initiative dubbed “Freaky Friday” offers children in custody up to $2,500 to leave the U.S. Originally slated for young people as young as 14 years old, this payment would theoretically be made after “an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin.” But it would be extremely difficult for young people to receive any such payment from the government after reaching their country of origin. Worst, this program’s financial pressure on vulnerable children disregards the dangers they faced when they fled their homes in the first place.

Moreover, the administration attempted to deport a large number of Guatemalan children over Labor Day weekend, with at least 76 children being boarded onto planes, and possibly more en route, before a judge issued a restraining order.

Such actions have left immigrant children languishing in government custody, whether in detention facilities, hotels or group homes, for longer periods, instead of being reunited with family.

Violent arrests, dangerous detentions and prolonged incarceration show that the purposeful criminalizing of immigrants and Black folks is not only harmful to adults but also traumatizes children. Just witnessing a parent’s arrest can have negative mental health impacts on young children. When a youth is arrested, their life outcomes are negatively affected, including an increase in chances of leaving school, higher rates of depression and suicidal thoughts. Youth who have experienced incarceration are less likely to find stable housing and employment as adults and six times more likely to experience early death compared with non-incarcerated youth. All of these negative outcomes are also accompanied by extreme cost. The average cost of incarcerating a youth in a secure facility is about $214,620 per year.

The punitive approach does not make sense as social policy, but it serves a purpose for the Trump administration by turning vulnerable populations into scapegoats. U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro recently said: “I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you.” Trump recently said of Baltimore youth: “They’re not going to be good in 10 years, in five years, in 20 years, in two years they’re going to be criminals. They were born to be criminals.”

Such words remind us that some officials see many Black and immigrant youth as criminals meant to be punished, not as children meant to be protected. The rhetoric and policies of the administration, including cuts to evidence-based programs that actually reduce violence, confirm that this administration does not care about the cost to the young people violently arrested and incarcerated, nor about the cost to society. Instead of approaching all children with care, the administration has waged war on immigrant and Black youth. And it is a war that benefits no one.

Subini Annamma is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. David Stovall is a professor of Black studies and criminology, law and justice. Both research the criminalization of students in schools and society.

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Last year, following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the city of Minneapolis was thrust into the national spotlight and became the epicenter of a broader conversation around racism, policing, and the injustices of the criminal justice system. 

But an ongoing story in the same community that didn’t make the headlines was allegations of discrimination against Native American girls in Hennepin County, which encompasses Minneapolis. From the school disciplinary system to the foster care system to the juvenile justice system, advocates allege widespread inequities, which have serious consequences for the Native American girls who find themselves navigating these three interconnected systems.  

“When you’re defending even just an individual youth, you’re pushing against these really intensive pressures and really problematic frameworks that criminalize Native American kids,” said Sarah Davis, executive director of the Legal Rights Center, a legal services nonprofit based in Minneapolis. “And I’ve seen it play out really significantly with Native American girls in particular.” 

Although county and gender-specific data are hard to come by, the data on out-of-home placement rates paint a picture of what Native girls in the county are experiencing once they’ve entered the juvenile detention system. Native American youth in Hennepin County are significantly less likely than white youth to be released home after spending time in a juvenile detention center, according to Hennepin County’s 2018 Admissions to Juvenile Detention report. And statewide, Native American youth in Minnesota experience the “highest out-of-home placement rates in the entire nation,” according to the 2019 Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee’s annual report. 

The disparities in the treatment of Native American youth and girls don’t just begin once they’ve entered the juvenile detention system. Statewide, Native girls are also more likely to be sent to the office than any other racial group and 13 times more likely than white girls to receive out-of-school suspension, according to a 2020 Status of Women and Girls in Minnesota report. 

Many of these trends continue into adulthood. Even though less than 2% of Minnesotan women identify as Native American, Native women account for roughly 6% of all police stops, according to the same 2020 report. And nearly 15% of Native women in Minnesota have been sentenced to prison, higher than any other racial group.

These inequities also extend into the foster care system. Only 1.1% of people living in Hennepin County identify as Native American, according to the 2019 U.S. Census. However, roughly 17% of children in foster care in Hennepin County identify as American Indian or Native American, according to Hennepin County Foster Care and Adoption.

The disparities facing Native girls in Hennepin County, Minnesota, are extreme, but they speak to a greater national problem. Nationally, Native girls are more than four times as likely to be incarcerated as white girls, according to the Youth Justice Initiative, higher than any other racial group. This national data showcases that the story we uncover in Hennepin will likely have implications far beyond the county’s borders. 

In a three-part series for the Fuller Project, I intend to combine my expertise on race and gender-based reporting with a local newsroom’s on-the-ground-expertise and community knowledge to illustrate how and why Native American girls face disparities in Hennepin County. This story, supported by the 2021 National Fellowship, will examine discipline in Hennepin County schools, foster care placement, and how Native girls enter and are treated in the county’s juvenile detention system.

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On June 4, 2020, a concerned resident emailed the city of Norco mayor and fellow council members asking for a statement supporting racial equality AND for the city to release an action plan that ensures ALL of its citizens are treated fairly and justly by the city and its contracted police department, the Riverside County Sheriff.

In turn, Council Member Ted Hoffman responded to his constituent’s email by:

1. Refusing to acknowledge or support the Black Lives Matter movement;

2. Stating his constituent “to be hypocritical” for suggesting that Black lives matter

3. Personally attesting that all instances of racial bias in the Riverside Sheriff’s Department are “weeded out” without giving any actual proof of this

4. Manipulating various statistics on Black-on-Black crime, to defend his conclusion that systemic racism and police bias are not a significant problem for the Black community

5. Stating that the disproportionate number of Black citizens within the criminal justice system is the result of a large number of Black single mothers

As a result, we are calling on Mayor Hanna and all of Norco’s Council Members to:

1. Issue an apology to the Black community in Norco and the entire black community of the Inland Empire;

2. Demonstrate support of the Black community through an action plan that is developed with local Black leaders that addresses systemic racism and includes action items that will also be taken by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department;

3. Require racial bias training for ALL City of Norco employees and elected officials;

4. Hold a city-sponsored listening session where city employees and elected officials allow community members to share their experiences and highlight the issues important to them, with an emphasis on Black community members.

The email sent by Council Member Hoffman is a prime example of the racial bias and ignorance that plagues our communities and must be rooted out.

Norco Resident’s Original Email:

Dear Council Member Hoffman,

I am writing regarding our contracted Police Force, the Riverside County Sheriff’s as a concerned constituent and resident of your city, Norco. As such, I am asking for you, as an elected official, whose duty is to hold accountable those in your city, including police officers, to the standards of life, liberty and justice that our constitution requires and guarantees to all, regardless of their skin color. As such, I am asking that in light of the numerous injustices that are happening at the hands of police across our country, and disproportionately to communities of color, especially to black citizens, that you do the following:

Publicly release a statement in which you acknowledge and support Black Lives Matter AND Release an action plan that has been formed with local black leaders that your city AND the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will take to ensure that ALL citizens are treated equally under the law and by your city’s police department. As part of your plan I am asking that you use research and best practices and the Police Use of Force Project—a numbers-driven examination of the violent tactics that police departments in America’s 100 largest cities are currently using. I ask that you and your police department establish eight reforms of when and how force is used. These eight practices, when used in police departments across the country, show a significant drop in killings—as much as 72% if all eight are followed. The policies are as follows:

• Ban chokeholds and strangleholds

• Require de-escalation

• Require warning before shooting

• Exhaust all other means before shooting

• Duty to intervene and stop excessive force by other officers

• Ban shooting at moving vehicles

• Require use-of-force continuum

• Require comprehensive reporting each time an officer uses forces or threatens to do so

This is not the time to stay silent, nor to be afraid of those who would look to diminish the necessity of these reforms. Instead it is a time where each of us must examine our very character and moral fortitude and take action, even if, AND especially if, we are afraid to. Lives literally depend on your action. I look forward to hearing how your city and your police department will be working to end and prevent police brutality, bias and abuse of power in my neighborhood.

Reply from Norco Council Member Ted Hoffman:

Thank-you for your letter and concerns.

I want to address your comments concerning the issues you have listed, but prior to that let me explain these are my views and not the City’s.

To understand my position on the issues, you must understand my background. I grew up in a Christian home and received my primary education at a Christian School, where tolerance and equal treatment of everyone was taught and practiced. My classmates were made up of several ethnic backgrounds, races and religious denominations. I learned at very young age that “all lives matter”.

I served in the US Army during the Vietnam War with men and women of all races, religious beliefs, ethnic backgrounds, various educational levels and with various social economic backgrounds. But none of that matter, because during life-threatening situations you rely on your fellow soldiers to work as a team to accomplish your objective and stay alive. So again “all lives matter”.

I am a retired law enforcement officer, having served 26 years as a full time deputy sheriff and 3 years a reserve deputy sheriff with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. During my tenure with the Sheriff’s Department, I worked in various divisions, to include Corrections, Patrol, Narcotics, Homicide and Administration. I retired as a Sergeant with the Department, which gave me the opportunity to supervise and evaluate personnel, their actions and investigate complaints. Like any large organizations, the Sheriff’s Department is made up of “people”, not machines, not robots, but human beings with various backgrounds and life-styles. The one thing that melts law enforcement together is working as a team to achieve the goal of protecting the lives and property of their citizens, bring law breakers to justice and “go home” each night to their families. To each of us that have served and those that are serving “all lives matter”.

As a member of the Norco community since I was five years old, I have seen our City change and grow. During those 68 years, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has always been the local law enforcement agency for our area. In 1964, when the City incorporated, we, as city were the first to contract with the County Sheriff to provide law enforcement service to its residents. For over fifty years, the Riverside Sheriff’s Department has provided professional law enforcement service to the City of Norco. The Sheriff’s Department has maintained a high standard of professionalism towards our residents. Their policies and procedures manuals, either meet or exceed the state standards governed by the California’s Peace Officer Standard Training requirements. The deputies must complete 954 hours of Academy Training plus an additional 160 to 200 hours of a Field Training Program prior to being allowed to work the streets by them themselves. In Riverside County the Employee Probation Period for a Deputy Sheriff is 18-months, so if there is an issue in the quality of work or the employee’s integrity they can be subject to termination. The Sheriff’s Department continually monitors its deputies’ use of force. The policies and procedure manuals are updated as needed to insure compliance with state and federal laws. The Sheriff Department maintains a cadre of Administrators, Instructors and Legal Analysts that review their “Use of Force” procedures and any complaints initiate a internal review of the deputy(ies) actions. I can attest, that the misuse of force or the improper use of force is not tolerated in the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

In a related matter, Sheriff’s Department personnel receive training and instruction in Race Relationship and Tolerance. I can attest, Racial Bias is not tolerated in the Riverside Sheriff’s Department and deputies that exhibit bias or intolerance are “weeded out” of the ranks. If you were to look at the racial makeup of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department you will find it has a very diverse ethnic makeup, that reflects the County. As I told you in my background, I worked as a narcotics officers, during that time, I observed and arrested several black men and women who sold cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs to young black, Hispanic and white men and women, who were in their teens or early twenties. It was not unusual to find these young black, Hispanic and white people dead or in various stages of comatose due to the overdosing on these illegal drugs. Or find them being involved in criminal activity to feed their drug addition. These drug dealers targeted their own race of young people to “hook” them on these narcotics. Where is the justice for these victims of the predator drug dealers? Again “all lives matter”.

As a Homicide investigator, assigned to a Serial Killer taskforce, I assisted in the investigation of the deaths of 20 women of various ethnic and social backgrounds, their race did not make a difference in our teams quest to find the suspect who was responsible for their demise. Our diligence and search for justice for all of these victims, resulted in the conviction of the man responsible, he is currently on Death Roll. Again “all lives matter”. In your comments, you requested that we as a City Council, acknowledge “Black Lives Matter” yet I find this rhetoric by you to be hypocritical, as this past week a black Department of Homeland Security Officer Dave Underwood, was gunned down in Oakland by rioters in the ta City. Where is the justice for him? Also, in Saint Louis, retired Police Captain David Dorn, who was a 77 year-old black man, was gunned down by looters and left to die on the sidewalk as his death was shown on a video and no one helped him. Where is the justice for him?

Again, I say to you “all lives matter”.

Let me share with some interesting facts, that you will not get from the mainstream media or one of the left-wing media outlets.

7 Statistics You Need To Know About Black-On-Black Crime from a 2016 report

1. Data shows that 93 percent of black homicide victims are killed by other blacks. The left’s rebuttal is that that 84 percent of white homicide victims are killed by other whites, but The Wall Street Journal‘s Jason Riley points out that the white crime rate is “much lower than the black rate.”

2. According to Riley, “Blacks commit violent crimes at 7 to 10 times the rate that whites do.” Blacks committed 52 percent of homicides between 1980 and 2008, despite composing just 13 percent of the population. Across the same time frame, whites committed 45 percent of homicides while composing 77% of the population, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Here are some more statistics from the FBI: In 2013, the FBI has black criminals carrying out 38 per cent of murders, compared to 31.1 per cent for whites. The offender’s race was “unknown” in 29.1 per cent of cases. What about violent crime more generally? FBI arrest rates are one way into this. Over the last three years of data – 2011 to 2013 – 38.5 per cent of people arrested for murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault were black.

3. Black crime is even more prevalent in the country’s largest cities and counties. Heather Mac Donald writes in her book The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe that in Chicago, IL, blacks committed 76 percent of all homicides, despite composing 35 percent of the city’s population. Blacks also accounted for 78 percent of all juvenile arrests. Whites, who compose 28 percent of the city’s population, committed 4 percent of its homicides and 3.5 percent of its juvenile arrests. Hispanics, who compose 30 percent of the city’s population, committed 19 percent of its homicides and 18 percent of its juvenile arrests. (Another eye-opening fact from Mac Donald’s research is that only 26 percent of murder cases were solved in Chicago.) Blacks are 10 percent of the population in Los Angeles, CA, but commit 42 percent of its robberies and 34 percent of its felonies. Whites make up 29 percent of the city’s population, and commit 5 percent of its robberies and 13 percent of its felonies. In New York City, blacks committed “75 percent of all shootings, 70 percent of all robberies, and 66 percent of all violent crime,” despite only composing 23 percent of the population, said Mac Donald in a Hillsdale speech. Additionally, 2009 Bureau of Justice Statistics numbers show that in 2009, “blacks were charged with 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties in the country, despite only comprising roughly 15 percent of the population in these counties.”

4. There were almost 6,000 blacks killed by other blacks in 2015. By contrast, only 258 blacks were killed by police gunfire that year.

5. The percentage of blacks arrested for crimes is consistent with police reports. This is according to the National Crime Victimization Survey, as well as this 1985 study: “Even allowing for the existence of discrimination in the criminal justice system, the higher rates of crime among black Americans cannot be denied,” wrote James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein in their classic 1985 study, “Crime and Human Nature.” “Every study of crime using official data shows blacks to be overrepresented among persons arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for street crimes.” This was true decades before the authors put it to paper, and it remains the case decades later. “The overrepresentation of blacks among arrested persons persists throughout the criminal justice system,” wrote Wilson and Herrnstein. “Though prosecutors and judges may well make discriminatory judgments, such decisions do not account for more than a small fraction of the overrepresentation of blacks in prison.” This data disproves the notion that racism is what drives higher rates of arrests among the blacks than among whites or broader America.

6. According to Riley, “Black crime rates were lower in the 1940s and 1950s, when black poverty was higher” and “racial discrimination was rampant and legal.” If it’s not racism and poverty that are blame for the high black crime rate, then what is?

7. According to Mac Donald, “A straight line can be drawn between family breakdown and youth violence.” As economist Thomas Sowell points out, before the 1960s “most black children were raised in two-parent families.” In 2013, over 72 percent of blacks were born out of wedlock. In Cook County –which Chicago belongs to – 79 percent of blacks were born to single mothers in 2003, while only 15 percent of whites were born to single mothers. “Until that gap closes, the crime gap won’t close, either,” writes Mac Donald. After reading these statistics, I hope you can understand that there needs to be change, but the change in attitude needs to be self-reflecting. The family unit is a powerful source of unity to foster respect for each other, no matter what race or religion your are. If you want to target, the issue then focus your energy on the actual source, not what a bias media tell you.

So no, I can not support your request, because to me “All Lives Matter”.

Ted Hoffman

Councilman, City of Norco

Katherine Aleman needs your help with this petition.

Please show your support by going to the following link: http://chng.it/x9QVJzqX

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