Whereas the league of United Latin American Citizens Long Beach Council 3112 is established to serve the needs of the citizens of Long Beach, especially citizens of Latin heritage and culture, and
Whereas Council 3112 has observed the Long Beach City Persecutor utilizing what amounts to racial profiling of Latino and Black youth with regard to their lifestyle choices such as dressing and congregating among themselves, and
Whereas, the Long Beach City Prosecutor has now embarked on the systematic reduction of mostly Latino and Black individuals in our city by sanctioning and encouraging Long Beach Police officers to detain them and to record their identity, and
Whereas, Latino and Black youth detained by police in the field are routinely taken to police stations and photographed, and
Whereas, after compelling the youth to have their picture taken Long Beach Police officers place their names on a nationally maintained gang list, and
Whereas, the names of the primarily Latino and Black youth are retained on this list for a lifetime, and their families are scandalized and their children are forced to abide by a so called gang injunction, and
Whereas, many times these youth have done nothing more than dress in a certain style nevertheless they are labeled as gang members or affiliates, and treated as if they are from gangs, and
Whereas, families have been unsuccessful in appealing to the police hierarchy to remove the names of their children from the list, even when proof of their accomplishments in their school is provided, and
Whereas, the constitutional right to counsel is routinely abridged in Los Angeles County by the denial of appropriate "ancillary services" to indigent criminal defendants, with a disproportionate effect on Spanish speaking defendants, and
Whereas, the deprivation of "ancillary services" includes the denial of decent pay and working conditions to court appointed private investigators, threats against the possibility that they might unionize in protest of those conditions, violations of IRS Publication 15a guidelines by intentionally mis-classifying court appointed investigators as independent contractors while subjecting them to employee rules and regulations, denying court appointed investigators and their clients the same access of databases used to locate witnesses as provided to police and public defender investigators, and the serious decline in numbers of bilingual, minority, and female court appointed investigators,
1. Therefore Be It Resolved that this 2006 Congreso convened in Los Angeles California recognizes the importance of fighting such tactics that utilize racial profiling and injures and causes harm to young Latino and Black youth based solely on the color of their skin and the manner of their dress, and
2. Further Be It Resolved that this body recognizes the sense of hopelessness and powerlessness that such treatment causes individuals and families who suffer such treatment and breach of the law at the hands of law enforcement officers, and votes to condemn such a policy, and
3. Therefore be it resolved that the California legislature and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors should immediately remove the power of Los Angeles County Judges to set wages, working conditions, and panel admission decisions for court appointed investigators in recognition of the California Constitutional separation of powers clause and acknowledge the right of existing court panel members to organize and bargain collectively if they so choose, and
4 Be it further resolved that all Defendants should have access through their lawyers and investigators to the same databases that are available to public defender investigators to insure equal protection and due process of law.
