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Mayor Phil Gordon Discredits Report on Police Shootings in Phoenix
By Eduardo Barraza November 15, 2007
Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues in Phoenix, Arizona
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Eduardo Barraza is a journalist and writer,
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
|
Phoenix, Arizona. It just took a few hours after Barriozona released
a story about a national investigation that points out that Latinos in
Phoenix are more likely than Latinos in other major cities to be shot
and killed by a police officer, for City of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon to
be on TV news calling the story “a shameful piece of rag.”
Apparently, Barriozona's own story about the ColorLines report set
into motion the Mayor’s public information office, which surely after
assessing the caliber of what was published by the magazine, set off
to read the report and find elements to rapidly discredit it.
Instead of challenging the report by using City’s data, Gordon
preferred to discredit the report by also calling it “a shameful piece of
literature.” Some of the Mayor’s statements to 12 News reporter
Melissa Blasius were incredibly politically incorrect. Instead of citing
City’s data on police shootings, Gordon referred to the cities of Miami
and Detroit as a point of comparison with Phoenix, implicitly stating
Phoenix residents should feel safer. He also said individuals who
have been shot and killed by officers “deserved it.”
Barriozona contacted ColorLines’ staff on Thursday, November 15,
2007 to obtain their opinion on the Mayor’s comments. Alfredo
DeAvila, Senior Program Associate for the Applied Research Center —
publishers of ColorLines— spoke to us over the phone from Oakland
California. DeAvila acknowledged he had watched the 12 News
video, and cracked up when we asked what he thought about
Gordon’s statements.
“Mayor Gordon’s words were very interesting to us. He was thinking
that we did not take into consideration national information from the
FBI. In all this national investigation that we’ve done, we found out
that the FBI’s information is information and data that the City itself
submits to them,” said DeAvila. “So when we made the investigation,
we looked at newspapers, information that is reported in the news.
We went ahead and looked at different types of information. What
we have found out is that almost everywhere, the FBI’s information
is not accurate; it is lacking a lot of data that has been simply
reported in the news.”
DeAvila emphasized the big discrepancy between what the FBI has
and the information ColorLines obtained in its investigation. “We feel
it is the City’s obligation, not the FBI’s, to collect all the data. But the
City is the one that submits the data to them. They themselves are
the ones who are reporting their own information. And if the City
itself is being negligent with its own reports, additional data is going
to be available anyway. But for the Mayor to say that, because we
are a small magazine, our story is not valid, that’s something a little
ridiculous.”
The Applied Research Center (ARC) is a respected institution that has
been conducting research, advocacy and journalism for the past 25
years. ARC has offices in Oakland, Chicago and New York. The center
has been publishing ColorLines for the past 9 years. Since then it
has become a leading national magazine specializing in multi-racial
issues.
“As an institution, we have conducted much more complicated
investigations than this,” said DeAvila. “We were not aware that
Phoenix would come up high in the numbers of Latinos being killed
by Police. The main reason we did this investigation was because we
wanted to analyze police shootings in cities with more than 200
thousand people as our departure point. Our investigation emerged
pointing to Phoenix as one of the cities with the highest percentages
of Latinos being killed by Police.”
DeAvila, a former United Farm Worker organizer, stated that the data
collected wasn’t very surprising. “If you ask me if I am surprised by
this data, I’d tell you that it is hard to be surprised when you take
into consideration everything that’s going on in regards to all the
attacks against immigrants in Phoenix. We have seen in recent years
how the Minuteman, the Border Patrol, and politicians have come up
with irrational and even racists measures, blaming the
undocumented for everything that is happening in Arizona. That
creates the types of attitudes in society that you see in Arizona. In
fact, we are surprised that there is not more violence involving the
police and the community.”
DeAvila pointed out that nationally, police departments have
followed a policy that allows the use of any necessary force to
protect the officer’s life. “But most of the time,” —says DeAvila— the
excuses that police officers offer don’t sound credible or valid.”
DeAvila lamented that police departments conduct their own internal
investigations, thus giving the impression that they are in the best
interest of the community, when in reality “they are in the interest of
covering their own butts to avoid more lawsuits.”
DeAvila said his magazine hasn’t been contacted by the Mayor’s
office, but wants to thank Mayor Gordon for all the publicity that he
has generated for ColorLines. “He thinks we will sell more
magazines,” said DeAvila. “Reality is that we don’t sell as many
magazines as people visiting our web site. What the mayor has
caused is that more people will read our report, and more people will
find out what the heck’s going on in America.”
a story about a national investigation that points out that Latinos in
Phoenix are more likely than Latinos in other major cities to be shot
and killed by a police officer, for City of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon to
be on TV news calling the story “a shameful piece of rag.”
Apparently, Barriozona's own story about the ColorLines report set
into motion the Mayor’s public information office, which surely after
assessing the caliber of what was published by the magazine, set off
to read the report and find elements to rapidly discredit it.
Instead of challenging the report by using City’s data, Gordon
preferred to discredit the report by also calling it “a shameful piece of
literature.” Some of the Mayor’s statements to 12 News reporter
Melissa Blasius were incredibly politically incorrect. Instead of citing
City’s data on police shootings, Gordon referred to the cities of Miami
and Detroit as a point of comparison with Phoenix, implicitly stating
Phoenix residents should feel safer. He also said individuals who
have been shot and killed by officers “deserved it.”
Barriozona contacted ColorLines’ staff on Thursday, November 15,
2007 to obtain their opinion on the Mayor’s comments. Alfredo
DeAvila, Senior Program Associate for the Applied Research Center —
publishers of ColorLines— spoke to us over the phone from Oakland
California. DeAvila acknowledged he had watched the 12 News
video, and cracked up when we asked what he thought about
Gordon’s statements.
“Mayor Gordon’s words were very interesting to us. He was thinking
that we did not take into consideration national information from the
FBI. In all this national investigation that we’ve done, we found out
that the FBI’s information is information and data that the City itself
submits to them,” said DeAvila. “So when we made the investigation,
we looked at newspapers, information that is reported in the news.
We went ahead and looked at different types of information. What
we have found out is that almost everywhere, the FBI’s information
is not accurate; it is lacking a lot of data that has been simply
reported in the news.”
DeAvila emphasized the big discrepancy between what the FBI has
and the information ColorLines obtained in its investigation. “We feel
it is the City’s obligation, not the FBI’s, to collect all the data. But the
City is the one that submits the data to them. They themselves are
the ones who are reporting their own information. And if the City
itself is being negligent with its own reports, additional data is going
to be available anyway. But for the Mayor to say that, because we
are a small magazine, our story is not valid, that’s something a little
ridiculous.”
The Applied Research Center (ARC) is a respected institution that has
been conducting research, advocacy and journalism for the past 25
years. ARC has offices in Oakland, Chicago and New York. The center
has been publishing ColorLines for the past 9 years. Since then it
has become a leading national magazine specializing in multi-racial
issues.
“As an institution, we have conducted much more complicated
investigations than this,” said DeAvila. “We were not aware that
Phoenix would come up high in the numbers of Latinos being killed
by Police. The main reason we did this investigation was because we
wanted to analyze police shootings in cities with more than 200
thousand people as our departure point. Our investigation emerged
pointing to Phoenix as one of the cities with the highest percentages
of Latinos being killed by Police.”
DeAvila, a former United Farm Worker organizer, stated that the data
collected wasn’t very surprising. “If you ask me if I am surprised by
this data, I’d tell you that it is hard to be surprised when you take
into consideration everything that’s going on in regards to all the
attacks against immigrants in Phoenix. We have seen in recent years
how the Minuteman, the Border Patrol, and politicians have come up
with irrational and even racists measures, blaming the
undocumented for everything that is happening in Arizona. That
creates the types of attitudes in society that you see in Arizona. In
fact, we are surprised that there is not more violence involving the
police and the community.”
DeAvila pointed out that nationally, police departments have
followed a policy that allows the use of any necessary force to
protect the officer’s life. “But most of the time,” —says DeAvila— the
excuses that police officers offer don’t sound credible or valid.”
DeAvila lamented that police departments conduct their own internal
investigations, thus giving the impression that they are in the best
interest of the community, when in reality “they are in the interest of
covering their own butts to avoid more lawsuits.”
DeAvila said his magazine hasn’t been contacted by the Mayor’s
office, but wants to thank Mayor Gordon for all the publicity that he
has generated for ColorLines. “He thinks we will sell more
magazines,” said DeAvila. “Reality is that we don’t sell as many
magazines as people visiting our web site. What the mayor has
caused is that more people will read our report, and more people will
find out what the heck’s going on in America.”
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called
the ColorLines Magazine story
titled Killed by the Cops "a
shameful piece of rag". The cover
of the Nov-Dec 2007 Edition of
ColorLines.
Photo by Eduardo Barraza | Barriozona
the ColorLines Magazine story
titled Killed by the Cops "a
shameful piece of rag". The cover
of the Nov-Dec 2007 Edition of
ColorLines.
Photo by Eduardo Barraza | Barriozona
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