Translates to NYPD injustice: immig advocates
The NYPD cheats New Yorkers out of justice every day by denying interpretive services to people who speak other languages, an immigrants-rights group said Monday.
Whether they are victims of crimes or people accused of crimes, immigrants who deal with the police are often at a disadvantage because cops don't go out of their way to translate what they say, the advocates said.
“Our organizers have been on the ground in precincts interpreting and translating for members of the community,” said Cristobal Gutierrez, an employment lawyer with Make the Road New York, an immigrants rights group.
But the services should already be in place, activists said. “They shouldn't have to come to us to find an organizer … these are the resources the city should be utilizing,” said Bianey Garcia, who organizes the group's Trans Immigrant Project.
“These are the resources the city should be utilizing.”
Last year, three of the group's members, Victor Sanchez, Aura Cruz, and Iris Vega, filed a complaint with the city Human Rights commissioner claiming that the city for failed to provide adequate interpretation services to immigrants.
Make the Road said Monday that it was joining that complaint to add weight to the issue.
“The police have said this is not a systematic problem — we know as an organization that it is ... they're saying it's just restricted to our three complainants," Gutierrez said.
The NYPD employs qualified interpreters who can be can be utilized to translate non-English speakers, but Gutierrez said that this service is rarely utilized.
Cruz, who used to work at Live Poultry in Flushing, Queens, said she lost her job after rejecting advances by a co-worker who had been sexually harassing her. The coworker called the police and told them she had been threatening him.
“I could not defend myself because the officers did not speak Spanish, even when I specifically told them if they could call someone who could translate by phone,” she said. “I was taken to jail.”
Sanchez, who is a member of the organization's Trans Immigrant Project, or TRIP, was violently attacked in January 2017 by his roommate. When he tried to make a report at the 110th Precinct in Corona, Queens, he said he was denied because he did not speak English.
“I left, after trying to leave my version of the attack many times, feeling hopeless, to return to the room I shared with my attacker,” said Sanchez.
An NYPD spokeswoman said each officer is equipped with a department cell phone which can be used to contact an interpreter. “The NYPD is committed to providing police services no matter what language an individual speaks,” the spokeswoman said.