A Pattern or Practice In the City of Racine
Short summary
A pattern or practice of discrimination, means that there's a policy or a practice of discrimination or a pattern of discrimination. It is been conducted against a group of persons or an issue of general public importance.
In the past six years in the City of Racine 13 minority owned bars or nightclubs and 2 white owned bars with minority patrons have been closed while in contrast no white establishments have been affected.
This all started: With the documentary Pattern or Practice, the documentary was going to bring awareness to the fact that minority businesses were being close an alarming rate by the City of Racine.
What happened ? As the film crew interviewed each business owner and as we dove into the meeting minutes of the City of Racine. We saw a disturbing pattern of how targeted business owners, particularly Hispanic and Black owners were subject to different standards. As we interviewed persons affected by the policies instituted by the City of Racine, we discovered the systematic closing of minority businesses in particular areas.
Why? A "cleanup" effort by the City of Racine in three targeted areas, where the majority of these businesses were operating.
Came together : As we brought each business owner together they discovered that they were not alone in the way things were handled by the City of Racine in the closing of their business. Individuals started to step out and discuss the institutional racism that was happening in the City of Racine.
What we need: We need funds to stop the continue action of the City of Racine. We need funds to be used for pretrial investigations, open records requests, depositions, vandalism reports, police reports, subpoenas, specialists. None of the funding will go toward the documentary, Attorney fees, or anything not associated with bringing this case to court.
- Where's the NAACP?
- Where is the ACLU?
- Where's the Justice Department?
All three have been contacted. The NAACP has never gotten back to us. The ACLU said they were too busy. The Justice Department has been contacted "no response".
We decided to come to you.
What we will do for you: First and foremost is to keep you informed of what is happening. This is a very complicated case with a lot of twists and turns and heartache. We will post videos, comments, and anything pertinent that would be of interest to our supporters. And of course the cool perks, download of the documentary, T-shirts, movie posters etc. all items will be sent out at the close of our fundraising. The documentary Download or DVD will be released after the film Festival circuit is complete approximately January 2014 all other items will be sent on close of fundraising.
The pattern
Application process: Restrictions were placed upon minority businesses at a much higher standard, age, music, dress code, side agreements. Cost prohibitive requests were made of minority business owners. The application process for white establishments were considerably less.
Surveillance: The term used by the Racine Police Department is crime prevention. Surveillance vans, cameras, police cars with videos are parked outside of minority establishments waiting for an incident. Incidents are logged reported to the Public License and Safety Committee. This practice is not done to white owned establishments.
Called in:The minority owned establishments are called in at a much higher rate and for infractions that white owned establishments are not called in for.
Poor public image :Incidents are played out in public on minority bars and downplayed when white bars are involved.
Side agreement or due process:The minority business owner is threatened with closing of his/her business or accept a side agreement, understanding that the restrictions must be adhered to or he/she will lose their business.
Due process: After repeating the process the minority business owners now are voted to due process. The committee that conducts the hearing is the same members who voted to send the business owner to due process. There is no chance the minority owner can survive the hearing. Once the hearing is completed and the businesses is then recommended for revocation the same members are on Racine Common Council to judge the outcome. To date there have been 13 owned minority businesses and 2 white owned business with mostly minority clientele taken to due process hearings or forced into closing in the last six years, none have survived. In contrast no white bars have had their business closed by the City Of Racine.
Business closed:The Alderman, Mayor, Police Chief, and concerned citizens use the local media to praise the good work of all involved in ridding the city of troublesome bars/clubs and have made the city a better place to live.
FACEBOOK PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/PatternOrPractice
I hesitate to respond to these allegations but I will. During my tenure on the City Councils Licensing Committee, I called in both non minority and minority bars equally. Just ask the tavern league. I cautiously approved license applications-whether applicants were red, white, brown, purple or yellow. Ask Doug Nicholson if he had an easy go of it. in order to ensure a license, he put in a full kitchen. Unless someone was murdered, we attempted to work with license holders. if there were repeated problems some went to due process. Cackle Jacks was a bar that had severe problems. We went to due process and they negotiated a 90 day suspension. Since that time they have been relatively problem free. Poorly run establishments that attract clientele that cause major problem s are responsible. If you were to be objective, you'd look at both sides, including the decision making process. Nobody called me though....
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