RALEIGH – The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday filed a motion for summary judgment in its civil rights lawsuit against the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office (ASCO) in which it asks a federal court to rule quickly in order to stop “ACSO’s unlawful discrimination” against Latino residents.
The motion for summary judgment expounds on the Justice Department’s previous claims that ACSO, under the direction of Sheriff Terry Johnson, fosters a culture of anti-Latino bias among its deputies, including alleged use of racial slurs, disproportionate traffic stops and arrests, and examples including “an ACSO captain sending his subordinates a video game premised on shooting Mexican children, pregnant women, and other ‘wetbacks.’”
“The abhorrent and unconstitutional practices outlined in this motion should not be tolerated in our state and cannot be allowed to continue,” said Raul Pinto, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina (ACLU-NC) Legal Foundation. “After receiving similar complaints about the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office for years, we continue to urge Sheriff Johnson and his department to immediately cease their discriminatory practices and comply with the U.S. Justice Department’s requests at once. All residents of Alamance County deserve fair and equal treatment from their law enforcement officers.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in December 2012, charges that ACSO, under the direction of Sheriff Johnson, “intentionally discriminates against Latino persons in Alamance County by targeting Latinos for investigation, detention and arrest, and conducting unreasonable seizures and other unlawful law enforcement actions in violation f the United States Constitution and federal law.”