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A Warwick civil rights lawyer has written a letter to Providence officials complaining of a continuing pattern of constitutional violations by police officers who allegedly detain and arrest individuals for essentially doing nothing more than “Walking While Black.”
“There is a detailed and growing record establishing that the City has utterly insufficient procedures for review of arrests and no procedures whatsoever for reviewing the resulting charges for probable cause,” wrote Richard A. Sinapi in a June 27 letter to Mayor Brett Smiley, Council President Rachel Miller and Police of Chief Oscar Perez. “Combined with historic and continued racial disparities in arrests, this entrenched custom has alarming results for the constitutional rights of its residents, workforce, and visitors.”
According to Sinapi, in June 2023 he made a similar complaint to city officials concerning the arrest of one of his clients, Jesus Ramos, on misdemeanor charges on Feb.15, 2023.
Police arrested Ramirez a second time on Feb. 16, 2024, charging him with disorderly conduct, obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest. Those charges were later dismissed.
According to Sinapi, the arrests of Ramos were the result of a police department “standard operating procedure” that was in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.
“[T]his firm’s client, Mr. Jesus Ramos, has now suffered through two Walking While Black incidents in his city exactly 364 days apart,” Sinapi wrote. “In each instance, video and testimonial evidence proves that Mr. Ramos was doing nothing other than walking down the street, minding his own business, and being Black. And in each instance, Providence police patrol officers with full participation of and endorsement by their sergeants accosted Mr. Ramos, detained him without any reasonable suspicion that he had committed or was about to commit a crime, and immediately arrested him.”
Sinapi wrote that his firm has represented other clients like Ramos who have been detained and arrested as a result of the police department’s unconstitutional policies.
“Our firm’s experience with far too many similar cases is merely the tip of the iceberg; the lack of any checks and balances over police arrest and charging decisions is standard operating procedure for Providence police and the City’s law department,” wrote Sinapi. “This pattern of false arrest by officers is only made worse when prosecutors refuse to review the evidence to screen for probable cause until months into the prosecution, and only after the defense attorney insists (and even then, in Mr. Ramos’s case, refusing even after multiple requests from the defense attorney).”
In his letter, Sinapi offered to work with the city in order to implement needed reforms.
“Taking steps to screen criminal charging and prosecutions for probable cause is not complicated and ultimately will save considerable taxpayer resources,” Sinapi wrote. “Perhaps more significantly, should the City fail to fix this, the most tractable yet frequently occurring constitutional infirmity, such inaction would clearly constitute an endorsement or acquiescence by the City of this unconstitutional custom or practice by the City’s police and law departments, and as a consequence expose the City to significant financial liability.”