ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Fighting Fears

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the American Civil Liberties Union might not always bring a similar perspective to encounters between immigrants and police. The support both have expressed for a brochure recently produced by the county Human Relations Commission is testimony to the publication’s value to the community.

The theory--a sound one--is that simple tips, offered long before the heat of an incident, can go a long way toward improving overall relations between the community and law enforcement officers.

The commission has been working on the project for some time; the Rodney G. King beating case in Los Angeles affirmed the need to pay attention to the interaction between police and suspects.

Besides the obvious problem of language, there are cultural difficulties for immigrants who encounter police. Vietnamese immigrants, for example, tend to fear any authority figure with a gun, and the commission staff cites examples of people fleeing police even in instances in which they may well have been innocent. Because handcuffs are rarely used in Mexico, the sight of their being used in the United States may be alarming.

The pamphlet outlines police complaint procedures and offers guidelines on the rights of the person stopped by an officer.

The more the public knows in advance, the less likely an encounter will escalate into something unfortunate. It’s good that there are plans for wide distribution of the new brochure.