Houston Police Chief Warns That Deportation Fear Is Empowering Rapists
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has joined a growing chorus of voices warning that the Trump administration’s harsh immigration tactics are silencing victims of rape and other violent crimes.
On Wednesday, Acevedo announced that the city’s police department has found that the number of Latinx reporting rape decreased by nearly 43% from January to March this year, compared to the same three months last year, the Houston Chronicle reported.Other violent crimes saw a 13% decrease during the same period.
At a news conference discussing the findings, Acevedo said, “When you see this type of data, and what looks like the beginnings of people not reporting crime, we should all be concerned. A person that rapes or violently attacks or robs an undocumented immigrant is somebody that is going to harm a natural born citizen or lawful resident,” the newspaper noted.
Meanwhile, the same internal police study found increases of more than 8% of non-Latinx victims reporting rape, and nearly 12% reporting other violent crimes.
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