On a Thursday in November of 2013, every Latino man who drove away from a shared apartment above a small auto repair shop had failed to return – arrested, one by one, by ICE agents and local police. William Lopez writes a narrative of that day, addressing modern implications of police brutality and psychological trauma in mix-status communities. As one Latina remembers, “the soldiers came into the house. They knocked down doors. They threw gas. They had guns. We were two women with small children…The kids terrified, the kids screaming.” (taken from description of Separated)
Lopez also creates a correlation between the police brutality of African-Americans to the brutality of the home raids on potential “undocumented immigrants”. Lopez also ask white Americans and police officers to “reflect on their casual acceptance of extreme violence meted out on Black and brown community members.” (Lopez, Loc 2775)
