In September, Efraín was assaulted on the street by a group of kids, no more than ten or twelve years old. He says he saw their faces clearly. He was walking home from work on a warm Sunday afternoon; there were lots of people milling around. Three boys and a girl approached and taunted him, asking, in English, “Is your name Jack?” He answered “No,” and they beat him on the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. When a neighbor shouted at the kids, they ran. He did too. He did not go to the police; he says he’s afraid of the police.
But in the following days, his head really hurt. Efraín had attended a workshop on immigrant workers’ rights given by Jennifer Velarde, a bilingual attorney in New Bedford who has made it her practice to help immigrants. He went to see her, told her about what happened. She told him he must file a police report.
Together, Efraín and Velarde went to the station nearest where the attack had happened, in the south end of the city. Velarde communicated with the English-speaking police officer, who questioned why he hadn’t reported the crime immediately. She tried to explain about his fear, and insisted that a report be completed. She then asked for a copy of the report, and was told that she had to request it the following day at police headquarters, on Rockdale Avenue.
The following day, she and Efraín went to Rockdale Avenue, only to be told that they had to go to District Court for a copy of the report. They went to the courthouse, where they were showed the report, but were told that without the name of a defendant in the case they could not have a copy. “I was in shock,” Velarde says. (In a separate interview with the police chief, David Provencher, he has insisted that one only need the name of a victim to obtain a copy of a police report, and that this can be done in the records department on Rockdale Ave. But this was not Velarde’s experience. She still does not have the report.)
In the course of all this Efraín told Velarde about other assaults he’d suffered: On July 1st of this year he entered his apartment where two men were waiting for him. They dragged him in, punched him, and locked the door. They pressed two pistols to his head and asked him for money. He directed them to the living room, where he had placed $150 in cash on the table (he had paid the rent earlier that day). The robbers took the cash and tried to get into his brothers’ rooms, but they were padlocked. Before they left they punched him in the chest and, in Spanish, told him that they often saw him out walking, and if he called the police they would kill him. Plus, they reminded him that he was an immigrant and the police could deport him. They were wearing black and white Halloween masks, so Efraín didn’t see their faces.
The following day, Efraín came home from work and his apartment door had been broken in and the rooms ransacked again. This time the robbers stole two watches, two video cameras, and some change. But luckily there was no one at home. Because the door was broken, he called the police and made a report.
Then just weeks ago, in October, Efraín was in the north end of the city on a Friday, around 7:30 p.m., headed to meet his brother when he got out of work. In the darkness, three men approached him from behind and surrounded him. With their faces obscured by bandanas and their heads covered by hoods, two of the men held knives to his neck, while the third patted him down, looking for money. One of the men with a knife told him, in English, that if he moved he would kill him.
The men took $100 in cash he had in his pocket, then hit him in the back of the head. He fell and his face hit the sidewalk, and the men ran off. Efraín had stashed his phone in his underwear when he realized he was under attack, and was able to call some friends, but no one answered. Finally he met someone he knew on the street, who gave him a ride to the police station, and this time he made a report. The police asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital. He said “No,” this time because he was afraid he wouldn’t have the money to pay for a doctor.
By Monday he was still in pain, and Velarde again insisted that he seek help. He went to St. Luke’s Hospital and was treated for “physical assault, head injury, facial contusion, concussion.” He has received two bills: one for $250 from radiology, the other for $511 for an office visit. At his job, where he cleaning and processes crabs, he earns approximately $250 for a full week’s work. He is still paying off his medical bills.