“Everybody knew the McAllen police were a bunch of tough hombres, especially the Boys on C shift,” reported the Dallas Morning News on March 29, 1981. “Working the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift along the border is like being at war, the cops said. You have to be tough. The Boys on C shift worked at being tough.” Many of the “Boys” wore black T-shirts with gold letters bearing “the legend, ‘C Shift Animals.’ They even had their own slogan: ‘Kick...and Ask Questions Later.’ ” Only days earlier, the public had become aware of their misdeeds, revealed in six years of booking room videos recorded by the McAllen Police Department (MPD) and subpoenaed by a civil rights attorney. On these videos Anglo and Mexican American officers alike confirmed suspicions that they had beaten, kicked, and abused prisoners—in virtually all cases, working-class Mexican Americans.1 Station KGBT in nearby Harlingen played television footage of the beatings, bringing a flood of outrage. “One woman, like many of the callers, was almost in tears when she thanked us over and over again for showing such terrible things going on,” noted a representative of the station. “She said as soon as she got through talking to us, she was going to call the McAllen police to demand an answer [as to] why those things had happened.”2 She was not alone. “The police switchboard was lit up for hours after the tapes were shown on TV,” declared James C. Harrington, the attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which had secured the videos and released them to the media.3 As investigators probed the scandal, some pointed to the mayor—already locked in a heated, racially tinged political race with Ramiro Casso, a Mexican American challenger—as an enabler. On May 3 the News reported that “the federal grand jury investigation of accusations of

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“一群强硬的人”：南德克萨斯州的警察暴行、市政政治和种族主义

1981 年 3 月 29 日，《达拉斯晨报》报道说：“每个人都知道麦卡伦警察是一群强硬的家伙，尤其是 C 班的男孩。” “在边境工作从午夜到早上 8 点的班次就像在打仗一样，警察说。你必须坚强。C 班的男孩们努力变得坚强。” 许多“男孩”穿着带有金色字母的黑色 T 恤，上面印有“传说，'C Shift Animals'”。他们甚至有自己的口号：“踢……然后再提问。” 就在几天前，公众才意识到他们的不端行为，在麦卡伦警察局​​ (MPD) 录制并被民权律师传唤的六年预订房间视频中被揭露。在这些视频中，盎格鲁和墨西哥裔美国官员都证实了他们殴打、踢和虐待囚犯的怀疑——几乎在所有情况下，工薪阶层的墨西哥裔美国人。1 附近哈林根的 KGBT 电台播放了殴打的电视画面，引起了大量的愤怒。“一位女士，和许多来电者一样，当她一遍又一遍地感谢我们展示了如此可怕的事情时，她几乎流下了眼泪，”该电台的一位代表指出。“她说，一和我们谈话，她就会打电话给麦卡伦警方，要求他们回答[关于]为什么会发生这些事情。”2 她并不孤单。美国公民自由联盟 (ACLU) 的律师詹姆斯·C·哈灵顿 (James C. Harrington) 宣布：“在电视上播放录像带后，警察总机就亮了几个小时，”他已经保护了视频并将其发布给媒体。 3 正如调查人员调查了这起丑闻，有些人指着市长——已经被困在一个加热的、与墨西哥裔美国挑战者拉米罗·卡索 (Ramiro Casso) 作为推动者展开带有种族色彩的政治竞赛。5 月 3 日新闻报道称，“联邦大陪审团对