What is a "Gy*sy Police Task Force?"
I've received a few questions about this since I posted a link to (and some quotes from) Jessica Reidy's article, "As a Romani witch, I can't stand WandaVision."
A "Gypsy police task force" is exactly what it sounds like: a special division of a local police force dedicated to addressing "gypsy crime." These task forces are trained to treat all Romani like potential criminals.
The reporting on these task forces tends to agree with that assessment, and persists in using the g-slur even while acknowledging it is inappropriate. Watch for when they use racist language outside actual quotations. For example:
This case is a hallmark gypsy scam, Lanier said[...] Lanier has investigated gypsy crimes in South Florida for more than a decade[...] In Broward County, the most common gypsy crimes these days are the home-invasion distractions, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office and Fort Lauderdale police. (South Florida SunSentinel, July 2011)
The article refers to "gypsy crime" over and over again, as if these types of crime were invented by Romani. As if Romani are the only perpetrators of scams or petty theft. As if a father and son carrying out a car repair scam together constitute a "gypsy crime family."
"But the article is from 2011! That's a decade ago! Surely, the police aren't still doing this?"
In 2018, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office hosted a training session called "The Perfect Victim: Criminal Gypsies/Travelers and the Elderly."
Classes like this are common around the country. Here's the flyer for this 2-day course:
This is actually an improvement on former training sessions, which did not bother to mention that many itinerant people call themselves "gypsies" when they have no relation to Romani or Irish Travellers. The disclaimer in the box at the top was only added after a number of newspapers reported on classes like this in 2016. Make no mistake though--they're still targeting Romani and Traveller people specifically.
And, of course, this was only the easiest verified training session to find online. This group is still giving these classes all over the country, even though they don't list them on their website. They aren't the only ones.
The conflation of societal "norms" with the law.
"There are five major clans in America, not just one." (This can only be referring to Romani or Traveller families.)
"Identification of the groups."
Fortune telling included as a potential crime.
They've made a "database of 4000 suspects."
For comparison's sake, check out the flyer for a 2015 session with the same company on the same topic (but taught to police officers in Bozeman, Montana):
Police forces continue to train this way... they just do it much more quietly. Fewer and fewer local forces are willing to broadcast this kind of thing. Still, I suppose I should consider this a "win?"
Maybe I could feel some relief, if there were no police officers left in the country who ever attended these training sessions. But let's be real. Every officer in a command position, nationwide, has been around long enough to have taken these classes before 2016. Or one of the hundreds of classes just like it.
People who work on these task forces are different from "Gypsy cops," which is term police all over the country use to refer to "a police officer who frequently transfers between police departments, having a record of misconduct or unsuitable job performance." Obviously the use of the term "Gypsy" to mean someone who can't hold down a job, and/or someone who has a history of misconduct and violence... that's racist. Very, very racist.
Let me tell you a story from my own life about "gypsy crime."
When my younger brother was in high school, he participated in a senior prank that involved trespassing on school grounds over the weekend.
For non-Americans, a "senior prank" is a common tradition wherein the graduating class at a high school orchestrates some large-scale joke close to the end of the year. Here's a compilation on YouTube, and here's a list from Seventeen Magazine. It's a very normal thing.
We grew up in a small midwestern city. We went to a public high school. My brother was actually a junior at the time, but he had a lot of friends who were seniors and he tagged along to help set the whole thing up. He had no police record, and had never been in serious trouble before.
He also looks white. None of his friends knew he was a Rom.
When my mom married my white stepdad, she gave my younger brother his last name. This decision caused some issues, over the years, because my mom didn't change her name when she remarried. It was mostly a career decision. She, I, and the rest of my siblings have my birth father's last name, but my younger brother's was different. We are half-siblings. This matters.
As you can probably guess, the pranksters got caught trespassing by some custodians. The police were called in.
Remember: my brother was a junior in a group of graduating seniors. He's young for his grade, so he was actually only 16 years old.
The police were annoyed, but pretty good-natured about the whole thing... at first. The principal came down to the school, too. The police got all the kids' information, and started calling in parents.
My brother gave them both my stepdad's and my mom's numbers. Only my mom was free to pick him up. My brother says he noticed the cops react to the different surnames immediately.
The police pulled my brother aside.
As the rest of the parents turned up, their mostly-18-year-old kids were given a reprimand from an officer and the principal. It was a mixed bag of boys and girls, mostly white. A few people got upset, but this was brushed off as "one of those things." Stupid kid stuff. A senior prank, poorly executed.
When my mom arrived, however, she found my brother sitting by himself in an empty classroom. An officer was stationed outside the door. The officers had my father's family name flagged in their system as "gypsy," and had been trained to assume they were dealing with criminals. When they found out my mom was one of "those gypsies," it changed the entire interaction.
Why are we in the system? Because my father and grandfather both had previous incidents of drunk driving. No other crimes. Not ever.
The police accused my brother of orchestrating the trespassing. They asked him outright if he was stealing. They bullied and belittled my mom, all out of sight and hearing from the other parents and the principal. They took him outside, through a side door, and put him in the back of the cruiser. They would have taken him into custody, if the principal hadn't intervened at the last minute.
My brother, at least a year younger than anybody else there, was the only one charged with a crime.
I wish I was making that up. It still makes my blood boil.
My brother's girlfriend's parents sat my brother down and chastised him, blaming him for their senior daughter's involvement. He'd been the only one charged, so clearly he'd been at fault! They made her break up with him.
My brother got community service and a criminal record, and every other kid present that day got off with a warning.
All because they'd flagged our family as "gypsies."
So yes, this shit matters.
Yes. Anti-Romani policing happens in the USA.
Yes. I know what that feels like, personally.
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