Hispanic business owners unfairly targeted

Baltimore, MD – Hispanic business owners are accusing Baltimore police and health officials of discriminatory inspections and excessive police enforcement. Nicolas Ramos, the owner of La Rumba, said police stormed his established three times in one month for minor business code violations.

According to his lawyer, Miguel Palmeiro, 12 armed officers shut down the restaurant on Feb. 3 because the owner failed to a make a payment of a minor fine. He said “approximately 20 officers” shut down the business again on Feb. 5 for a broken hot water heater, and again on Feb.12 “15 officers ordered all patrons to leave, because they cited the ladies room lacked toilet paper in the bathroom.”

A statement from the Baltimore City Health Department denied singling out any business and in a statement said, in part:

“The business in question, La Rumba, was among a number of businesses assigned to Baltimore City’s Social Club Task Force (SCTF) to investigate based upon complaints from the community. It is deployed in cases where numerous and varying complaints from different community members are received or when the facility fails to respond to BCHD notices to schedule an inspection, and where the pooling of resources has been shown to be effective in resolving issues affecting the community at large.”

Miguel Palmeiro, Managing Partner

The Law Office of Miguel Palmeiro

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