'They believe we're criminals': black Puerto Ricans say they're a police target

Activists say police racially profile black communities, despite Puerto Rico's image as a melting pot without racial problems

When Nina Figueroa, 25, protested with fellow Puerto Ricans this summer to oust the then governor, Ricardo Rossello, she believed she stood out to police. Figueroa, a college student studying comparative literature, had been arrested multiple times while in the streets and was starting to notice a pattern.

"I have been arrested in protests three times and all three times I was doing nothing," says Figueroa. "I asked myself: 'Why do the police arrest me so much?' And obviously it wasn't until I understood that I'm an easy target for the police because I'm a black woman."