‘Like Something Demonic’: Alligator Alcatraz Guards Sporting Their Own Grim Reaper Patch
(Rebecca Blackwell/AP photo)
Guards at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, known as Alligator Alcatraz, are showing off an unusual and unofficial patch on their uniforms.
The Miami Herald — which, on Wednesday, republished a report originally appearing on the Substack page Two Can Be True by independent journalist Monique O. Madan — dove into the origins of this image being sported by guards that one detainee of the facility called “demonic.”
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The patch shows an alligator skeleton with a grim reaper holding a scythe. The words “you can’t hide” sit at the bottom of the image. The guard behind the homemade patch was identified as Steven Martinez, an officer who is now reportedly under investigation over a physical altercation with another guard.
“He told me he made the patches and that he gives them to people — including other guards,” said Courtney Prokopas, who works with Witness at the Border. The group organizes demonstrations outside immigration centers.
Lewis Ortigoza, a former detainee at the facility, confirmed he’d seen the patch on guards.
“What I saw was ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ a skeleton dressed in black holding a hatchet and a crocodile underneath,” Ortigoza said. “It looked like something demonic.”
The former detainee said he believed the patch was a scare tactic.
“It made me feel like I was bound to die,” he said.
Prokopas said Martinez claimed earlier this month that he’d been fired after an altercation with another officer, but that incident is reportedly being investigated by Florida Highway Patrol.
“He told me to keep the patch. I told him ‘No, it’s OK,’” Prokopas recalled about confronting Martinez outside the facility. “He insisted and said he had plenty.”
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