ACLU fights for justice using YouTube

ALBUQUERUQE, N.M. (KRQE) - The internet is now the fastest way to spread a message and now a video from a state civil rights group targeting the government is doing just that.

New Mexico's American Civil Liberties Union is posting their cases on YouTube.

Organizers say it the best way to give victims a voice, but many ask what kind of light does that shine on the state?

In clips viewers hear victims share their stories.

"I was forced out of my job because I refused to shave my beard which is part of my religion," said a former paramedic in Espanola.

Others also shared their story.

"To say that the system is wrong is part of your patriotic duties as an American," said a man who was fired from the state boarder patrol after speaking his mind.

They are just a few of the stories of court-ruled injustice spanning the state, and now they're spanning the world wide web.

"I felt like i was being harassed," Stephen Skinner said in the latest YouTube post.

In 2010 he and his son said they were targeted by a New Mexico State Police officer because of their race. The duo was on a cross country trip from California to Chicago, carrying all the cash they had $3,000 with them in their luggage.

They planed to do a little gambling in Las Vegas, NV before getting pulled over in Raton.

"I had never been treated like that before. They addressed me as a "boy". I'm 60 years old," Skinner told the ACLU online.

An ACLU spokesperson agreed that they were mistreated.

"They (the officers) automatically presumed it was drug money presumably because these men were African American and they had this amount of cash on them," Micah McCoy with ACLU in reference to the case.

The State Police officer let them go, but alerted federal officials and the pair was pulled over again in Albuquerque. The feds seized their money and dropped them off at the airport with nothing.

After an ACLU supported lawsuit, the courts agreed the pair had been singled out because of their race. McCoy said spotlighting Skinner's case and those like it online encourages transparency and only promotes positive growth for New Mexico.

"If we face our shortcomings head on and acknowledge them, that's when we can fix the problem," he said.

Last month Skinner got his money back, via court order. Watch his story and many others on the NM ACLU's YouTube channel or website .