(Rebecca Blackwell\/AP photo)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Miami Herald<\/a> reported on the origins of this patch in a Wednesday report that dove into the origins of this image being sported by guards that one detainee of the facility<\/a> called \u201cdemonic.\u201d<\/p>\n The patch shows an alligator skeleton with a grim reaper holding a scythe. The words \u201cyou can\u2019t hide\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHe told me he made the patches and that he gives them to people \u2014 including other guards,\u201d said Courtney Prokopas, who works with Witness at the Border. The group organizes demonstrations outside immigration centers.<\/p>\n Lewis Ortigoza, a former detainee at the facility, confirmed he\u2019d seen the patch on guards.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I saw was \u2018Alligator Alcatraz,\u2019 a skeleton dressed in black holding a hatchet and a crocodile underneath,\u201d Ortigoza said. \u201cIt looked like something demonic.\u201d<\/p>\n The former detainee said he believed the patch was a scare tactic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt made me feel like I was bound to die,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Prokopas said Martinez claimed earlier this month that he\u2019d been fired after an altercation with another officer, but that incident is reportedly being investigated by Florida Highway Patrol.<\/p>\n \u201cHe told me to keep the patch. I told him \u2018No, it\u2019s OK,\u2019\u201d Prokopas recalled about confronting Martinez outside the facility. \u201cHe insisted and said he had plenty.\u201d<\/p>\n The post \u2018Like Something Demonic\u2019: Alligator Alcatraz Guards Sporting Their Own Grim Reaper Patch<\/a> first appeared on Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Rebecca Blackwell\/AP photo) Guards at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, known as Alligator Alcatraz, are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[6366,234451,25651,79,234450,234643,201],"class_list":["post-519525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alligator-alcatraz","tag-courtney-prokopas","tag-immigration-detention-center","tag-science","tag-steven-martinez","tag-unofficial-patch","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}