Activists in the Latino community are demanding the launch of a federal investigation into the indictment of three Hispanic former officers from the Houston Police Department who got caught in a ticket-rigging scandal.

According to advocates for Hispanic rights, the officers are facing severe punishments for misconduct that is similar to wrongdoing that white officers committed two years ago -- expect the white cops got off with just a slap on the wrist, reports Fox News Latino.

"Why are you treating Hispanics differently?" said Agustin Pinedo, the district director at the League of United Latin American Citizen (LULAC).

Pinedo is also calling for HPD Chief Charles McClelland to provide clarity as to why the Hispanic officers were indicted for participating in a ticket scam, but a group of white officers were merely punished with job suspension when they got caught in a similar scandal in 2013.

On Friday, a grand jury filed felony indictments against Gregory Rosa, John Garcia II and Robert Manzanales for falsifying traffic citations and listing one another as witnesses on tickets so they could get extra overtime pay for testifying in court. After getting caught, they were all relieved of duty, reports the Houston Chronicle.

Meanwhile, back in September 2013, four white officers committed a similar offense and were punished with a 20- to 45-day suspension.

"They were not even referred to the District Attorney for indictment," Pinedo explained. "They got off scotch free with over a million dollars."

Jesus Medel from the American GI Forum admitted he doesn't "have the entire facts."

"... that's why we want to call on Chief McClelland to clarify why he made that decision and see if it was justifiable," he continued. "Because it doesn't appear to be justifiable in our view, based on the facts we have,"

Jeff McShan, spokesman for the DA's office, said Tuesday that the previous administration declined to accept charges in the older case because there was insufficient evidence.

"If they are guilty and did something wrong they deserve to be punished, but how about the other group?" Pinedo told FOX 26 News. "The other four white individuals weren't even referred to grand jury."

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