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Honor Student Suing NYPD For Racial Profiling, False Arrest

Of course this is not the first case of racial profiling, and it sure won’t be the last. I want to shed some light on a subject that many do not want to talk about.

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Honor student Brittany Rowley, didn’t think she would end up handcuffed in a police station.

Of course this is not the first case of racial profiling, and it sure won’t be the last. I want to shed some light on a subject that many do not want to talk about.

Racial profiling – yes it still happens and if you don’t speak up, it will continue to.

As an African American female, I have seen my fair share of intolerable profiling by police officers.

I myself, was racially profiled while in New York City and quickly put the officers in their place once they learned they were bothering the wrong one.

Last year alone, there have been over 100,000 minorities who have been stopped and frisked, and no arrests made. Which goes to show, racial profiling is still alive and well.

Honor student Brittany Rowley didn’t think she would end up handcuffed in a police station. The 15-year-old, who attends an all girl Catholic school, said her experience with the police was terrifying.

“It was terrifying,” she told the New York Daily News. “It is the most horrible thing I have ever experienced.”

The incident began when Rowley was stopped by authorities because she allegedly matched the description of a shoplifter.

After receiving a call of two Black teens, one with a ponytail, were wanted for stealing from a Park Slope clothing store, officers spotted Rowley and her friend walking nearby.

Rowley’s braided ponytail apparently tipped them off and they pursued the girls.

Rowley said the car suddenly reversed and a male yelled, “Get them!” The cops claim they said, “Excuse me ladies,” with their badges out.

Rowley and her friend ran. “I thought we were being abducted,” Rowley said.

Catanzaro tackled Rowley and threw her to the ground. He threw his keys, she said, hitting her leg. She recalled him saying, “Why did you f—— run? I should punch you.”

She claims Catanzaro yanked her up, whipsawing her neck. She says police also snapped on cuffs, causing bruises. Her friend returned and was collared too.

An NYPD official insists the incident was good police work, noting that Catanzaro obtained surveillance tape from the clothing boutique that exonerated Rowley, even after the store manager identified her as the suspect.

“But for him viewing the videotape, the young lady would still be in custody,” said Inspector Kim Royster, an NYPD spokeswoman.

Rowley spent three hours in the police station until they realized she didn’t commit a crime.

Her father has filed a 5.5 million lawsuit against city and Sgt. Jonathan Catanzaro and Officer Stephen Nakao of the 78th Precinct, stating his daughter was racially profiled.

The court papers allege false arrest and excessive force, including that the sergeant slammed the honor student to the pavement and flung his keys at her.

“I feel my daughter was racially profiled,” Delmus Rowley said.

“They had no proof, just a description of a black young lady with braids,” he added. “It wasn’t necessary to tackle a 15-year-old girl. It was excessive.”

 

Although many minorities can tell stories of being racially profiled, I am glad this young woman is taking a stance and will not tolerate it.

Sometimes we may become fearful of what may happen if we do file a report.

You have the right to file a complaint against an officer if you feel you were profiled.

I can honestly say, if you don’t try, your voice doesn’t have a chance to be heard.


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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Avatar photo

    FredDuggan

    May 24, 2012 at 7:16 pm

    From ACLU website:
    “Racial profiling does not refer to the act of a law enforcement agent pursuing a suspect in which the specific description of the suspect includes race or ethnicity in combination with other identifying factors.”

    Seems she fit description and was running. Unfortunate, but clearly not racial profiling.

    • Avatar photo

      Dee_1

      May 24, 2012 at 10:02 pm

      She was running because the men that approached her were in plain clothes and obviously did not identify themselves as they said.  She thought she was going to be abducted.  Smart young lady.  In the world that we live in, you always have to be alert and on guard.

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Police

Family of Black girls handcuffed by Colorado police, held at gunpoint reach $1.9 million settlement

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The family of four Black girls who were wrongfully detained and held at gunpoint by Aurora, CO police have reached a settlement with the city.

Family of Black girls held at gunpoint reach settlement

Finalized on Monday, the families will collectively receive $1.9 million.

The settlement marks the latest payout the City of Aurora has been forced to make over officers’ excessive use of force.

In 2021, the city paid a $15 million settlement to Elijah McClain’s family, a 23-year-old Black man who died in 2019 after officers put him in a chokehold and paramedics injected him with ketamine.

The incident

In August 2020, four Black girls, ages 6, 12, 14 and 17, were held face down on the ground and put in handcuffs in a nail salon parking lot, crying and screaming, as officers towered over them.

Brittney Gilliam, the mother of the 6-year-old, was driving that Sunday morning with her relatives, because they were going to get their nails done together.

Wrongfully detained

But before they made it in the salon, Gilliam was detained after officers mistakenly thought she was driving a stolen S.U.V.

Police had mistakenly believed Gilliam was driving a stolen car.

And a simple second step police failed to take, resulted in the family being wrongfully detained.

Officers didn’t type in the plate number in a second database to show them the make of the vehicle. If they had, authorities said, the officers would have realized that the plate number was registered to a motorcycle in Montana.

Black girls and mother held at gunpoint traumatized

Dozens of bystanders watched the ordeal unfold, and video footage of the incident went viral, sparking protests over racial injustice, citing excessive force on Black Americans.

After the video went viral, Aurora police had apologized for their grave mistake, but the emotional trauma had already happened.

The Aurora Police Department said its officers are trained to draw their weapons before telling passengers to exit the vehicle and ordering them to lie on the ground, The Post reported.

Officers who held Black girls at gunpoint

One of the two officers who drew their guns and handcuffed members of the family was initially suspended.

However, he and the other officer that pulled his firearm remain on the police force, the New York Times reports.

To date, no officers were fired or charged in connection with the incident.


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Police

2023 saw a record year of killings by police in U.S.

The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.

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The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.

2023 police killings increased dramatically

Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group, dockets deaths at the hands of police officers. Last year, it recorded the highest number of killings since its national tracking began in 2013.

Statistics explained

The data reported that police officers killed 1,329 people in 2023, representing nearly a 19-percent increase over the 11-year span.

Nearly 90% of those killed were fatally shot, according to Abdul Nasser Rad, managing director of research and data at Campaign Zero, who runs Mapping Police Violence.

There were only 14 days without a police killing last year and on average, law enforcement officers killed someone every 6.6 hours, according to the report.

Meanwhile last year, the number of people killed by gunfire and officers killed in the line of duty declined, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. There was an increase in the number of police officers shot.

The newly released data suggests a grim reality and a systemic crisis, with an average of about three people killed by officers each day, with slight increases in recent years. In 2022, 1,250 were killed by police.

The data also reported that Black people were about 2.8 times more likely to be killed by officers than their white counterparts between 2013 and 2023.

Recording police misconduct

For decades, many Americans have suffered various forms of brutality and injustice at the hands of “bad” law enforcement officers.

When a civilian puts in a complaint against the officer only a small percent of complaints result in the officer being disciplined —partly because the accusations are hidden.

Half of the battle is knowing who the “bad” law enforcement are and proper action being taken.

Missin Peace, a national police misconduct database that collects formal civilian complaints against law enforcement, helps fill that void.

In 2022, we had a conversation with the creators, who urged those who filed a complaint against an officer, to upload it on their website as well.

While there is still much work to do, it’s a start.


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Police

14-year-old boy with autism tased by police in what family says was case of mistaken identity

An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.

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14-year-old autistic tased by police
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An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.

14-year-old autistic boy tased by police

In an interview with WLS Chicago, the family says that the teen, Avarius Thompson, suffered injuries, including a fractured hip, during an encounter with Dolton police on the morning of Nov.

Police’s incident report

According to the Dolton Police Department’s incident report, Dolton police were assisting police in the nearby neighborhood of Riverdale in the search for four Black males who had fled from a crashed, stolen vehicle, two of whom were allegedly carrying rifles and a handgun.

Dolton officers spotted two subjects, one of whom matched the description of a suspect sought in the incident, in a nearby backyard and pursued them, according to the incident report.

An officer pursuing Avarius ordered the teen to stop before tasing him, according to the incident report.

The incident was captured on the officer’s body-camera footage.

“Hands up! Hands up!” a Dolton police officer can be heard yelling in the body-camera footage as he runs toward Avarius with his Taser extended. After the teen jumps over a fence, the officer deploys the taser, the footage shows.

Avarius attempts to get up when the officer deploys his Taser again a few seconds later, the footage shows.

“Don’t move. Don’t move,” the officer says. “You move, you’re going to get some more.”

Avarius’ father, Eric Thompson, told WLS that the footage was “frightening.”

Read more on ABC News


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