Racial Profiling
Anna Jardot
Unit 3 Assignment
Racial Profiling
The article that I found is about a Miami Gardens police department that is being accused of racial profiling. In this particular article police have stopped Earl Sampson at least 258 times in four years. Police officers have repeatedly charged Earl with trespassing at the convenience store where he works. At least once a week Earl has been stopped and searched over 100 times, jailed 56 times, and arrested for trespassing 62 times. Earl has only ever had one conviction and it was for possession of marijuana.
Saleh says he plans on presenting a civil suit against the police department and the mayor. The actions of the police are actions that are beyond legal. The police are just causing more of a problem more than anything at the store. Even the community is having problems with the police department.
There are dozens of videos from the cameras that they store owner Alex Saleh has installed that show the cops stopping citizens and aggressively searching and questioning them. They are also being searched by the cops. Many citizens have been arrested for trespassing when they had permission to be there. The store’s owner has watched many of his customers be stopped and searched for no apparent reason. Saleh’s store has been illegally searched; the police never even had permission or even a search warrant.
There have been several phone calls and emails sent to the chief of police with no response to these calls or emails. Howard Simon, an executive director of the American Civil Liberties said “Where is the police chief in all this? The police department is in for a rude awakening one day when the US Department of Justice comes in and takes over their police department. Miami Gardens is the third largest city in Miami. The population is predominantly Black. Citizens of Miami Gardens have been voicing their distrust of the police department for many years. When officers make these kinds of stops they are increasing and re-enforcing the mistrust that the citizens have.
The owner of the store says that about 3 years ago the police department had come to his store and asked him if he wanted to participate in what they called a “zero-tolerance” program. They claimed that this program was going to help reduce crime. Saleh gladly signed up not realizing the trouble it was going to cause for his business or his customers. Under this program the police have broad powers to stop and arrest people who appear to be loitering or trespassing at the businesses that had signed up for the program.
There was an investigation done by the state attorney. The Miami-Dade State Attorney says their office won’t be charging the Miami Gardens officers with any of the crimes that are being claimed against them. Alex Saleh had submitted videos to the police department. The videos were reviewed by an investigator who in conclusion stated “ the videos that Mr. Saleh submitted were edited”. The state also said that from what they viewed on the videos that the videos did not show any criminal actions take place.