Driving While Black

Moe White

A municipal police department in upstate Rockland County, NY, has been caught on camera stopping a group of black men and women for, apparently, driving while black.

Once again they have done so on the basis of a 911 call from a frightened white woman who called to report four big scary people “wearing bullet-proof vests and driving an unmarked car.”

So, of course, the Ramapo Police Department decided they needed to show up in force. Dashcam video shows a police officer driving his vehicle in the wrong lane, then swerving sharply before stopping in the middle of the road to stop and question this frightening band of thugs. Then the officer exits the car and draws his weapon.

Only this time, the “thugs”—Mario Alexandre, Sheila Penister, Annette Thomas-Prince, and Samuel Washington—were licensed New York State parole officers, wearing state-issued bulletproof vests and with their highly visible gold badges around their necks. And their “unmarked car” had an official New York State placard prominently displayed on the dashboard, according to court documents.

But, no matter how official, how authorized, how uniformed, how professional, these four had made one big mistake. They were black. And now they’re suing the Town of Ramapo and its Police Department for violating their civil rights.

According to reports by CNN television news, Alexandre said, “I was violently pulled out of the vehicle, and I was slammed against the vehicle.” He was “punched” by a police lieutenant and was “forced out of his vehicle despite having identified himself as a parole officer,” the documents state.

Penister said that when she attempted to show her New York State ID to a police sergeant, he “became enraged and approached her in a threatening manner with his hand held on the butt of his gun,” court documents state. When all parole officers were identified, they allege they were still forcibly detained and not permitted to leave.

All four parole officers have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to their attorney, Bonita Zelman.

In their lawsuit, the parole officers contend that the Ramapo Police Department and the city “failed to adequately train … its police officers concerning the rights of citizens, in particular against racial bias/profiling and the use of force.”

In response, Ramapo Town Assistant Attorney Dennis Lynch said called the actions of the police officers “reasonable under the circumstances” and that the “parole officers had not notified the town that they would be in town.”

Apparently it’s reasonable to stop a car, remove its passengers, frisk them and detain them, for no reason other than that a frightened woman calls in—her identity is unknown—to express her fear of four well-dressed professional citizens—“scary” citizens, apparently because of their color—who are performing their job for the government. In other words, protecting HER by coming to serve official court papers on an actual law-breaker in the town.

Who’s the culprit? They are, clearly because “they didn’t notify the town in advance.”

“Hello, Ramapo. This is Officer Alexandre. I just wanted to let you know in advance that there will be four Negroes driving through, so please give us permission to cross your borders.”

Has it really come to that?