Pubdate: Thu, 02 May 2002
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2002 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Author: Tom Searls

WVSC STUDENTS ACCUSE POLICE OF RACIAL PROFILING

'Suspicious Vial' Was a Toiletry Item

Three black West Virginia State College students believe Charleston police 
used racial profiling and an out-of-state license tag as reasons to pull 
them over and harass them Tuesday night.

Police, however, said they do not permit racial profiling and the officers 
were just doing their jobs because the men had raised their suspicions.

No citations were issued to the driver, Courtney Shannon, 22, of Chicago. 
Police said he committed traffic violations, which led to the initial 
pullover on Washington Street near Interstate 64, just past the Greyhound 
bus station.

The students were returning from one of the last seminars for their 
"Leadership to Government Program," which accepts only the top 5 percent of 
the 6,000 students at the college, said Don Gresby, their professor and 
coordinator of judicial affairs/special programs at the college.

Male members of the class had been at an East End barbershop, getting 
haircuts and facials and learning how to appear properly in public, Gresby 
said.

He believes they also got a stern lesson about being young black men in 
America. "What angers me is these young men will remember this the rest of 
their lives," the 48-year-old professor said.

Nine police officers - in uniform and street garb - surrounded the car with 
guns drawn about 9:30 p.m. and ordered Shannon to toss his keys out the 
window. The three were then ordered from the car one at a time, handcuffed 
and forced to get on their knees.

They were searched. The car was searched. And, all three said at least one 
officer kept insisting a person walked up to the Oldsmobile just before the 
men pulled out and they took a plastic bag with something white in it from him.

"I said nobody walked up to my car," Shannon said.

But that response did not seem to soothe the cops, he said: "Then they got 
mad."

All three men said one officer kept insisting they were calling him a liar.

"He said, 'Come on, I saw the bag.' I said, 'You couldn't have seen 
anything,'" Shannon said.

The three had purchased toiletry items before they left the barber shop in 
the 1500 block of Washington Street East. Drug unit officers doing 
surveillance in a nearby Camry watched them get in their car.

"They saw the guy leave the car right after or before they saw a vial held 
up," said Charleston Police Major Jerry Pauley.

Officers believed the vial, which turned out to be the just-purchased 
toiletry items, contained crack cocaine, he said.

A patrol car followed the Oldsmobile and Pauley said the men violated 
several traffic laws. Shannon was told he did not use his turn signal while 
changing to the left lane.

"They had probable cause to stop the car and since they thought there was 
drugs involved, they were being careful," Pauley said.

Careful could have been deadly, said Gresby. "What would have happened if 
one of these young men had gone into a sneezing fit or hyperventilated?" he 
said. "I would have been calling parents."

Passenger Drew Williams, an Atlanta resident who is enrolled in ROTC and is 
on the dean's list at State, said with blinding lights on him "all I could 
see was guns."

"I was nervous because they had guns on me," Shannon said.

"It was just terrible," said passenger Jason Price, 22, of Kimball. "I was 
just nervous. I'm just there and scared."

All three said they had never before been handcuffed or searched, had guns 
pointed at them or been forced to kneel on their knees on pavement.

"I've been having flashbacks a lot and I woke up this morning with it," 
said Williams. "It just keeps replaying [in my mind]."

Pauley said someone from the college had called Mayor Jay Goldman's office 
to complain about the incident Wednesday. If the men believe they were 
mistreated, he said, they should file an official complaint, which 
automatically launches an internal probe.

Gresby said administrators at the college, which was founded as a 
land-grant institution for black students, are upset and more complaints 
will follow.

"This is going back to Jim Crowism," he said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alex