Pubdate: Sat, 21 Jan 2012
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2012 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/mVLAxQfA
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159

PROFILING MARS POLICING

Racial profiling is understandably a controversial police tactic. 
Unfortunately, that's what appears to have occurred in Fort 
Lauderdale's predominantly black, low-income neighborhoods, where 
young black men were detained and searched after being stopped for 
walking in streets lacking sidewalks.

According to the Broward County Public Defender's Office, the Fort 
Lauderdale Police Department crossed the line in using an obscure 
infraction to stop and search people for drugs.

The state law is clear: "Where sidewalks are provided, no pedestrian 
shall, unless required by other circumstances, walk along and upon 
the portion of a roadway paved for vehicular traffic."

So, during an 18-month period ending last September, Fort Lauderdale 
police officers issued 176 citations to individuals who they say 
failed to use sidewalks or crosswalks.

Video: Bloodied victim speaks out about robbery, assault following bus ride

However, the fact that most of these citations were issued primarily 
in low-income, predominantly black neighborhoods immediately sparked suspicion.

Why? Not just due to the demographic make-up of the communities, but 
because the citations were issued in areas where there were no sidewalks.

Many South Florida neighborhoods lack sidewalks or have sporadic 
stretches where sidewalks simply end, usually determined by the whims 
of local development and planning codes. Still, the attorneys in the 
defender's office quickly showed up with compelling evidence with 
which to argue that a few overzealous police officers abused the law. 
And judges and prosecutors had to drop what appeared to be valid 
charges against people suspected of possessing or dealing drugs.

In case after case, defense attorneys produced photographs where the 
arrests took place - photographs that showed those areas lacked 
sidewalks. Without the sidewalks, the police lost the legal reason to 
have stopped the individuals, in the first place, to determine if 
additional charges were warranted.

The police later testified that the suspects agreed to be searched. 
The suspects said they did not.

At this point, however, the cases against these suspects 
substantially weakened. The obscure sidewalks law gave did not give 
them the solid legal justification they expected.Stopping people for 
not walking on sidewalks when sidewalks don't exist - and doing so in 
predominantly black neighborhoods on top of that - led to complaints 
of racial profiling. And enough doubt in prosecutors and judges to 
toss the cases.

Granted, the police are responsible for catching criminals, and 
illicit drugs continue to be a problem in many urban areas. We get that.

Residents in the city's crime ridden communities, however, deserve a 
better effort than one that comes across as a "walking while black" 
tactic. Conclusion: Using the sidewalk law is a clever idea, but only 
in places where there's actually a sidewalk.

We don't see how you can break a law where the law really should not 
apply anyway.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom