|
Traffic stop sparks dueling protests
Mar 15, 2010 (Daily Breeze - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
A handful of civil-rights activists found themselves confronted by a sign-waving, pro-police group at a small protest Sunday that had been intended to draw attention to allegations of racial profiling by Torrance public safety officers.
The two groups of about 15 people each met on opposite sides of a sunny street corner at 190th Street and Yukon Avenue, the site of the stop and search last week of Torrance resident Robert Taylor, an Inglewood pastor who said he was pulled over unnecessarily and his rights were violated.
Police reported that Taylor's car matched the description of one used in a violent kidnapping, but Taylor said he was not told about that crime until he later went to make a complaint about the incident.
Taylor said the officers who stopped him told him there was a federal arrest warrant out for a "Robert Taylor." He said they searched him and his car, humiliating him in front of neighbors and his teenage daughter.
"I want this to stop. This is unconstitutional, what they're doing," Taylor said.
Torrance police said last week
that Taylor's complaint had triggered an internal investigation.
Activists said it was time that Torrance be subject to the same scrutiny from civil-rights groups that has been directed at the Los Angeles and Inglewood police departments.
They promised to monitor the department for six months and said they were eager to hear about other alleged racial profiling incidents in the city.
"The Torrance Police Department are out of control. Some people say they have taken on the Ku Klux Klan hats and made them badges," said Eddie Jones, president of the Los Angeles Civil Rights Association.
Jones was one of the signatories to a letter -- sent to Andre Birotte Jr., the new U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California and the former inspector general of the Los Angeles Police Department -- seeking a "a pattern and practices probe of Torrance police operations."
"We call on the FBI to investigate," Jones said.
His statements at one point drew laughter from the pro-police group, members of which held a large sign that said, "We've Been Pulled Over Too ... What's Your Point!"
"I'm grateful that the Torrance Police Department is so astute and conscientious to investigate a vehicle that exactly matched the suspect vehicle," said Redondo Beach resident Lynette Vandeveer, who faced off in the street with Jones.
"My motto is, quit your sniveling," she added, holding a sign that said, "I love Torrance Police Department."
As Jones and Vandeveer confronted each other, a Torrance man who gave his name only as "Dave" yelled to Jones, "Where do you live?"
Jones replied: "I live in the United States of America."
Dave, who had two children with him, yelled back: "Get out. You're rotten, get out."
Jones led a prayer for justice, then often-quoted activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable said his and other groups would now start paying close attention to Torrance.
The city, they said, was notorious for racial profiling incidents.
"We have gotten hundreds and hundreds of complaints. We are putting them on notice today," Hutchinson said. "It's gone on too long."
Jones said he had a "street team of investigators" who would follow Torrance police activities.
"We're going to do this really big," Jones said.
melissa.pamer@dailybreeze.com
To see more of the Daily Breeze or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.dailybreeze.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Daily Breeze, Torrance, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Satellite Spotlight's Homepage ]
|
