Courts and juries too often support police in this belief and practice.
Therefore police are quite comfortable subjecting Black people to apparent Fourth Amendment violations.
Although a recent example of this took place in the deep South in a state with a long sordid history of official law enforcement hostility to Black Americans, the facts are that this kind of thing happens all over the United States. As courts won't reign in these violations, eventually Black citizens will need to do so.
DOVER, Delaware (WPVI) -- Delaware State University announced Friday it will be taking legal action against the sheriff's department in Liberty County, Georgia, calling a search following a traffic stop last month involving the university's women's lacrosse team "constitutionally dubious."
Law enforcement bodycam footage from April 20 shows sheriff's deputies in Georgia board a bus carrying the Delaware State University women's lacrosse team. The sheriff's office says it pulled over the bus for riding in the left lane. That minor traffic infraction turned into a drug search.
"Instantly for me it was like, this is just because we're Black. Any other team that didn't look like us or didn't have as many Black people on the team, they wouldn't have asked that and just let them go," said Jahnai Elder, a freshman on the team. DSU is an HBCU, a historically Black college and university.
The video shows deputies searching through the player's personal property, including toiletries, clothes, and even a family graduation gift. The deputies found nothing illegal in the bags.
"We were all just having to stay composed because we don't want it to escalate to anything worse than what it already was," said Gwenna Gentle, a junior on the team.
"Today I am announcing the university's intention to file a formal complaint with the civil rights division of the United States Department of Justice," said Tony Allen, the president of Delaware State University. LINK
"We were all just having to stay composed because we don't want it to escalate to anything worse than what it already was," said Gwenna Gentle, a junior on the team.
"Today I am announcing the university's intention to file a formal complaint with the civil rights division of the United States Department of Justice," said Tony Allen, the president of Delaware State University. LINK
The sheriff's department did not issue any citation for the supposed moving violation, which again makes me believe that either there was no such violation or that any violation was just a precursor to performing what appears to be an illegal search.
