From NY Post:
City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who is black, suggested last week at a council meeting that he was targeted by LAPD officers due to his race.
The meeting had been focused on pretextual traffic stops, in which cops pull drivers over for minor traffic infractions in order to investigate separate, more serious crimes they suspect. The stops are legal under federal law but often criticized for being used in racial profiling.
During his testimony, Harris-Dawson said racially biased stops are “traumatic” for people who experience them.
“In Los Angeles, every single time data is collected on pretextual traffic stops, they are grossly racially biased,” he said, claiming 85% of such stops in LA involve “black and brown” drivers.
Harris-Dawson said he was pulled over recently without reason, and that the officers asked questions about his role as president.
“The first question was, roll down your windows. The second question was, how do you have this vehicle? The third question was, well, you work for the city. What job do you do for the city?” Harris-Dawson said. “In fact, I’m the president of the council.”
“I had to explain this on the corner of Main and 25th Street, while I was trying to get to the committee just two days ago,” he claimed.
After an emotional pause, he added, “It was traumatic on Wednesday as when I was 16.”
Police had a different version of events. They say Harris-Dawson was not pulled over by the LAPD, as he told the council, but LA School Police for a traffic violation in a school zone, a spokesperson said.
“During our morning school drop-off, a Los Angeles School Police Department officer conducted a traffic stop based on an observed moving traffic violation in the vicinity of one of our high schools and issued the driver a citation,” the spokesperson said.
Harris-Dawson still shared his “traumatic” experience on social media without saying he’d been issued a ticket during the stop, saying on Facebook, “As a Member of the Council, driving in a government-issued vehicle with an E-plate, I have been stopped four times.”
Read more at NY Post
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