Freedom fighter Ben Crump I suing the Beverly Hill police over racially profiling Black people on Rodeo Drive.
The esteemed civil rights attorney will be representing Jasmine Williams and Khalil White, two African American people who alleged that in 2020 they were stopped by the local police while they were riding scooters on the sidewalk.
According to TMZ Live Crump was adamant that the prejudicial practice in the BHPD had to be checked if justice is to prevail in the city.
“Unchecked implicit bias, unchecked racism leads to death for Black people,” Crump. They need to know “that it is not OK to arrest Black people for being Black on Rodeo Drive.”
In the lawsuit, Crump alleges, the police in the City of Beverly Hills have for years intentionally targeted people of color, resulting in 106 arrests for “street violations of the law.”
One person mentioned in the lawsuit is Salehe Bembury, VP of Sneakers and Men’s Footwear at Versace, who was detained for jaywalking. Bembury is a Black person.
Also named in the filing is BHPD Captain Scott Dowling. He is said to have told officers under his command “to seize, interrogate, use force, falsely arrest, and maliciously prosecute any African-Americans who traveled on Rodeo Drive” so that force could “keep out African-Americans, who were deemed as ‘criminals.”.
Out of the 106 people arrested for these violations, 105 were Black and one was Latino. According to Crump, he believes that the Latino man could have been mistaken for a Black person.
This case is developing.