Photo: Sydney Anderson/Youtube
On April 20, the Delaware State University — a historically Black university (HBCU) — women’s lacrosse team wastraveling homefrom Florida on Interstate 95 near Savannah, Georgia, NBC News reported. Liberty County officers pulled the team’s charter bus over for driving improperly in the left lane and asked driver Tim Jones, a Black man, to step outside before speaking to the students and staff.
In a video recording of the traffic stop, an officer tells the student-athletes that they will be searching their luggage, saying, “If there is anything in ya’lls luggage, we’re probably gonna find it. I’m not looking for a little bit of marijuana but I’m pretty sure your guys' chaperones are gonna be disappointed in you if we find it.”
Johansen told the outlet that they were stopped for between 30 and 45 minutes, and many of her peers were asking questions of the officers about the nature of the stop, and why a traffic violation had led to a drug search.
“It is traumatizing for people to deal with. This is real,” said Johansen. “This is stuff that really happens.”
According toThe Hornet Newspaper — Delaware State’s student media outlet — senior lacrosse player Emily Campanellisaidshe felt like the officers “immediately saw a group of athletic girls teams and should have let us continue, but because the majority of the team are Black women it was a different result.”
Addressing the incident in a letter to students and faculty, school President Allen said the student-recorded video of the stop “clearly shows law enforcement members attempting to intimidate our student-athletes into confessing to possession of drugs and/or drug paraphernalia.”
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“Before entering the motorcoach, the deputies were not aware that this school was historically Black or aware of the race or the occupants due to the height of the vehicle and tint of the windows,” said Bowman, theSavannah Morning Newsreported.
Sheriff Bowman also addressed the allegations of racial profiling, saying, “As a veteran, a former Georgia state trooper and the sheriff for this department, I do not exercise racial profiling, allow racial profiling or encourage racial profiling.”
However, Bowman assured that he is listening to the team and the school’s leadership.
“Although I do not believe racial profiling occurred based on the information I have, I welcome feedback from the community on ways our law enforcement practices can be improved,” he said. “More than anything, we want feedback from the Delaware lacrosse team on the communication approaches we can consider that we are not aware of. This is how true policing is done.”
source: people.com
