Hmmmmmmmmmmm - here we go again
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/08/emerson-college-professor-wins-traffic-case-alleges-racial-bias-from-newton-police/f7Vbx2MJ1BD3QhioFjAmyI/story.html#comments
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Newton police Officer Gregory Helms thought he saw a bald African-American man with glasses and a thick beard, but maybe he saw a smooth-faced African-American woman with a full head of hair.
In a strange case that played out in Newton District Court on Tuesday, the officer had cited Emerson College professor Jabari Asim for operating a vehicle without a valid license. But a clerk magistrate vacated the June citation and found that Helms probably cited Asim’s wife, Liana, a licensed driver who was simply running errands.
“This occupied my mind and my time for three unnecessary months,” Asim said after magistrate Larry Okstein made the ruling. “How could they not see the difference?”
After the hearing that involved a private attorney, more than 10 pieces of evidence, GPS records, and sworn affidavits, Asim, also an NAACP newspaper editor, alleged the citation was motivated out of implicit racial bias.
Asim’s prior claims of bias played a role in the dramatic traffic hearing in Courtroom 2, as the Police Department and Asim’s lawyer, Thomas D. Herman, presented differing accounts of what happened on June 22.
An Emerson professor received a citation for driving without a license, but said he was not in his car at the time.
The police, which called Helms as its only witness, used street cameras and introduced evidence to establish that a gray Nissan Quest registered to Asim was traveling in Newton at about 6:15 p.m.
By Helms’s account, he noticed the driver giving a “nervous” look, so he ran the vehicle’s information through the state database. In minutes, Helms found that Asim’s license was “denied/nonrenewable,” so when the officer’s light changed, he looked for the vehicle to issue a citation.
‘For a black man, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If we look at the cop, it’s dangerous. If we look away from the cop, it’s dangerous. It’s a double-edged sword.’
Jabari Asim
When he was not able to locate the vehicle, Helms said he looked up Asim’s driving photograph and recognized the man as the driver. Helms sent a traffic citation to Asim’s home.
“He had that beard,” Helms said in court, referring to the Nissan’s driver and motioning to Asim.
However, according to the GPS on Asim’s cellphone, eyewitness statements from colleagues, and store receipts, Asim had spent the day at Emerson College. His wife, Liana, was driving through Newton.
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Technology is catching up with these LYING COPS.
