Cleveland City Councilman Kevin Conwell was stopped by Case Western Reserve University police last Friday while walking through campus. A caller had alerted campus police dispatch that a black man with missing teeth was mumbling on a street corner.
Conwell said in interviews and at a city council meeting that he believed he was a victim of racial profiling.
“If I can’t walk through my own neighborhood, I’m sure they’re stopping my residents,” he said.
Cleveland.com’s editorial board took up the issue this morning, which seemed to have been thoroughly and dutifully covered already but whatever, and in the midst of calling for increased unbiased policing training penned this truly insulting and troubling paragraph that seems to run directly contrary to the heart of what unbiased policing is about, not to mention the councilman’s concerns, and general decency:
Where to begin?
Conwell, who is black, was stopped and asked for his identification by CWRU police after a caller reported a black man with missing teeth mumbling to students on campus. The dispatcher did not tell police that the man had missing teeth, said campus police. But surely police ought to be able to tell the difference between the well-spoken Conwell, who was taking his daily walk across campus, and a mumbling vagrant.
First, “well-spoken” is blatantly coded racial language.
Second, black people who Cleveland.com wouldn’t describe as well-spoken deserve to be racially profiled and targeted by police for simply, ya know, being around?
Third, “mumbling vagrant” is some awfully dehumanizing language to use.
“Public spaces aren’t just for elected officials or people who are well-spoken,” Cleveland State law professor Joe Mead says. “Regardless of the skin color or professional stature, everyone has a right to travel and exist in public spaces without being accosted by the police.”
See how simple that is?
This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2018.
This is one of the most pathetic story lines that the PD ever has done. First, how would the police know that a Black man is well spoken without stopping or better yet profiling the individual. I know several very well educated and professional Black men that stutter. Based upon the PD article these men would be stopped and arrested.
With all do respect, the Cleveland mayor is not very articulate, so therefore, he would be stopped several times a day. In essence, regardless of an individuals communication skills, Black men should not be profiled.
How many liberals are police officers I wonder?
Walking While Black is still gonna get you stopped in certain hoods, and he was in one of them. I’ve seen cops roll up to young black kids who are walking bikes or riding bikes. They start asking them where they got the bikes. Right in front of my own house! On the Far West Side! I’m pretty sure if I had been born a different color, I’d have never made it to geezerhood. I’d have mouthed off and been shot dead.
Police should stop everyone at least one time, so it will not be discriminatory. Let drones and AI do most of the work.
This guy is a councilman? He should be glade he was not cited for trespassing. CWRU is a private University not a state one. If there was a report of someone on campus who appears to not belong there, security absolutely should check it out. Being asked for your campus ID by campus security is miles away from being accosted by the police.
What a load of crap. First, the dude was not “on campus”…he was on a CITY STREET!. Secondly, private or public university doesn’t mean squat. A public university is still state property, and you can still be stopped, same as at a ” private” university. The terms public and private have to do with where they get their funding, not whether or not they are “private property”…they are all institutions and all have laws about trespassing.
And what the hell does “appears to not belong there” mean? Wrong age? Wrong color? Not wearing “student” type fashions or clothing? Carrying a backpack? NOT carrying a backpack? And being asked for an ID is the same as being “accosted by the police.”
When I was a townie who rode my bike or hiked along Lake Michigan, on Northwestern University’s lakefront campus, I was repeatedly stopped and harassed and chased away. Some days I was left alone, some days I was hassled. They didn’t want blacks fishing there, and they didn’t want “outsiders” around to (supposedly) rob and rape the elitist entitled a-holes who went to school at a “private” university..
I loved the town I grew up in, but I grew to hate Northwestern and everyone connected with the place. I wished them the worst, and when bad things happened there, I did not shed many tears.