Beverly Hills Police Sued Over Alleged Racism on Rodeo Dr., Cops Resign
Bev Hills Police Sued for Alleged Rodeo Drive Racism ... Cops Named Resign
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12:33 PM PT -- Crump, flanked by co-counsel Mark T. Harris, just revealed 2 of the officers they filed claims against -- Dowling and Asst. Police Chief Marc Coopwood -- have resigned.
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Crump said this case is not over following their resignations and wants to see them held accountable. One of the plaintiffs in the suit, Khalil, also spoke and said he spent a night in jail as a result of his arrest. He called the experience he and Jasmine endured traumatizing.
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For its part ... Beverly Hills Police Chief Dominick Rivetti said Khalil and Jasmine were warned on the day in question that riding a scooter on the sidewalk in Bev Hills is prohibited.
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Rivetti said at that time no enforcement action was taken but "when committing the same violation later the same day" cops took action. Rivetti claims Khalil and Jasmine were taken into custody after they provided false information to a police officer.
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The police chief also defended the task force ... claiming that in a 5-week span the team recovered 13 loaded firearms from individuals on Rodeo Drive, over a quarter-million dollars in cash and fraudulent unemployment benefit cards with a potential value of $3 million.
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10:17 AM PT -- Crump joined "TMZ Live" and said if discrimination in policing isn't addressed it leads to the George Floyds, Breonna Taylors and Jacob Blakes of the world. He said, "Unchecked implicit bias, unchecked racism leads to death for Black people."
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Simply put ... Crump says he's trying to send a message to the Beverly Hills PD "that it is not OK to arrest Black people for being Black on Rodeo Drive."
The Beverly Hills police are being sued over allegations it targeted almost nothing but black people on Rodeo Drive to arrest ... in some cases, for minor infractions.
Renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump claims in a new lawsuit ... the City of Beverly Hills created a police task force to patrol the famed street for violations of law, and the result was 106 arrests ... and 105 of those taken into custody were black. The one remaining arrestee was Latino. BTW, Crump says the Latino could have easily been mistaken as black.
The 2 named plaintiffs in the lawsuit -- Jasmine Williams and Khalil White -- say they were visiting Bev Hills a year ago and riding scooters on the sidewalk, when they were stopped by Bev Hills cops. They were handcuffed and taken into custody. According to the suit, prosecutors dropped the case.
10/1/2020
The lawsuit claims examples of other "crimes" for which people were arrested included roller skating, jaywalking and traffic infractions in Beverly Hills.
The lawsuit references another incident last October involving Salehe Bembury -- VP of Sneakers and Men's Footwear at Versace -- who claimed he was detained for jaywalking.
10/1/2020
According to the suit, BHPD Captain Scott Dowling, who is also named as a defendant, directed officers "to seize, interrogate, use force, falsely arrest, and maliciously prosecute any African-Americans who traveled on Rodeo Drive" with the sole purpose of "keep[ing] out African-Americans, who were deemed as 'criminals.".
We've reached out to the Beverly Hills PD for comment, so far no word back.
Originally Published -- 10:02 AM PT
