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Palo Alto Online

Not a black and white issue

by Bill D'Agostino

Uhe diametrically opposed viewpoints of 75-year-old African-American Harold Boyd and 47-year-old Caucasian Alec Rawls highlight the challenges faced by police and minority leaders as they attempt to heal racial wounds opened by two officers' alleged actions.

The two men's ideologies, reinforced by their separate lifetimes of experiences, have shaped their opinions of the alleged beating of an African-American male by two Asian American officers.

Although prosecutors and police argue race was not a factor in the incident, Boyd -- who said he's seen something like this coming for years -- feels strongly it was an example of racial profiling.

With as little evidence as Boyd, Rawls believes differently. He also argued -- in an inflammatory opinion piece in the May edition of the Stanford Review -- that racial profiling should be a tool since African-Americans commit more crimes than whites.

The two officers, Michael Kan and Craig Lee, are scheduled to enter a plea at 9 a.m. Friday in Palo Alto Superior Court. Both are relatively new to the force, after having been employed in the high-tech industry.

The scant facts of the case that have, thus far, been revealed publicly are as follows: at 10:34 p.m. July 13, 59-year-old Albert Hopkins was sitting in his car near El Camino Real when he was approached by the two officers.

After Hopkins refused to give his name, the officers beat him "repeatedly" with police batons "while Hopkins tried to ward off blows," according to police reports filed in court. Still not able to "subdue" Hopkins, the officers next pepper-sprayed him "extensively."

The case has reaffirmed some local African-Americans' worst fears about police officers' attitudes toward race.

"I really have very little respect for police in this regard: they are set and are brought in to protect the business community, the white establishment and the rich," Boyd said. "If you dissect what I just said, there are very few African-Americans who fit."

To support his viewpoint, Boyd relates the story of the time he drove with a white friend and was stopped at a red light on Alma Street. Boyd said police officers in the next car glanced at him suspiciously. His friend said he's never seen such a look given to any white person.

"This country is a racist country and Palo Alto is not an oasis -- not in the real sense of the word," Boyd said. "So some of it is right here. And it's not going away, not tomorrow."

In April of this year, minority groups got statistics to back up their fears. A department-compiled report found that African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans are much more (two to three times) likely than whites and Asian-Americans to be searched when they encounter Palo Alto officers.

After getting those results, Police Chief Lynne Johnson initiated conversations with members of the minority community and the Human Relations Commission to open lines of communications, and is considering hosting a police-race relations forum. She also promised an in-depth look at the numbers.

The recently completed police study discovered that much of the minority community has lost trust with the police, something Johnson has vowed to work on.

"It's clear that we can't do our job if we don't have the faith and confidence of the people in the community," she said.

Boyd has been heartened by Police Chief Lynne Johnson's inclusive words -- at least so far.

"This is going to be one of her first tests," he added. "This is where the rubber hits and the road."

The new study of the numbers also found that many of those searched (85 percent) were only investigated after being arrested for committing a crime. Of the remaining 15 percent, 45 percent were on probation, on parole or had some related condition that required them to submit to searches.

In a recent edition of Stanford University's conservative student newspaper, the Stanford Review, Rawls submitted an argument likely to enflame passions in diversity-friendly Palo Alto. He wrote the numbers of searches are proof the department does indeed discriminate -- but against whites, not African-Americans.

Depending on the crime, African-Americans are as much as seven times more likely to have committed a crime, Rawls wrote in the opinion piece that was published in the newspaper's May edition.

Thus, "a random black pulled over by the police" is nearly seven times more likely than "a random white to have some violent or property crime to hide," he stated. "If police ability to spot signs of criminality is the same regardless of the race of the potential suspect, then in the absence of racial profiling we would expect blacks to be searched at almost seven times the rate of whites."

"When they're pulling over blacks, they're being hesitant to be suspicious," Rawls told a reporter. "The statistical indication is that they are actually giving blacks a pass," he added via e-mail.

The Stanford Review article concluded police should use race to profile potential criminals.

Similar to police and prosecutors, Rawls is doubtful the color of Hopkins' skin played a factor in the police officer's initial query or alleged assault.

To bolster his point, Rawls said he -- like Hopkins -- was once approached and questioned by a Palo Alto officer while sitting in his car.

Because of preconceived ideas, African-Americans like Hopkins and Boyd are more likely to attribute such incidents to race and therefore be belligerent to the officers, Rawls argued.

"If you're white and bizarre things happen to you, you know it's not because you're black," he added, "but when bizarre things happen to you and you're black, you have a handy interpretation for it."

E-mail Bill D'Agostino at bdagostino@paweekly.com