Detained city resident says he is victim of profiling
It’s not uncommon for citizens to complain to the media of unnecessary force by members of the police department, but tonight a young man is claiming he was the victim of something else, a practice called profiling. According to thirty year old Dwight Lewis, he has never had a run-in with the police until December thirtieth when he went to visit a friend on Princess Margaret Drive. Lewis says after calling several times, he realised his friend was not home and he left. Not long afterwards, a police patrol pulled up and started asking him questions such as who he was and what he was doing in the area. Lewis relates that he didn’t have a problem until they decided to take him to the police station … and kept him behind bars for several hours.
Dwight Lewis, Alleges Profiling by Police
“One of them, he seh listen to me, ih seh noh worry bout nothing, ih seh they just wah profile yuh and send yuh home. So now I noh even know weh dah profile, right. So afta dat we gone dah station and when we reach deh, one ah them seh, “Mrs. O’Brien we bring wah next one.” So Ms. O’Brien peep out ih seh, “Who you, weh you name?” So I seh I name Dwight Lewis. She instructed the police, she seh, “Lock ah downstairs fi me, I busy right now. When I get through I wah deal with ah.” So now to me now that offend me because now if you di ker me yah fi profile, fi ask me questions or whatever they claim, why they wah lock me down?”
“Three hours lata, three and a half hours lata, Mrs. O’Brien come and she tek me out and den ih deal wid mi. Ih tek mi finga print, ih ask mi everyting, mi ma name, mi gyal name, mi pa name, stuff like dat and tek mi fingaprint and ih tek mi picha and afta dat ih mek ah gone.”
“Ah gone da Internal Affairs and they tell me dat what they have done was wrong. They shouldn’t have imprisoned me, right, they shouldn’t have imprisoned me for that period ah time or none at all. So they tell me dah my right if I want tek out wah civil suit gainst Ms. O’Brien, so dat dah my step weh I wah deal with at this present moment. I wah tek out wah civil suit against she cause she had no right fi treat me like no kind ah prisoner.”
When we spoke to Police Press Officer G. Michael Reid, he told us that the department has no profiling programme. According to Reid, if Lewis was in an area where a crime was being committed, he would be picked up and if he had no identification on him they wouldn’t know if he was telling the truth, so they would take him in for questioning.
