http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_local_state_government/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19859_4913075,00.html

Officer will be disciplined for racial profiling
Complaint: Black teens singled out

By Maggie Shepard
Tribune Reporter
August 12, 2006

An Albuquerque police officer faces the possibility of at least 35 hours suspension for booting a pair of black teens out of Dion's as they dined with white and Hispanic friends.

The city's Police Oversight Commission and Independent Review Office investigators say the officer was racially profiling when he singled out DeAndre Lansdowne and Mason Wehrli, both 17.

Chief Ray Schultz and APD investigators agreed.

It's the first time a city resident's complaint of racial profiling has been upheld by the commission and the Police Department, according to Independent Review Officer Jay Rowland and APD Internal Affairs Lt. Matt Suazo.

"It let me know that it is OK; that if a cop does something, you can do something about it," said Lansdowne, a Sandia High School varsity basketball player.

It was his father, John Lansdowne, who filed a complaint after his son returned home after a February basketball game night and told him about his run-in with the APD officer.

"You couldn't find nicer kids," John Lansdowne said of his son and his friend. "They are the athletes. They are the kind of kids who are leaders in school. He (DeAndre) was really outraged and fearful. I just really felt for him. I came to the conclusion that my son really was victimized."

According to the Lansdownes and the Police Oversight Commission's letter to them explaining the outcome of their complaint, this is what happened at the restaurant:

Lansdowne and Wehrli, both juniors at Sandia, went to the Dion's at Academy Road and Wyoming Boulevard Northeast after losing a basketball game to La Cueva.

[highlight]Both teens told The Tribune on Friday that they were behaving respectfully, but playfully, as they always do during their ritual Dion's meal following basketball games. [/highlight] [color="Blue"](Mmmmm, hmmmm. )

This night, an APD officer, whose name is not a public record in complaints made to the POC, was working an overtime security assignment for Dion's, where he was asked to keep people from loitering.

Dion's Marketing Director Christie Martinez didn't know about the incident but said five of the 13 Dion's locations routinely hire APD officers, especially on nights when they expect high school or college game crowds.

The teens say they'd ordered food, and some of the white teens had not. Everyone in the group, including the white and Hispanic teens, were tugging on each others' collars in a playful attempt to cheer each other up after the loss.

The officer, who is white, accused the black teens of loitering and making a ruckus. He ordered Lansdowne to leave, but not the others.

Wehrli went outside with his friend. The officer followed them, waving handcuffs while threatening to take Lansdowne to the juvenile jail and holding out his can of mace.

[highlight]The officer cursed at them and they felt that he "was going to use the N-word and had to pause to come up with another word for it," according to the letter. [/highlight]

When Lansdowne told his father about the incident, John Lansdowne attempted to contact the officer's supervisor without success. He filed his complaint of racial profiling on March 6.

A complaint initiates an Independent Review Office investigator to take testimony from witnesses and the officer involved.

According to the investigator's summary of the officer's testimony, the officer said he noticed Lansdowne and Wehrli the moment they walked in because they were rowdy and they didn't order food.

He also said that at one point they were horseplaying with each other and he didn't know if it would lead to a fight, so he decided to kick Lansdowne out.

During this interview, the investigator said the officer used "specific words" that led the investigator "to conclude he may be racially biased during the incident," according to the letter.

Chief Schultz, who reviews the cases along with the department's Internal Affairs unit, agreed with the IRO's findings and placed the officer on track for discipline.

Lt. Suazo said Friday that the officer met with Schultz earlier in the week for a pre-discipline hearing. That type of hearing is necessary only for cases in which the officer faces a minimum of 35 hours suspension, Suazo said.

Schultz, who was out of town from Thursday until Monday, hasn't made a ruling on the officer's discipline.

Suazo said discipline varies depending on an officer's history of violations and other elements of the situation.

"I can just let you know that he will be disciplined in accordance with policy," Suazo said.

Last month, Schultz sent a memo to all APD personnel, saying the commission had noticed an increase in complaints about racial profiling and officers using racial slurs.

"This conduct will not be tolerated," Schultz says in the memo.

John Lansdowne said he's encouraged by APD's acceptance of responsibility for its officers.

"I was very pleased that the department took my complaint seriously and investigated it," he said. "I think it speaks highly of the department that it can shine a light on itself like that."

Joe Powdrell, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the ruling does help in his effort to get his community to buy into the civilian police oversight process.

"It's encouraging. The possibility of the law being enforced in a perfect manner all the time is unlikely, and when we admit to the unlikeliness, that's real right there," Powdrell said. "We have good officers; we have hard-pressed officers. We are human, to admit to the margin of error."