NORTH CAROLINA NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE P. O. BOX 1236
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CARRBORO, NC 27510 Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II President, State Conference of Branches Michelle Cotton Laws President, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Branch 5689
August 10, 2009 Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy Chapel Hill Council Members Chapel Hill Town Manager, Roger Stancil Chapel Hill Police Chief, Brian Curran Re: Stop and Seizure of Local Business Owner on June 1-2, 2009 Dear Chapel Hill Mayor Foy, Council Members, Manager Stancil, and Chief Curran: Enclosed is the complaint of Mr. Charles Brown and the NAACP which does not begin to describe the fear, anger, frustration and disgust he felt when he was arrested, handcuffed and humiliated on Rosemary Street (near Breadman’s) for almost an hour while walking home after closing his business in downtown Chapel Hill. These are the questions this case yet again raises: 1. What can both our public and private leaders do to put in place strong policies and training systems to make sure no African American (or other ethnic minority) person (business owner or not), has his or her rights violated in such an egregious abuse of local law enforcement power? 2. What is the town willing to do to create a welcoming environment for African Americans who wish to establish businesses, provide desperately need employment opportunities for local residents, and contribute to the local economy by spending money in downtown Chapel Hill? 3. What system of accountability is the town willing to institutionalize to ensure that the message is sent loudly and clearly to our local law enforcement that Chapel Hill is intolerant to racial profiling and police “gone wild” in abusing their authority? The NAACP officially requests a meeting to address these questions and a written response from the Mayor. At some point, we ask for your help in convening a meeting with the leadership of the local Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Partnership, and other organizations that have as
part of their mission the interest of supporting downtown businesses and business owners without regard to race, ethnicity, gender or political alliance. We believe an open and candid discussion may help us better understand how discriminatory actions by Town employees affects the community – particularly African Americans who have labored long and hard to make Chapel Hill an economically prosperous and progressive community and a welcoming place for everyone, it appears, except Black entrepreneurs. We request a timely response within a week to this request. Thank you. Sincerely, Michelle Cotton Laws, President Chapel Hill Carrboro NAACP Branch #5689 Encl: Complaint C: Mr. Charles D. Brown, Owner, Precise Cuts and Styles Shop, 136 E. Rosemary Street. Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, President State NAACP Ms. Angela Ciccolo, Interim General Counsel, NAACP, Baltimore, Md. Mr. Alan McSurely, Chair, Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP Legal Redress
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ATTACHMENT A Nature of the Complaint: 1. Charles D. Brown, an African American, owns the Precise Cuts & Styles Barber Shop, 136 E. Rosemary Street, in the Bank of America building in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 2. About 11:30 p.m. on 1 June 2009, after working on his books and cleaning up his shop, Mr. Brown locked his shop, and walked west on Rosemary Street toward his fiance’s home in Carrboro, thinking about their wedding on 27 June 2009. 3. About 11:35 p.m., as he neared the Warehouse on West Rosemary Street, he saw two officers in police cars in the convenience store parking lot across from Breadman’s. One car pulled out of the parking lot very slowly onto Rosemary, and then pulled into the empty lot next to Gothams. 4. Mr. Brown was walking past the Breadman’s parking lot when he heard someone say, “Stop.” He did not realize the person was talking to him. Then he heard the same voice again, from behind him, saying: “I said stop!” Mr. Brown turned and saw an officer approaching him, and asked, “Stop for what? What did I do?” 5. CH Police Officer D. Funk said, “You better stop,” while putting his hand on his weapon. “You are under arrest, Mr. Farrington.” The arrest was about 11:40 p.m. 6. Mr. Brown, remembering all the lessons that have been passed down in the Black community since slavery, held back his anger, rage and shock, and complied. 7. Off. Funk pulled Mr. Brown’s arms and hands behind his back, put handcuffs on his wrists behind his back, and said: “You have warrants.” 8.
Mr. Brown, fearing an officer would shoot him if he made any wrong moves or statements, finally said as quietly and politely as he could: “I am not ‘Mr. Farrington.’ My name is Charles Brown.”
9. Off. Funk did not reply. 10. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Mr. Brown asked politely. “My name is not Mr. Farrington.” 11. Not replying again, Off. Funk pushed the handcuffed Mr. Brown against the trunk of his police car, without any oral directions, and searched Mr. Brown. Off. Funk’s colleague, on information and belief, CH Police Officer #382, kept Mr. Brown standing against the trunk of one of the two police cars under close watch. 12. Off. Funk said, “Where you coming from?” “I’m coming from work,” Mr. Brown said. 13. Off. Funk said, with a touch of sarcasm, “From work at this time of night?” “I work as a barber on Rosemary Street,” Mr. Brown said. “I own the barber shop.” Off. Funk, with more sarcasm, said, “Oh? You own a business?”
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14. “Yes,” Mr. Brown said, “The barber shop at 136 E. Rosemary Street.” 15. Off. Funk did nothing to check to see whether Mr. Brown had left his shop a few minutes before two blocks east from where the men were standing. 16. During this period, several cars and walkers stopped to stare at the growing congregation of police officers around the one “suspect” they had handcuffed and jammed up against the trunk of one of the cars. At least five police cars had gathered, and at least three more officers had joined the two who made the arrest. 17. According to CH Chief Brian Curran, the other officers involved in addition to K-9 Officer Funk, were Officers Castro, G. Taylor, Sabinosh, and D. Williams. 18. At some point, when some other officers had arrived, Mr. Brown said, “If I were white, this would not be happening.” Off. Funk said, “Would it make you feel better if I called a black officer?” “No.” said Mr. Brown. 19. At some point a black officer, Off. D. Williams we believe, joined the white officers, and he came back to the trunk of the car where Off. Funk had left all of Mr. Brown’s papers and his wallet. Off. Williams examined all of Mr. Brown’s credit cards and identification papers. Then he asked Mr. Brown, “If I had pulled you, would you feel better?” “No,” said Mr. Brown. 20. Some of the officers taunted and tried to provoke Mr. Brown, while he was handcuffed behind the cruiser. “You think you’re tough, don’t you.” Mr. Brown said nothing. 21. At this point, all those present knew, or should have known, that the arrest and seizure had no probable cause, that there was no justification for holding Mr. Brown, and that the only method of covering up the wrongful arrest was to provoke Mr. Brown into saying something that might justify a Gates-type arrest for being too angry. 22. Off. Williams, African American, said so Mr. Brown could hear him, to the four white officers: “I hate the ones like him.” 23. At some point, about 34 minutes after Off. Funk had arrested Mr. Brown and about 25-30 minutes after the officers knew they had made a bad arrest, they made a call to the Police Identification Center in Hillsborough. 24. At 12:14 a.m. on 2 June 2009, Officer #382 called the ID Center according to the tape provided Mr. Brown by Chief Curran, and asked for a check on a subject “last name Brown, first name Charles, date of birth 8, 7, 1973.” 25. The operator said he could not find anybody by that name and asked #382: “Can you advise what city he lives in, and also his race?” Off. #382 answered: “Black Male,” and then consulted the driver’s license and other information Mr. Brown had provided about 30 minutes before and said: “It says on here, Sanford, N.C.”
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26. The operator said “Charles Detrick Brown, DOB 8/7/73,” and gave Mr. Brown’s Sanford address to Off. #382, who acknowledged that was the man they had arrested. 27. Off. #382, any hope of probable cause to stop, and then seize Mr. Brown having vanished, then asked: “Does he have anything on the NCIC? Or anything on other surrounding indices (garbled)?” 28. The operator said, “Don’t show anything on NCIC. Will check on others. It will take a few.” The operator, after checking on other indices, then said there were “no positive response” on the other indices. 29. The call ended at 12:30 a.m. 30. A few minutes later, Off. Funk came around behind Mr. Brown, told him to “Loosen your hands. Don’t be so tense,” and unlocked the handcuffs. His wrists and arms were sore and he rubbed them while looking cautiously at the armed officers. No one made any apologies, or any explanations. The officers drove off. 31. The next day, Wednesday the 3 June 2009, Mr. Brown and his fiancé went to the CHPD to ask for a photo and a description of “Mr. Farrington.” Lt. Bradley was who he dealt with. Lt. Bradley said he did not have the time to respond to the request, although he indicated he had heard about the arrest of Mr. Brown. Lt. Bradley, in response to Mr. Brown and his fiance’s request, said Off. Funk was in training and could not be bothered. It is unknown what other ‘Mr. F[e]arringtons” are in the mug shots available to CHPD. 32. Mr. Brown and the NAACP wrote the CHPD on 16 June 2009 for the incident report of the arrest, which was provided on 24 June 2009. The unsigned and undated Report said Off. D. Funk stopped a “suspicious person” at 12:17 a.m. on Tuesday morning on the 300 Block of Rosemary Street, that Officers M. Castro and M.K. Sabanosh were “Involved,” and that the case is “closed.” No one signed the Incident Report, and it is undated. It said there was 1 “victim” of the “suspicious person” crime who was “society.” No Drug/Alcohol use was found. No weapon or tools were known. (See Exhibit A) 33. Chief Curran, on 24 June 2009, also provided Mr. Brown and the NAACP a photo of a young man named “Farrington” who is 5’10” tall, weighs 170, and is 24 years old, a Chapel Hill native who is well known in Northside and should be well-known by some members of the CHPD. Mr. Brown is 5’8”, weighs 150, and is 35 years old. It is not known how many men named Farrington are in the CHPD’s mug shot bank. It is not known why this information was not made available to Mr. Brown the day after. Nature of Injuries Four Constitutional and Dignatory Violations 1. The initial stop, if it were an “investigatory stop,” may have had probable cause. However, no investigation was made. Mr. Brown was arrested before any investigation was conducted to determine whether he was, indeed, a Mr. Farrington. So far, the only Mr. Farrington the CHPD has produced is 11 years younger, two inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than Mr. Brown. 5
2. There was no probable cause for an investigatory search—a ‘stop and frisk’ to check for weapons—because it was done after the wrongful arrest. The rudiments of an investigatory stop were not followed. An investigatory search for weapons is constitutional during an investigatory stop, but no investigatory stop was made here. 3. The arrest or seizure, where Mr. Brown was held for almost an hour by at least five officers on the sidewalk of a busy downtown street (the street on which Mr. Brown’s new barber shop is) had no probable cause. There is no doubt that Mr. Brown would have been maced, tasered or shot if he had tried to complete his walk to Carrboro or protested boisterously about the wrongful arrest and detention. 4. There was no probable cause to ask for a search of criminal records on Mr. Brown, after the operator corroborated his identification. When the police asked for a comprehensive search of criminal records on him, the only possible reason was to find something on him to justify, after the fact, their unconstitutional acts. The request for any criminal records on Mr. Brown, after it was determined that the initial stop and arrest and seizure were of an innocent citizen walking down the street, violated the U.S. Constitution’s 4th Amendment and the N.C. Constitution’s similar, but stronger, prohibition against such intrusions. Dignatory Injuries After it was obvious the arresting officers had the wrong man, they all knew they had a problem. After trying and failing to provoke him into doing something stupid, so he could be arrested for expressing his outrage (now called a “Gates Arrest”), the officers hoped to find he was wanted on an outstanding warrant. When they learned Mr. Brown’s ID was accurate, their first impulse was to ask for a check on the NCIC and other indices to see whether there was an outstanding warrant or other records on Mr. Brown. Maybe they would get lucky, and then they could say they stopped him because they knew about this outstanding warrant. Since there was no probable cause for this intrusion (We are aware that CHPD officers have been disciplined for requesting information from these comprehensive indices without probable cause), the only reason we can infer for this request was to cover-up the profiling, and the lengthy detention on a major street in Chapel Hill, only three blocks from Mr. Brown’s business. No white business owner in Chapel Hill would have been treated this way. If such a thing ever happened, the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Merchants would have all shared in the chorus of righteous outrage, and no one would criticize them for being angry. The officers would have been disciplined, and their would be new policies and training practices instituted at the Police Department. The Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections, and the N.C. Constitution’s even greater protections against racial profiling have, at bottom, the purpose of protecting individual’s liberty, his dignity, his entrepreneurial and creative spirit, and his ability to walk the streets of a beautiful college town like Chapel Hill and not be afraid of being arrested and detained without probable cause, handcuffed, and humiliated for an hour after finishing a hard day’s work. This freedom is priceless. The trauma of this encounter with the CHPD that night will last forever with Mr. Brown. It will be deposited in the collective psyche of many in our community as just another typical incident of Police misconduct. Those of us who know the whole Department know this is an over-generalization. But these incidents must stop. 6