Black man arrested 62 times for 'trespassing' at his workplace
20 hrs ago
Police in Miami Gardens have stopped and questioned Earl Sampson 258 times over the last four years, searched him more than 100 times, and jailed him 56 times. There's one missing piece of info, though: Nearly every one of the 62 times that Sampson, who is black, was arrested for trespassing, it was at the 207 Quickstop, the convenience store where he works. Alex Saleh, the store's owner, was so troubled by seeing Sampson and other black men being stopped, frisked and cited for apparently minor infractions (or for no reason at all) that he installed video cameras to capture the activity. He has also told police on multiple occasions that Sampson works for him.
Saleh is planning on filing a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Sampson and others he believes have been racially profiled. "I never felt they had any probable cause," Sampson told the Miami Herald. "They hop out of the car and search me before they even ask me for my name. … We have people shooting, killing, robberies. This is really ridiculous that they spend so much time arresting people for trespassing." The paper's calls and emails to the Miami Gardens police chief had not been returned by publication time. [Source]
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