Man Who Earned PHD At Northwestern Speaks Out About The Effects Of Racial Profiling
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Another man is sharing his story after a CBS 2 report about a man held at gunpoint by a homeowner in Bridgeport, saying the incident happened because of the color of his skin.
The reaction comes from a similar claim, although in his case, it was police pointing the guns. As CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports, there are common themes.
"They're going to pull me over. Here we go," Lawrence Crosby said on camera, as he captured the 2015 traffic stop. Police dash cam video, however, shows what happened when he got out of the car with his hands in the air. He was greeted by guns drawn and was taken down by Evanston Police.
Crosby was a student working towards his PHD at Northwestern at the time of the incident, and says police responding to a 9-1-1 call of a car theft ignored his claims that he was in his own car.
"The most significant impact is your sense of self-worth. We keep hearing the same script with different actors, pretty much," Crosby said, referring to what happened to Jermayne Smith two weeks ago in Bridgeport.
Like Crosby who was running an errand one minute, he was scared for his life the next.
In Smith's case, a man emerged from a house he was walking past and held him at gunpoint. Police handcuffed him, but later let him go.
Crosby, who recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about the lasting trauma of such events, blames racial profiling and says it must end.
"We are people, we communicate, we speak English," Crosby said.
Crosby is suing the Evanston Police Department.
"There's a common thread. There's a tendency to make a judgement about a person by what he or she looks like," said Tim Touhy, Crosby's lawyer.
When asked if Crosby had advice for Smith, he said, "Just keep fighting the good fight. Continue to shed lights in dark corners and society. Just tell the truth. Really, at the end of the day, tell your story."
Touhy says incidents like the ones experienced by Crosby and Smith continue to happen because there are no consequences.
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