ROANOKE NAACP REQUESTS INQUIRY

Group Alleges Vast White Conspiracy

The group charges that black Roanokers are purposely discriminated against throughout the criminal justice system. But it presented no data to support its allegations.

The Roanoke NAACP Wednesday accused local, state and federal law enforcement and judicial authorities of engaging in a vast white conspiracy against black people.

NAACP officials said they have requested an investigation by the Department of Justice's civil rights division.

The NAACP also accused local news media, including The Roanoke Times, of sensationalizing crimes against blacks and underplaying those against whites.

"When we fought the Klan, at least we knew who they were because they wore hoods and sheets," said the Rev. Carl Tinsley, acting president of the Roanoke branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "These [white authorities] are the same people who have the same biases. It's a conspiracy."

Police, prosecutors and others denied the allegations.

Evangeline Jeffrey, the branch's second vice president, said a branch committee reviewed bias complaints for the past several years and concluded that black Roanokers face intentional discrimination throughout the criminal justice system.

But the NAACP presented no statistical evidence or other data to support its allegations, which it said were based on increasing complaints from blacks about unfair treatment. The NAACP said it had no proof of its allegations in part because "there are no clear measures for monitoring what has been going on."

Martin Jeffrey, a branch board member and former president, said the system was unfair to blacks because it emphasized punishment over prevention for juvenile offenders and imposed harsher sentences for crack cocaine than for powder cocaine.

Tinsley blamed society for forcing young black men to sell crack. "Our young people are out hustling" because of a judicial and economic system that makes it difficult for black youths to succeed, he said.

Tinsley, Evangeline Jeffrey and Martin Jeffrey said recent cases against Roanoke police officer Frederick Pledge, Martinsville attorney Rickey Young and former Roanoke physician Verna Lewis highlighted problems with the criminal justice system.

Pledge has been indicted on charges of racketeering and drug conspiracy. Young has been indicted on charges of tax evasion and mail fraud. Lewis was convicted of tax fraud. All are black.

Tinsley said the NAACP took no stance on Pledge's guilt or innocence but suggested he is the victim of racism. Branch officials praised the police's Community Oriented Policing Effort unit and the department's black officers, but questioned why blacks comprise only 6 percent of the uniformed force while making up nearly 25 percent of the city's population.

Branch officials said they have given the police department information about alleged wrongdoing by white officers, but that the information was not fully investigated.

But not all Roanoke NAACP members agree with the branch's accusations of racism against the police, at least where Pledge is concerned.

"I am insulted and embarrassed by their [the NAACP's] support of Officer Frederick Pledge," Jeff Artis, an NAACP member and vice president of the Roanoke branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said in a statement. "Pledge's problems aren't because he's black."

The NAACP also accused the commonwealth's attorney's office, the public defender's office, court-appointed attorneys, the U.S. attorney's office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the Roanoke County Police Department of being part of the alleged conspiracy. In other allegations, the NAACP said:

White private attorneys often refuse to take black clients because the attorneys do not want to offend the white corporate power structure.

There was "clear evidence" of racial profiling - the practice of detaining blacks for no reason except their race - by Roanoke and Roanoke County police.

The commonwealth attorney's office and public defender's office conspire to persuade black defendants to plead guilty instead of seeking a jury trial.

Roanoke police spokeswoman Shelly Alley, U.S. Attorney Bob Crouch, and Commonwealth's Attorney Don Caldwell denied the allegations.

Crouch said he met with Tinsley and Jeffrey last week and relayed their concerns to the Justice Department's civil rights division.

"I would disagree strongly that the criminal justice system is a white man's system," Caldwell said, adding that his office and other state, local and federal agencies have attorneys and other employees who are minorities.

Alley said the police department recently investigated three white officers and found no wrongdoing.

Officials for the other local, state and federal groups were unavailable to comment.