PROFILING MARS POLICING

Racial profiling is understandably a controversial police tactic.
Unfortunately, that's what appears to have occurred in Fort
Lauderdale's predominantly black, low-income neighborhoods, where
young black men were detained and searched after being stopped for
walking in streets lacking sidewalks.

According to the Broward County Public Defender's Office, the Fort
Lauderdale Police Department crossed the line in using an obscure
infraction to stop and search people for drugs.

The state law is clear: "Where sidewalks are provided, no pedestrian
shall, unless required by other circumstances, walk along and upon
the portion of a roadway paved for vehicular traffic."

So, during an 18-month period ending last September, Fort Lauderdale
police officers issued 176 citations to individuals who they say
failed to use sidewalks or crosswalks.

Video: Bloodied victim speaks out about robbery, assault following bus ride

However, the fact that most of these citations were issued primarily
in low-income, predominantly black neighborhoods immediately sparked suspicion.

Why? Not just due to the demographic make-up of the communities, but
because the citations were issued in areas where there were no sidewalks.

Many South Florida neighborhoods lack sidewalks or have sporadic
stretches where sidewalks simply end, usually determined by the whims
of local development and planning codes. Still, the attorneys in the
defender's office quickly showed up with compelling evidence with
which to argue that a few overzealous police officers abused the law.
And judges and prosecutors had to drop what appeared to be valid
charges against people suspected of possessing or dealing drugs.

In case after case, defense attorneys produced photographs where the
arrests took place - photographs that showed those areas lacked
sidewalks. Without the sidewalks, the police lost the legal reason to
have stopped the individuals, in the first place, to determine if
additional charges were warranted.

The police later testified that the suspects agreed to be searched.
The suspects said they did not.

At this point, however, the cases against these suspects
substantially weakened. The obscure sidewalks law gave did not give
them the solid legal justification they expected.Stopping people for
not walking on sidewalks when sidewalks don't exist - and doing so in
predominantly black neighborhoods on top of that - led to complaints
of racial profiling. And enough doubt in prosecutors and judges to
toss the cases.

Granted, the police are responsible for catching criminals, and
illicit drugs continue to be a problem in many urban areas. We get that.

Residents in the city's crime ridden communities, however, deserve a
better effort than one that comes across as a "walking while black"
tactic. Conclusion: Using the sidewalk law is a clever idea, but only
in places where there's actually a sidewalk.

We don't see how you can break a law where the law really should not
apply anyway.