STATE POLICE MUST EXPLAIN PROFILING INCIDENT

Does anyone believe that if three white basketball players from Dunlap,
dressed in ties and shirts, were pulled over for speeding on Interstate 74,
they'd be subjected to a half-hour interrogation? Does anyone think they'd
be accused, without any evidence, of hiding drugs? Would dogs be called to
sniff for contraband and backup officers to protect against trouble? Would
they be ordered from the car and searched?

Probably not.

But this is what happened to three Woodruff High School students a year and
a half ago. These facts are not really in question. Their white coach, who
was driving and who was not searched, backs up their account. What is
unproven is whether one of the state police officers used a profane racial
slur in talking to Corey Scott, and whether racial profiling explains why
police chose to accuse, detain and extensively search these three. Their
story came to light this week when the American Civil Liberties Union filed
a lawsuit accusing Troopers Jason Bevard and Clint Cowling of racial
discrimination.

There is much to set this case apart from others where racial
discrimination or profiling is alleged: the fact that they were all wearing
shirts and ties and on their way to a basketball tournament, the boldly
different treatment given the only white man in the car, the obvious
innocence of the individuals (nothing illegal was found), and the
corroboration of much of the story. Even that part of it which was
unwitnessed - Bevard's alleged use of a racial epithet - is supported by a
lie detector test given Corey Scott.

Maybe police have an explanation. Maybe they happened to be looking for
three tall black suspects, traveling together and wearing ties, who
happened to look like this trio. Maybe Bevard mumbles. Maybe one of the
teens said something that provoked suspicion. Maybe somebody had a hunch,
and sometimes hunches are productive.

Or maybe the cops have uncovered a new crime in Illinois: RWB, riding while
black.

The State Police looked into the complaint Scott filed but dismissed it for
insufficient evidence. They need to look again, and to make a full public
accounting. Furthermore, if the account of this incident is basically
accurate, then it behooves the state cops to look also at how they do
business in Illinois.