EXCLUSIVE: Parole Officers Say They Were Illegally Stopped By Rockland County Cops

[MrScorpio]

By Sarah Wallace
Wednesday, July 16, 2014

NEW YORK (WABC) -- It's almost unheard of to have members of law enforcement publicly lambasting each other, but the state parole officers say what happened to them is so egregious, they can no longer stay silent and they are not stopping there, they are filing a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Sarah Wallace: "You were afraid they were going to shoot you?"

Sheila Penister said "I could rest assured I was dead that day."

The four veteran New York State Parole officers deal with danger every day, but they say they never imagined the greatest threat of their lives could come from their own. It happened during a tense stand-off at this intersection on Route 59 in Rockland county in late April.

"All I could think of was if I sneeze, or blink, or clear my throat, that, yeah, I might have a bullet lodged in my head," said Annette Thomas.

The officers, who work out of Rockland County, were wearing their vests and shields and riding in this state-issued vehicle with a parole placard on the dashboard. They say, sudden.y, the car was surrounded at gunpoint by cops from the Ramapo Police department and one from the Village of Suffern.

Sarah: "Why do you think you were stopped?"

"Racial profiling, there's no doubt in my mind. I believe that 4 black officers with gold shields in a predominantly white neighborhood was just a tad bit too much for them to swallow," said Penister.

Sarah Wallace: "And they were all white?"

Penister: "All white."

http://7online.com/news/exclusive-parole-officers-sue-rockland-county-cops-for-discrimination/192286/

[Android3.14]

1. Holy crap

When you profile your own, then you know it's profiling for everyone.

[MrScorpio]

2. Cops are way out of control in this country

Even other law enforcers are experiencing how bad our police misconduct problem is.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Too many cops are racist thugs. I hope the good burghers of Rockland pay out the nose.

Maybe that'll learn 'em.

[Piedras]

4. Former federal juror

Over twenty years ago I was a juror in a federal civil rights case between a Los Angeles parole officer who was arrested by the Los Angeles police while he was on duty. The parole officer was in a private home when LA police busted in without a warrant. The PO was a black man in civilian clothes doing his job in the private residence. The PO questioned the cops illegal entry and was quickly arrested when they discovered he was armed, as well as his official LA Sheriff's id. He was held in handcuffs outside while higher-ups were called to the scene to figure out what to do.

The law suit was against the former chief of police, Sam Yorty, who was present in the court room. As a juror many, many details were left out and went unanswered when we inquired for more information. We ultimately held that the police violated the sheriff's, the PO's, civil rights. We never learned what damages the PO was awarded and received.

As an aside, it was interesting at the time to learn the LA Sheriffs had a widely shared unofficial video disparaging the LA Police. We never saw the rumored video.

This law suit was pre 9/11 so it is all too easy to believe the civil rights of the four parole officers were violated.