May 14, 2018

Garden City to Pay Man Who Alleged Racial Profiling 

In 2016, Ronald Lanier, a retired black Nassau County correction officer, was allegedly assaulted by two white Garden City police officers, George Byrd and John Russell, who mistakenly took him for a black man who had allegedly shoplifted a purse from a village store. Lanier was shopping in a supermarket in Garden City Village—the village is 91% non-Hispanic White—when the two officers ordered him to put his hands behind his back, and threw him to the ground. Lanier claimed that the officers whispered in his ear, “You want to be a tough guy?” and then beat him on both sides of his ribs. He said that he complied with their orders and said, “I am on the job” — a phrase that law enforcement officers use to identify themselves to each other—and questioned why he was being detained, saying he had done nothing wrong.

The lawsuit claimed Ronald Lanier was assaulted both verbally and physically by police and sought at least $40 million in damages. The case recently resulted in a settlement that ordered the Village of Garden City and its police department to pay Lanier $150,000.

HOW DOES THIS CONNECT TO STRUCTURAL RACISM?

Many majority white neighborhoods on Long Island, such as Garden City, were originally populated through racial covenants and overt forms of housing discrimination that denied access to people of color. Today more subtle forms of housing discrimination persist and result in discrimination against non-whites. Since racially segregated neighborhoods create an unspoken understanding of who belongs and who does not belong, people of color are more likely to be treated with suspicion in majority white spaces.

Today Garden City Village is 0.1% black. This type of stark segregation most likely led the police officers to automatically assume that Lanier was the black suspect that they were searching for. This is why they did not bother to question him upon their arrival and instead resorted directly to force. Even when Lanier used a phrase to identify himself as a fellow police officer he was still treated as the suspect.

To read Dazio’s full article in Newsday see, “Papers: Garden City to pay man who alleged racial profiling”