Posted on 10/11/2022 11:40:54 AM PDT by buckalfa
The president of a North Carolina historically black university on Monday publicly called out Upstate South Carolina law enforcement officers after a traffic stop involving students and staff on a bus.
In a statement, Paulette Dillard, president of Shaw University, a private Baptist historically black university in Raleigh, described the traffic stop that she said happened in Spartanburg County on Oct. 5.
Dillard said 18 Shaw University students and two staff advisers were traveling on school business by contract bus to Atlanta when they were pulled over "under the pretext of a minor traffic violation."
The statement said officers boarded the bus and asked the driver where he was headed.
At that point, multiple sheriff's deputies and drug-sniffing dogs searched the suitcases of the students and staff in the luggage racks under the bus, Dillard said.
The rest of the statement describes what happened after that, and Dillard's reaction:
"In a word, I am 'outraged,'" Dillard wrote. "This behavior of targeting Black students is unacceptable and will not be ignored nor tolerated. Had the students been White, I doubt this detention and search would have occurred.
"It’s 2022.
"However, this scene is reminiscent of the 1950s and 1960s—armed police, interrogating innocent Black students, conducting searches without probable cause, and blood-thirsty dogs. It’s hard to imagine. Yet, it happened to the Shaw University community, and it is happening throughout this nation in alarming fashion. It must be stopped.
"To be clear, nothing illegal was discovered in this search by South Carolina Law Enforcement officers. The officers said they stopped the bus because it was swerving and issued the driver a warning ticket for “improper lane use.” Throughout this unnerving and potentially dangerous situation, our students and staff conducted themselves calmly and with tremendous restraint.
"I will modernize the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with my own, “The ultimate measure of a man and woman is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.”
"Our students stood tall amid an unnerving and humiliating experience and because of their dignified and professional response, the situation did not escalate into something far more sinister.
"So, I am extremely proud of our students and staff and how they responded under very trying circumstances. I am pleased to report they arrived safely in Atlanta to take full advantage of the Center for Financial Advancement Conference, where they actively engaged in sessions about financial literacy and home ownership. And they returned home safely to campus without incident.
"We are eternally grateful.
"However, I wish to be perfectly clear. The action taken by South Carolina Law Enforcement in Spartanburg County was unfair and unjust. I firmly believe had the bus been occupied by White students, they would not have been detained.
"I have asked our Shaw University General Counsel to investigate this situation as we explore options for recourse—legal and otherwise—available to our students and the university.
In the past the good sheriff has been accused of playing loose with the concept of probab!e cause by using profilers.
What are your thoughts on this, especially in light there seems to be little transparency in the accounting of forfeited assets?
“Throughout this unnerving and potentially dangerous situation, our students and staff conducted themselves calmly and with tremendous restraint.”
He’s praising them for not getting violent, which he truly feels would have been appropriate.
“bloodthirsty dogs”
riiiiight.
Boo hoo. I got frisked and searched my backpack when walking home from the store in Gainesville FL.
I, apparently, matched the description of a rapist.
White, around 6’0”, and athletic build.
How many white dudes in a college match that?...
I’ve read about this case previously. It was a clear Fourth Amendment violation. Someone once said the most fundamental right of a free citizen is the right to be left alone. The folks on that bus should have been left alone.
Nope.
The purpose is revenue enhancement.
In this case the bus was targeted for the same reason.
They were hoping the student might have drugs or perhaps sand, donut glaze, random plant material or anything else that the police could pretend to believe were drugs so they could grab any cash or other valuables the students may have had.
The police now have "Cash" dogs.
The SCSD has become nothing but a revenue generator for Spartanburg County.
Know a deputy sheriff who works the highway outside of Austin, TX. Majority of his stops and drug confiscations are of college students. A little drug running to supplement those student loans. You would think that they would drug carefully and with good vehicles, but they don’t.
Historically Butthurt Collection Unit
Based on what I read here and what I see happening elsewhere, the school and the students on the bus have every reason to be outraged.
Probable cause has become a horrible joke om this country. Combine that with this thirst for confiscated revenue and you have a recipe for a police state which is pretty much where we are now.
They would have sniffed out a bus of whites as well. I’m sick of hearing “how dare they stop “Black” people. The negro fatigue is wearing thin.
I wonder why the author didn’t interview the Police Department that conducted the search.
Well, as far as racism, the question is do they regularly stop school buses with out of state tags or just this one?
After that the question is of the legality of searching someone’s vehicle without probable cause.
Are you saying the bus was stopped because the bus had black riders on it? Is that what you are saying you RACIST POS...
Driver observed swerving...probable cause to stop the bus.
He received a citation.
Luggage in storage was sniffed by dogs, outside the bus.
No statement that any student was searched by officers or dogs.
All contrived hyperbole by the school official.
How did the officers know the bus was carrying any particular person of any particular color? My first thought is they may have thought the bus was human smuggling illegal entrants from the south up to the north and wanted to make sure they kept going without stopping in their state.
It could be worse. You could be Donald Trump.
He’s praising them for not getting violent?
He? President Paulette Dillard is a she.
I watch OPLIVE and I noticed that some of the searches the cops do on very flimsy reasons seem overused. Am I wrong?
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