Office of Campus Community Relations
dOffice of Campus Community Relations
412 Mrak Hall
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 752-2071
October 15, 2004
Davis Enterprise
A UC Davis graduate student has filed a complaint against the university's police department, claiming he was treated unfairly during a recent bicycle stop because he is black.
Ebrima Ceesay, 30, filed his complaint with the department last week. Police have launched an investigation into the matter.
"We take all complaints very seriously," said Rita Spaur, assistant police chief at UCD. "We do not tolerate bias-based policing. We train our officers in great detail and appreciate the diversity of our community."
The stop occurred at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, on the corner of Hutchison and Kleiber Hall drives. Ceesay says he was riding west through the intersection when a patrol officer pulled him over and informed him that he had failed to give a pedestrian the right of way.
After asking to see Ceesay's identification, the officer, Chithien Le, asked the student whether he had a criminal record or any tattoos on his body, and whether he had ever lived in Oakland, according to Ceesay.
Ceesay said he found the questions "demeaning and dishonoring," and of no relevance to the alleged bike infraction. During the incident, a second officer pulled up behind Le's patrol car and observed the conversation with one hand resting on his gun, Ceesay said.
"I felt threatened," said Ceesay, who during the incident had recorded Le's name and badge number on his Palm Pilot. Later, after being released with a warning, he went to the UCD Police Department to request a complaint form.
He filed the complaint two days later after receiving little response from administrators at UCD, and after speaking with the officer, who Ceesay said did not adequately explain or apologize for his line of questioning. Spaur, the UCD assistant police chief, said the upcoming investigation will determine whether the officer's questions followed department policy and practice.
"The questions may be routine based on the information the officer had at the time," Spaur said. She added that complaints of bias-based policing are rare at UCD, with only one other complaint being filed in the past year. The investigation into that complaint is still pending.
But Ceesay said he's heard from other minority students at UCD who felt they've been treated unfairly by university police.
One of them, fourth-year student Richmond Darko, said he was detained by police for about 15 minutes last November as he walked through campus on his way to write a paper. After questioning him and searching his backpack, the officers released Darko, explaining he matched the description of a suspect they were looking for.
"You were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Darko recalled an officer telling him. "I couldn't say anything, I was so frustrated."
Ceesay said he has no plans to take legal action against the department. Instead, he hopes his complaint will lead to a dialogue between police and students.
"All I want is, let's talk about it," Ceesay said. "If we don't talk about it, it's going to be too late if something catastrophic happens. I'm not going to wait until that happens."
Students will have an opportunity to air their concerns with police on Oct. 23, when UCD hosts a student/police community forum on campus. The all-day, invitation-only event will include city and university police, student leaders and various members of the Davis community, said Rahim Reed, associate executive vice chancellor of campus community relations.
The forum is one in a series of events surrounding the third annual Campus Community Book Project. This year's selection is Anna Deavere Smith's "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," about the Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.
"We're looking at identifying issues and concerns that impact our community from the student/police perspective," said Reed. While the forum was not scheduled in response to Ceesay's complaint, "it's apropos that we already have something in place to look at these issues."
- Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net
Friday, October 15, 2004
Printer Friendly LayoutDavis Enterprise
Racism at root of police complaint
By Lauren Keene/Enterprise staff writerA UC Davis graduate student has filed a complaint against the university's police department, claiming he was treated unfairly during a recent bicycle stop because he is black.
Ebrima Ceesay, 30, filed his complaint with the department last week. Police have launched an investigation into the matter.
"We take all complaints very seriously," said Rita Spaur, assistant police chief at UCD. "We do not tolerate bias-based policing. We train our officers in great detail and appreciate the diversity of our community."
The stop occurred at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, on the corner of Hutchison and Kleiber Hall drives. Ceesay says he was riding west through the intersection when a patrol officer pulled him over and informed him that he had failed to give a pedestrian the right of way.
After asking to see Ceesay's identification, the officer, Chithien Le, asked the student whether he had a criminal record or any tattoos on his body, and whether he had ever lived in Oakland, according to Ceesay.
Ceesay said he found the questions "demeaning and dishonoring," and of no relevance to the alleged bike infraction. During the incident, a second officer pulled up behind Le's patrol car and observed the conversation with one hand resting on his gun, Ceesay said.
"I felt threatened," said Ceesay, who during the incident had recorded Le's name and badge number on his Palm Pilot. Later, after being released with a warning, he went to the UCD Police Department to request a complaint form.
He filed the complaint two days later after receiving little response from administrators at UCD, and after speaking with the officer, who Ceesay said did not adequately explain or apologize for his line of questioning. Spaur, the UCD assistant police chief, said the upcoming investigation will determine whether the officer's questions followed department policy and practice.
"The questions may be routine based on the information the officer had at the time," Spaur said. She added that complaints of bias-based policing are rare at UCD, with only one other complaint being filed in the past year. The investigation into that complaint is still pending.
But Ceesay said he's heard from other minority students at UCD who felt they've been treated unfairly by university police.
One of them, fourth-year student Richmond Darko, said he was detained by police for about 15 minutes last November as he walked through campus on his way to write a paper. After questioning him and searching his backpack, the officers released Darko, explaining he matched the description of a suspect they were looking for.
"You were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Darko recalled an officer telling him. "I couldn't say anything, I was so frustrated."
Ceesay said he has no plans to take legal action against the department. Instead, he hopes his complaint will lead to a dialogue between police and students.
"All I want is, let's talk about it," Ceesay said. "If we don't talk about it, it's going to be too late if something catastrophic happens. I'm not going to wait until that happens."
Students will have an opportunity to air their concerns with police on Oct. 23, when UCD hosts a student/police community forum on campus. The all-day, invitation-only event will include city and university police, student leaders and various members of the Davis community, said Rahim Reed, associate executive vice chancellor of campus community relations.
The forum is one in a series of events surrounding the third annual Campus Community Book Project. This year's selection is Anna Deavere Smith's "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," about the Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.
"We're looking at identifying issues and concerns that impact our community from the student/police perspective," said Reed. While the forum was not scheduled in response to Ceesay's complaint, "it's apropos that we already have something in place to look at these issues."
- Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net
Friday, October 15, 2004