title:  San Jose Cop Wrongly Held Black Family At Gunpoint In Front Of Their 7-Year Old Child
text: The San Jose Police Department has been plagued with accusations of racism and racial profiling, and now they re getting sued for it. A black family alleges that an officer followed them home from picking up their seven-year old daughter, and held them at gunpoint for absolutely no reason other than they were black, and the father, Emmanuel Stephens, might have matched the description of a  suspicious black man  in the area. The family is suing for an unspecified amount in damages.The first question that many people will ask themselves when faced with a like this is, what did this family do that caused the officer to draw his gun?According the lawsuit, they did nothing, and it s that kind of question that perpetuates racism in the justice system, because nobody asks themselves that when the victim is white. Officer Alexander Keller followed them home, and then when they got out of their car, he got out of his and drew his gun. The officer also put Stephens in handcuffs and held him in the back of his patrol car for a while. Their car was searched, and Stephens was cited for possession of a small amount of pot, despite having it for medical reasons and producing a prescription to prove it.Worse, when their 14-year old daughter came out, she was threatened with a trip to Juvenile Hall if she went back to get her cell phone and record the whole sordid incident.Their lawyer said: What happened to my clients happens all the time and is a real problem.This type of police misconduct only gets attention when someone ends up dead, but this type of non-lethal harassment is much more widespread and also need to be brought to light and stopped. The department, however, says that there isn t any bias in their policing methods despite strong evidence to the contrary, and this situation would seem to be another piece of that evidence. Another cop later said that someone had reported a suspicious black man with a purple backpack in that area, but Stephens had no such backpack. Keller proceeded to profile him anyway.Even if Stephens did have such a backpack, there was no way for this officer to see that from his car when he decided to follow them, hold them at gunpoint, detain Stephens, and search their car without a warrant and without probable cause. Being black does not constitute probable cause.San Jose s police department is like many others, though. Black people are guilty until proven innocent, and are treated as such. Had this been a white family, and someone had reported a suspicious white man in their area, would Keller still have followed them home and drawn his gun on them? Searched their car without a warrant or evidence of wrongdoing? Cited him for medical marijuana for which he had a prescription?Very likely not.Featured image by David Paul Morris/Getty Images