
On Sunday, March 25, 2012 at approximately 06:08 PM Central Time Zone at a bus stop at the intersection of 5th and Nicollet, Minneapolis Police Department officers angrily harassed about 15-20 passengers (self included) and threatened to issue “loitering” citations and make arrests if all of us at the bus stop did NOT get on the 18 bus that was soon approaching.
I was the token white person at the bus stop. All other passengers and individuals (not committing any crimes that I witnessed) happened to be black. Most appeared to be under the age of 30; perhaps under the age 0f 20. There was an even mix of males and females. It should be noted I was one passenger waiting at least 20 full minutes for ANY bus to arrive, it was chilly, the heater for the bus station was no longer operable, and a number of bus routes happen to go down Nicollet/Nicollet Mall in Downtown Minneapolis. I was told for example by another passenger that to get to my intended destination, all buses OTHER than the 10 bus would get me to the correct location. It is safe to assume that various passengers required various specific buses to approach their individual destinations.
Prior to Minneapolis Police Department officers approaching/harassing passengers (including self), passengers were noticeably uncomfortable by the extreme police presence for unknown reasons. There was at least one MPD Squad car monitoring the bus stop for a noticeable amount of time in addition to at least one officer on a bicycle constantly patrolling the area of (other than self) mostly black bus passengers. I should note that for political reasons I myself happened to be wearing a hooded sweatshirt, part of the time with the hood on my head to keep warm. As white as my complexion might be, it’s possible that initially officers did not notice there happened to be a pale white woman in the crowd of all black passengers.
Officers “Lewis” (didn’t have time to catch his first name or badge number) and Kevin Lazarchich (Lazarchic being on bicycle) sternly for unknown reasons walked through the bus shelter past all of us as the 18 bus approached and angrily threatened to issue any passengers NOT leaving immediately and/or getting on that exact bus would be issued “loitering” citations and possibly arrested.
The moment I saw officers approaching, I immediately whipped out my bus transfer just to be on the safe side. I also muttered to myself that I had been at the bus stop a full 20 minutes and this was the first bus I had seen the entire time and I just so happen to be able to ride this exact bus.
Most passengers were quickly in line to board the 18 bus, self included. A handful of other passengers waited behind, likely needing to catch other buses to reach other destinations.
I quickly walked towards the crowd of waiting passengers as well as two Minneapolis Police Officers, whipped out a Press Badge I happened to have in purse, announced I was with the press, and demanded badge numbers as soon as possible so I could have time to board the bus I needed to board anyway. (I also flashed my bus transfer and insisted I need some sort of information quickly as the bus was obviously about to leave soon.)
Officer Lewis (inside bus terminal at time – approximately 06:12 PM) was unable to provide information in a timely fashion. Officer Kevin Lazarchic snapped at me that I needed to be “more polite”. I responded, “Officer, I am trying to be polite, but I am in a hurry as I desperately need to catch that bus and you yourself stated you want us to board the bus. I have a transfer. If you do not have a card with a badge number available right now, could you please just tell me your badge number so I can write it down later and board the bus as quickly as possible? I am with the press, need the badge number, and must board this bus. Thank you.”
Officer Kevin Lazarchic did hand me some sort of a card (pictured above), although it should be noted there is no mention of his badge number, nor is there a citation number. Of course if any citations were issued, that would have occurred after I boarded the 18 bus.
Once on board the bus, I announced to fellow passengers who were at the bus stop with me that I had the names of officers for anyone wishing to have such information (got a high five from a fellow passenger), allowed anyone who wished to take photos of the card and/or copy information down, confirmed with fellow passengers that there were approximately 15-20 of us peacefully waiting at the bus stop for at least 20 minutes while no bus arrived in that period of time, that other than myself wearing a hooded sweatshirt ALL other passengers were black, that it seemed pretty clear there was some sort of racism or racial profiling going on (“Standing While Black”), that 2+ black passengers attempted but failed to get identification (names/badge numbers) of officers and that apparently it took a white woman with a press badge to obtain information we as citizens legally have a RIGHT to.
I then explained briefly that all of us as citizens have the 4th Amendment Right to NOT be subjected to unlawful search and seizure by the police/authorities without a warrant and that we also have 1st Amendment Rights to PEACEABLY ASSEMBLE, EXPRESS ourselves, speak, practice any religion we wish, and have freedom of the press. I stated, “Just so we’re ALL CLEAR here; all we were DOING everyone was a ‘performance art piece’ and ‘ PEACEABLY ASSEMBLING’ at a bus stop together!”
Just another day for me, but yes, apparently white me got harassed by the police for committing the “crime” of “Standing While Black”. I suppose it was a shock that a white woman happened to be a passenger and happened to have a press badge.