The Beverly Hills Police Department is being sued by two visitors who say they were arrested because they are Black.
On Monday, Jasmine Williams and Khalil White filed a civil rights lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court. The two allege that Beverly Hills Police Captain Scott Dowling, who was over “Operation Safe Street” at the time, wrongly targeted Black people. The initiative ran from March 1st, 2020, to July 1st, 2021, with almost everyone arrested being Black, many of which were only roller skating or riding scooters on Rodeo Drive.
While visiting Beverly Hills on September 7th, 2020, Williams and White rode a scooter and protested the “unlawful detention” and racial targeting of people of color on Rodeo Drive. They were arrested on “multiple fabricated charges” and spent two nights in jail. The charges have since been dismissed.
Ben Crump, who is representing the couple, says that the Beverly Hills Police were arresting Black people in the city solely because of their race.
“Our system turned a blind eye or, even worse, our system intentionally sent a Black man to jail even though they were innocent and committed no crime,” Crump stated at a press conference.
Police Chief Dominick Rivetti tells a very different story, claiming that the couple was warned not to ride scooters on the sidewalks earlier that day. He says that they were let go without action but committed the same offense later that day. Rivetti says that White and Williams were only taken into custody after providing false information to the police. He also defended “Operation Safe Street,” insisting that the five-week operation took 13 loaded guns off the streets and netted over a quarter-million dollars in cash and fraudulent unemployment benefit cards.
Dowling and Assistant Police Chief Marc Coopwood have both resigned after news of the lawsuit broke.
White and Williams are seeking unspecified damages.
