Interesting article and responses: http://planetprinceton.com/2016/02/08/princeton-university-arrest-perry-racism/
Seems like a pretty clear case of someone violating the law, getting caught, and making excuses. Hard to believe the president of Princeton immediately jumped to ‘defend’ her.
Anyone closer to Princeton have any thoughts?
An even the student newspaper tried to slant it, reporting on only a parking ticket, not the 67 mile speed in a residential area!: http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2016/02/u-professor-arrested-for-an-outstanding-parking-ticket/
Multiple outstanding court warrants against her, 67 mph in a 45, driving with a suspended license, gets peaceably arrested, booked and released without incident.
I think some people won’t be happy until favored races are granted complete diplomatic immunity.
Had a sudden flashback to season 3 of House, lol
From the video, she also threatened the cop, saying something like “I am a chaired professor. This is going to be relly bad publicity [for Princeton]”. Above the law?
There is a reason Princeton is referred to as the southern Ivy. Arrested for an unpaid Parking ticket. How Bizarre. It is called driving while black. She is lucky the same thing didn’t happen to her as happened to Sandra Bland. The person who needs to be arrested is the police officer
Only black people get pulled over for driving 67 in a 45 mph zone?
@proudparent26, Did you read the article?
So to recap,
I can confirm you can be white and pulled over for similar errors…in my defense, I was going 60 in a 50 and did not see the sign dropping to 40 (3 lanes, truck between me and the sign). My defense did not hold up…
@proudparent26, I also have to ask if you read the article. 22MPH over, suspended license, warrants, etc. I think it is concerning if you didn’t read the article and posted what you posted. But…it is even more concerning if you DID READ the article and still felt that the police actions were somehow ‘unjust’. I do not doubt that ‘driving while black’ exists…I have friends that are actual ‘law abiding citizens’ (which this ‘professor’ was not) that describe it quite accurately. But, one major problem with discussing any situation at all between races is that someone, somewhere will blame all unfortunate circumstances against them as ‘race related’, even if they are not. No…this Princeton incident was dumb on the professor’s part, preventable, and likely not at all (0%) race related. And, Penn is more south than Princeton.
^ And the problem with claiming an incident like this as evidence of racism is that it provides ammunition for people who want to claim that DWB doesn’t exist.
The arresting officers were white. She is black. She was patted down and frisked by the male officer! It was alleged she was driving 22 mph over the speed limit. She was handcuffed to a table! Sandra Bland died over a bad tail light. (for those of you who love to defend traffic tickets was a current traffic study done of the roadway where she was driving to justify the posted speed limit?)
In California a large percentage of the cars drive 20 mph over the speed limit. I find the whole thing to be a waste of time money and a blatant example of racial profiling. I guess she is lucky a choke hold wasn’t put on her or she wasn’t shot in the back 16 times
@proudparent26,
She wasn’t arrested for speeding. She was arrested for driving on a suspended license and having multiple outstanding court-issue warrants. Do you really think that if she were white the police would have risked their jobs by ignoring her arrest warrants?
How about some personal responsibility here. If you don’t want to be arrested, don’t drive on a suspended license and pay your fines. If I were to drive 67 in a 45 zone in my home state, Massachusetts, I’d expect to be pulled over and to pay a whopping fine. Here it would cost her $320 for the speeding ticket alone plus the fines for driving on a suspended license and the court fines for her parking tickets. Ouch.
And to clarify my comment in post #10, I do believe DWB exists, which is why I find false claims like this so dangerous.
@sue22 the law in most states allows for discretion in making arrests. By one account she had ONE unpaid parking ticket which lead DMV to suspend her driving license. The officer could have given her a notice to appear. That is what is done in most states virtually all the time. How about some personal responsibility on the part of the police officers.
This is example A why we have the largest prison population in the world.
Proudparent26, I am very familiar with the entire situation and I feel strongly that your comments are misinformed. Have you listened to the entire video? The police were following policy and were excessively polite. There is a question as to whether a male officer should have been allowed to pat down a female, but apparently, the Princeton Police Department only has 8 female officers and does not have a policy in place saying that male officers should only do such pat downs in the absence of a female officer (although I should point out that the Department is now reviewing its policies). In case you’re wondering, driving 67 mph on that stretch of Mercer St. would definitely stand out - in fact, I’m amazed she was able to reach such a speed - and several people I have known over the years have received tickets in Princeton for driving 12-15 miles over the speed limit- nothing to do with being black or white. The fact that there was an arrest warrant issued and her license suspended are not under dispute, and the Mercer’s County Prosecutor’s Office has investigated the matter and concluded that the police followed all appropriate procedures. And in terms of racism, Professor Perry has backtracked once or twice in her statements - here is her final tweet on the matter:
Now, I do not believe that anyone should be arrested for parking ticket violations and I feel that the law in that respect should be changed. And I can understand, given the background in our country of racial profiling and incidents such as Sandra Bland, that Professor Imani might well have initially felt that her race was behind some of the procedures used, i.e, the handcuffing and refusal to allow phone calls until she arrived at the police station. However, looking at the situation objectively, rather than subjectively, there is no evidence that she was treated differently based on her race.
I have no doubt DWB exists, but this doesn’t seem to be one of those situations. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…
Gee, her version doesn’t mention the reckless driving, suspended license or court warrants:
"MY ENCOUNTER WITH PRINCETON POLICE & THE AFTERMATH
Nia Perry·Monday, February 8, 2016
YESTERDAY, I sent out a few tweets over an encounter with police in Princeton New Jersey. It generated quite a bit of attention. The details are there. Though I have received many queries, I have declined speaking to press thus far. I found a way to share on social media that satisfied my need to speak.
The short version of the story is that I was pulled over and then arrested for a three year old parking ticket. The point I want to make, by writing, is bigger than that.
The response I have received since sharing my story has been overwhelmingly caring and thoughtful. Many people are vigilant and impassioned these days regarding policing. This is a direct result of the social movement that has emerged over the last several years. That is good. And it personally feels wonderful to be so supported. However, there are quite a few people who seem upset that I received support. Mostly they are suggesting that I am playing “innocent” when I am “guilty.” What they fail to understand is that I did not purport to be without fault. Now, make no mistake, I do not believe I did anything wrong. But even if I did, my position holds. The police treated me inappropriately and disproportionately. The fact of my blackness is not incidental to this matter.
In every profession, as in every life endeavor, people exercise discretion according to who they favor and who they disfavor, who they believe matters and who they consider inconsequential. And, as my own work and that of many colleagues has established, in this society abundant evidence exists that discretion is exercised, in general, in racially discriminatory fashion in virtually every arena studied from elementary school suspensions, to car purchases, to teachers recommending students for gifted and talented programs, to how often waiters visit your table in restaurants, to mortgages, to police stops and arrests. All things being equal, people in this society consistently disadvantage Black people compared to others. (And all things are rarely equal, but that is another matter.)
Some critics have said that I should have expected what I received. But if it is the standard protocol in an affluent suburb to disallow a member of the community to make a call before an arrest (simply to inform someone of her arrest) and if it is the protocol to have male officers to pat down the bodies of women, and if it is the norm to handcuff someone to a table for failing to pay a parking ticket, we have a serious problem with policing in the society.
If it is not the case that this is the general practice, then I hope everyone reading will consider the possibility that the way I was treated had something to do with my race, and that we have a serious problem with policing in this society particularly with respect to Black people.
We already know it IS the standard protocol for people in poor Black, Indigenous, and Latino communities to experience disproportionate police surveillance, harassment, violence, and punishment. That is the graver injustice. I’m asking you to understand that my experience, and my feelings, are directly and intimately tied to that larger truth. We unquestionably have a serious problem with policing in this society.
This was my first time in handcuffs. They were very cold on my arthritic wrists. I have been thinking about how vulnerable they make you feel. And how some people, often my people, from childhood on experience that naked vulnerability over and over again because they happen to live in places deemed “bad.”
There are a number of commentators online who have repeated to me an all too common formulation: “Well, if you hadn’t done anything wrong this wouldn’t have happened.” But this demand for behavioral perfection from Black people in response to disproportionate policing and punishment is a terrible red herring.
I have lived in predominantly White communities for much of my life, and in those spaces I literally witnessed thousands of illegal acts that went unpunished. Lenience is the rule rather than the exception. I have also seen in those places and spaces that the Blacker and poorer you are, the harsher the penalties you face. Lenience is not the rule for them when they are in the minority or the majority. I can show you this by anecdote as well as statistical data.
Punishment in this society simply does not exist in a direct correlation to illegal activity. What it IS correlated to is race and class. And if perfection is not required for white citizenship, it should not be required of mine. Fairness requires something better.
Moreover my quarrel is not with paying a fine, or getting a ticket (even though we know such punishments are also disproportionately meted upon black people who often don’t have the resources to pay them.) I could afford to pay the fine, and I paid it without hesitation. No, my quarrel is with how I was treated. I cannot ever say definitively that this specific mistreatment was a result of race. But I can say that what I experienced was far more likely because my skin is a deep brown, my nose is round, and my hair is coily. And given the accumulation of police violence against Black people in this society, my fear at being stopped and arrested as a Black woman was warranted and even reasonable.
The day that I shared my story, others came pouring into my inbox and text messages. Undergraduates, grad students, and residents of the town, shared stories of experiencing treatment they found unjust from the local police. However, I do not want to isolate Princeton Police, although I would love for them to respond to this moment with care not simply towards me but for the entire community they are charged with serving. But in truth, this is not just a local problem. It is a systemic one, one that is also national and international.
Nor do I want to catastrophize what I experienced. It was humiliating and frightening, but I am not Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, or Tanisha Anderson. I was not murdered. I was not screamed at, roughed up, or held over the weekend, or for weeks, or years. I was not forced into a plea deal that will take me away from my children, or prevent me from working or maintaining my home. I am here. My life has not been ruined or destroyed. And I must admit I am somewhat ashamed that my story will get more attention than those of others who have experienced things far worse that merit our response. But I hope against hope that the attention my story has received, and the fact that many people will give me the benefit of the doubt because of my profession, my small build, my attachment to elite universities, and because prominent people will vouch for my integrity and responsibility, can be converted into something more important. I hope that this circle of attention will be part of a deeper reckoning with how and why police officers behave the way they do, especially towards those of us whose flesh is dark. "
The video of the arrest is included in this article:
I wonder when police will begin suing people who libel them in social media?
@midatlmom I watched the video. She had ONE outstanding parking ticket. That’s what generated the suspension of her license. It was three years old The police could have cited her and released her with a notice to appear. The speeding ticket is suspect. The cop in the video gave two different speeds she was going. She was coming towards him. How did he determine her speed? Just by looking at her car? Did he use a speed gun that hadn’t been tested in two years. In the US you are innocent until proven guilty. The whole speeding incident is very suspect.
Why in a low crime town like Princeton do they need TWO police officers to ride patrol together??? Reviewing online data the average cop in Princeton makes in excess of $100,000.00 per year. Virtually the only crime in Princeton is petty theft( somebodies bicycle gets stolen?) Additionally the whole pat down is not visible on video. Why isn’t it??
It appears that Princeton has too many overpaid cops with not much to do . How many whites were treated like the professor? I find the whole situation disgraceful on the part of the police from many different angles.
She was not arrested because her license was suspended or because she has ONE outstsnding psrking ticket, she was arrested because there was a warrant for her arrest. Why would they cite her and give her a notice to appear when she has already failed to appear for the initial charge (parking ticket) that caused a warrant be issued in the first place. I don’t dispute that racial profiling exists, but I don’t think that’s the case here. They arrested her because of the outstanding warrant for arrest which they HAVE to do. In addition, they cannot let her continue to drive on a suspended license. They told her they would process her and she could pay the parking ticket that she was arrested for, and they would bring her to the university and she can have someone pick up her car. They were super polite and not in any way abusive. I think she has a lot of nerve categorizing herself along with actual victims of abuse by police. As to the police salary comment, I’m not sure where you’re from but in NJ we have a very high cost of living and that salary is quite average. While obviously it’s not an area known for violent crime, several major highways pass through Princeton and there are many traffic incidents, and for anyone to do 64 OR 67 mph on Mercer Street is crazy, it is residential with schools. There are so many pedestrians in the area they need to protect, not to mention the drunken fools stumbling out of the pubs to head back to campus. It’s no NYC, but it’s not Mayberry either.