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Press Release
May 7, 2001
Contact:
Rick Callender, San Jose
NAACP President
Nedra Jones, Legal Redress Chair
(408) 406-5203
NAACP President Files Formal Complaint Against San Jose Police Officers
SAN JOSE - During a press conference in front of San Jose
City Hall on May 7, 2001 at 4:30 pm, Rick L. Callender, President of San
Jose/Silicon Valley Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) announced that he had just (at 3:00pm) filed formal
complaint with the San Jose Police Department's Professional Standardsand
Conduct Unit. (Commonly referred to as Internal Affairs)
On April 24th while walking from dinner in downtown San Jose with Santa Clara
City Council Member Rod Diridon,Jr., Callender and Diridon were stopped by
officers who were looking for a “tall black man with a light beard.” Callender was just one among numerous African-Americans, both male and female,
who were stopped.
Callender said, “It is the behaviorof the officers after the stop that I am
extremely upset with. Both what I witnessed during the stop of another
African American man and the responses that I received are unacceptable. People of color are routinely treated with disrespect and then intimidated into
feeling if they ask any questions or speakup at all during the stop they will be
immediately arrested for resisting arrest.”
Also, recently several African-American Oakland Police Department officers filed
complaints with the Professional Standards and Conduct Unit regarding the
unacceptable behavior of downtown officers.
Nedra Jones, Legal Redress Chair forthe San Jose Silicon Valley NAACP said,
“This is just the type of behavior that we have received numerous complaints
about, I am inundated with these same type of profiling based complaints. The targeting of both male and females in our communities of color is a constant
complaint. Since the end of February we have received over 20 complaints,
eight of them formal complaints. If the police are willing to profile the
president of the NAACP and disrespect him, then we definitely know that all people of color are in danger of being profiled in this
community.”
As a result of this incident and the numerous complaints the NAACP has received,
Callender is calling for local police departments to install video cameras in
their cars, mandate additional sensitivity training and to incorporate the data
collection included in AB 788 (Firebaugh). This legislation mandates that
officers would have to keep track of the race and ethnicity of the motorist or
pedestrian, the reason for the stop, whether a search was conducted, whether
drugs or evidence of other illegal activity was found, and whether a citation
was issued or an arrest was made.
The NAACP will be having a press conference May 7, 2001 in front of San Jose
City Hall, 801 North First Street at 4:30 pm.
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