Teacher, Three Others Sue LAPD, Alleging Racial Profiling in Stops

Schoolteacher Alberto Lovato said he has never been the same since the day police ordered him out of his truck at gunpoint, forced to lie face down on the ground and handcuffed him so tightly his wrists began to bleed.

“I was afraid for my life. The officer never told me anything, but just trained his gun on me like I was America’s No. 1 criminal,” he said.

Lovato said he has been deeply depressed since the incident, and said his personal relationships have also suffered.

Lovato and four other men--three African Americans and another Latino--are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday on their behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Los Angeles Police Department. The men believe they were victims of racial profiling, the term for the alleged police practice of pulling over African American or Latino drivers in hopes of finding evidence--such as drugs--that would lead to an arrest. According to the ACLU, the LAPD trains and allows officers to consider race as one of several factors in deciding whether to stop a motorist.

“The [plaintiffs] committed no offense but were stopped for ‘driving while black or brown,’ or ‘DWB,’ ” said Ramona Ripston, ACLU executive director.

The suit asks the court to declare such a practice unconstitutional. It also asks for a court-ordered injunction that would require the LAPD to maintain comprehensive records of all traffic stops.

LAPD officials declined to comment on the suit or the department’s policy about factoring in race when stopping motorists. But LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks has previously stated that, while race alone can’t justify a legal detention, it can be “used in conjunction with other circumstances.”