The Kansas chapter of the ACLU has called on the State authorities to look into a case involving a black man who was detained by the Police wrongly. The man was arrested while he was moving into his new home which he purchased about a month earlier. Since his arrest, he has been blocked from making a racial complaint by the police chief and has been continually harassed.
The man involved, Karle Robinson, an ex-marine who is aged 61, was held at gunpoint and cuffed last August as he took a television set from the rented van into the apartment. The apartment is located in Tonganoxie, Kansas City. Robinson said he would love that the cops involved and the police chief lose their jobs because if he were white, the incident would have never happened.
The Kansas ACLU have labeled the incident “moving while black” and have called on the Attorney General of Kansas, Derek Schmidt, to look into the matter or refer the complaint to the Commission of Peace Officers. Robinson believes that his detention was more of a racial based issue rather than one of burglary.
Robinson reports that the event occurred on August 19. He had been moving his property into his new house in the early hours of the morning as he had arrived at about midnight. He said he noticed an officer drive by a couple of times and when he was moving in the television which was the last item, the officer parked in his driveway.
He said as he tried to explain that he had papers to prove he was the owner of the house the officer pointed his gun at him and told him to drop the television set. He was asked to walk towards the building with his hands in the air and was consequently handcuffed by the officer. As soon as backup arrived, both officers went into the house, got the papers, and freed Robinson.
They apologized for the incident explaining that there had been several robberies in recent times. Robinson, however, considered it a “half-hearted apology” and says the incident should never have occurred in the first place. He said several times he saw police cars parked across the street from his apartment and once they followed for over 7 miles till he got to the highway.
The police chief had even prevented him from making an official complaint sometime in October last year. Karle Robinson is an ex-marine who volunteers with the Kansas City radio station as a DJ.
