Judge OKs Restraining Order On Alleged Racial Profiling In Rock Island, IL

Recently a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order against the city of Rock Island's Car Owner Responsibility Assignment ordinance, in which drivers playing loud music in their cars were fined and had their vehicles impounded.

Calling the provision "draconian," the judge said the ordinance put an unfair financial burden on people while not allowing for a prompt hearing.

David Lowery, president of the Rock Island branch of the NAACP, who was also affected by the ordinance, said people contacted him complaining of improper treatment by Rock Island police. "It was just another way of racial profiling ... We're hoping that the towing will cease as well as the ordinance," said Lowery.

He, along with three other Black men, have filed a $25 million discrimination lawsuit against the city claiming that the local ordinance allowed police "to harass African Americans in a discriminatory manner."

Washington, D.C., civil rights lawyers Jimmy Bell and Everald Thompson, who helped file the lawsuit, said the ordinance affected 65% of the Black population in Rock Island. "It was a money-making thing for the city."