Maryland County NAACP accuses local cops of harassing young blacks

Jet, March 25, 1996

The president of the Montgomery County, MD, branch of the NAACP has accused local police of bias against young Black men.

Linda Plummer, NAACP president, told the Washington Post that she receives 9 to 11 complaints a week from young Black males who claim that they had been treated unfairly by officers because of their race. She added that she received 300 to 350 complaints in 1995.

"They're out there day after day harassing [young Black men], and we're tired of it,' she said. "We don't support crime. We don't support bad things. We don't support harassment either."

A recent complaint involved Michael Crawford, a 19-year-old chemistry student at Montgomery College, who was stopped by two officers and ordered to the ground at gunpoint before being told that he fit the description of a robbery suspect. After being handcuffed, taken to a police station, questioned and photographed, Crawford was driven home by a detective.

But the local police chief has said she is not aware of such complaints. Police Chief Carol A. Mehrling said Plummer and other NAACP officials never mentioned such a large amount of complaints against police in several different conversations she had with them.

Plummer said they raised the issue at a December meet the chief.

Mehrling said the complaints were general without specifics, but she urged anyone with complaints to come forward.

Sexy leading man Denzel Washington and his wife, Pauletta, recently purchased two lots of land overlooking Beverly Hills for a reported $6.5 million to build a new home.

The Washingtons, who have four children, purchased the two lots,.located in Beverly Park, from Disivey chairman Michael Eisner and his wife, Jane, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The couple hopes to have the home completed, by next spring. Their current home in the Toluca Lake section of Los Angeles was damaged in the earthquake of 1994.

The paper reported that Washington personally negotiated the deal with Eisner, who had higher offers for the lot.