By Crescenzo Vellucci
Vanguard Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO – Another apparent “Driving While Black” incident here – the second high-profile one in recent months – is making the news because the longtime practice by police of stopping drivers because of racial bias without a violation of law is getting closer scrutiny.
Civil libertarians note that police cannot stop and detain an individual without a reason – probable cause, or at least reasonable suspicion – to believe there is some criminal activity. But the Supreme Court has OK’d police to use traffic stops as a reason to “fish” for evidence. Statistical data shows police nationwide use this discretionary power primarily against Black and Brown people of color.
But in recent Sacramento cases, young children are being assaulted and/or traumatized by the actions of law enforcement, claim activists.
Monday, at a news conference near a light rail station in Sacramento, Shonna McDaniels provided a chilling narration of a traffic stop involving her son and daughter on Feb. 14 at the corner of Martin Luther King and 24th St.
McDaniels is the founder of Sacramento’s Banana Festival and the Sojourner Truth Museum in Sacramento. McDaniels has murals up throughout Sacramento
“I am horrified. My 13-year-old daughter could have been shot. This is current day apartheid Jim Crow,” said McDaniels, flanked by several dozen community supporters and Black Lives Matter Sacramento.
She said she received a heart-stopping phone call that day from a neighbor, and learned her son, Kelshon Keys, had been pulled over by law enforcement. By the time she arrived, it was all over but her daughter, Nasara Keys, 13, was “in a complete state of traumatization.”
As McDaniels recounts the story, an unmarked Sheriff’s car flashed lights at her son, a dutiful 22-year-old who was picking up his sister. The son, not knowing who was flashing lights – she said he suspected it could be the KKK knowing that “this is the climate we live in.”
Eventually, she said, the unmarked gang unit vehicle turned on its siren and her son obeyed and pulled to the side of the road. But the unit yanked him out of the car, guns drawn. Then deputies “snatched “the sister out of the 
car by her arm and threw her in the back seat of the sheriff’s car.
“She was so scared she started crying and screaming for her mom. A female officer with no compassion just ignored her,” said McDaniels.
And then the really scary part happened, according to Daniels, referencing the death of Stephon Clark nearly a year ago, when Sacramento Police riddled Clark with bullets and killed him as he tried to enter his grandparents’ home. Police said he was armed – but he only had a cellphone.
Just like McDaniels’ daughter.
“My daughter reached for her phone to call me. She’s been to plenty of workshops and warned about not reaching for anything in (law enforcement’s) presence. This is not abnormal for a child to forget because she is a child and only human in the face of terror. My heart is just broken knowing that my child could have lost her life just that quickly by reaching for her phone and they would have said they were justified because they thought she had a gun,” said McDaniels.
The deputies didn’t shoot her daughter, but they did some damage.
“They grabbed her out of the car roughly and placed her hands behind her back. At this point she is screaming for mercy. She just had surgery on her hand and has six stitches…they did not (respond) to her calls of mercy. Now she has to have her hand re-stitched,” said McDaniels.
McDaniels maintains that the deputies illegally detained both her children, searched them illegally and violated their rights.
She complained to the Sheriff’s Dept, and was told that they believed her son was a “common criminal” because he didn’t immediately stop when an unmarked vehicle chased him, and flashed its lights.
“My son is not a gang banger or common criminal. He’s a hard-working young man who works a full-time and part-time job. He should never have been victimized by the Sheriff’s department after a hard day of work and coming home to fulfill my request to pick up his sister from school,” McDaniels said.
“As far as him not immediately stopping they should know in today’s world a lot of unmarked vehicle stops have not always been officers and ultimately resulted in someone’s death. The police when in unmarked vehicles should identify themselves over the loud speakers with their badge ID and make citizens feel safe,” she said.
The alleged reason for the stop by the gang unit was an expired license tag – but McDaniels’ son was not cited because he had recently purchased the car from an auto auction and was waiting for the vehicle to pass a smog test.
“Until now I had no idea the Sac PD and Sheriff’s gang task force have been terrorizing Black and Brown community folk. The divisions are not set up in affluent communities to victimize people over minor traffic stops. This is just like the Gestapo, another form of modern Jim Crow and it must stop,” McDaniels said.
Tanya Faison, Black Lives Matter Sacramento organizer, noted that the Black community in Sacramento is “over-policed,” and multiple jurisdictions are regularly seen – including the Sacramento Sheriff, Sacramento City Police Dept., and security from University of Pacific/McGeorge Law School and even Univ. of CA Davis police (Med Center).
“No other community is treated like this…they murder us, and they could have murdered that young girl,” said Faison.
In early December, another Black family came forward with a similar account.
BLM said Caleb Macon and his family, including his daughter, were “brutalized” by the Sacramento Police Dept. in yet another example of the SPD’s targeting of Blacks in the community, noting the high number of Black men – including Stephon Clark, who was unarmed – killed by Sacramento city police or county sheriff’s deputies.
A dramatic video of the incident provided by “Cop Watch” – and obtained by the Vanguard – appears to show SPD officers making the arrest of Caleb Macon, and then turning to arrest his wife and brother, all while a child cries in the background.
The video vividly shows the Black family confronted by more than a half dozen Sacramento Police Dept. officers at a traffic stop.
Initially, Caleb Macon, apologizing to police for asking them questions and maintaining his innocence, is handcuffed. Then his brother, checking the status of his sibling, is handcuffed and then police target Caleb’s wife Lashaun Royal, and arrest her – she also suffered a concussion and had her hair pulled out by SPD, said BLM. The family’s teen daughter is shoved to the ground.
“Caleb Macon was brutalized and arrested. His wife was brutalized and arrested. His brother was brutalized and arrested. His daughter was pushed to the ground while being traumatized,” said Faison.
Faison and BLM Sacramento released a list of demands, including a demand for all SPD audio and video, including body-cameras of the SPD officers involved, all video and audio of the Sacramento Sheriff’s department’s officers and helicopter and the names of all the officers involved.
“We demand that the Sacramento Police Department stop terrorizing Black families that have members that are on, or have been on parole or probation (and) stop using infraction and misdemeanor stops to criminalize Black community that are in, and outside, predominately Black neighborhoods,” said Faison.
“Officers found to have engaged in abusive behavior towards Black people in the community they patrol should be immediately removed and barred from any further engagement in that community,” added Faison.
Faison also charges “SacPD officers (should) remain professional during interactions with the communities they police (and) stop using abusive language and tactics toward Black community members and when officers engaging in predatory behavior that is clearly without legal cause, that they be sanctioned (and) stop using retaliatory methods that intentionally keep Black community members in control of, and beholden to, the current criminal system.”
Black Lives Matter Sacramento is also asking that “when abuse and trauma has been inflicted on the members of families, particularly children, compensation should be provided for mental health treatment either directly funded by the Police Department or the City of Sacramento.”
Headline for the article “appears” to have already judged… beyond ‘reporting’… who writes the ‘headlines’? Author?
BTW, I have the same ‘problem’ with the Emptyprize and the Bee. Often. WRH lives!
Cres wrote the headline. Seemed to reasonably describe the press conference.
“Seemed” to “Appears” ???
HuuuuuuuM!
“an unmarked Sheriff’s car flashed lights at her son, a dutiful 22-year-old who was picking up his sister. The son, not knowing who was flashing lights – she said he suspected it could be the KKK knowing that “this is the climate we live in.”
ridiculous
adjective
ri·dic·u·lous | \ rə-ˈdi-kyə-ləs \
Definition of ridiculous
: arousing or deserving ridicule : extremely silly or unreasonable : ABSURD, PREPOSTEROUS
If it’s an unmarked car, they shouldn’t be flashing their lights. This was the whole picnic day problem as well and why Davis has now basically prohibited unmarked cars from taking enforcement action.
So you think it’s reasonable for someone driving by Martin Luther King and 24th St to believe that the KKK is pulling people over with flashing lights? Is that your point?
No I stated my point the first time.
Just another version of a long-standing urban legend, I’d guess.
An urban legend that if perpetuated — such as unquestioningly via a Vanguard “reporter” — could get people killed.
I think a person of color is likely to react to the situation different than you might.
Meaning? Seriously, I’m not saying your comment is wrong, but I don’t know what you are implying.
I was actually replying to Jim, although I didn’t label it as such and I can see why you would think otherwise – I hit reply to his comment and it ended up under yours. I don’t know if that helps.
OK Craig, the POC whisperer/channeler, what does that mean?
It means that your reaction to the same incident is likely to be different from a young black man. I wouldn’t necessarily go KKK with this, but she probably meant white supremist. I can see that as a thought I might have in that situation. I’ll also add, it wouldn’t be comforting to know that it was just a cop in an unmarked car. But your experience is different from theirs.
” I wouldn’t necessarily go KKK with this, but she probably meant white supremist.”
So you think “white supremists” are driving around 24th/MLK and pulling people over? Both Cresci and yourself seem to have very little respect for the intelligence of African Americans. Cresci seems to believe that they are clueless as to what an unmarked cop car looks like and you believe they exist in a some dystopian fantasy land where the KKK is pulling people over.
Compared to that mowing while black is quite reasonable.
It doesn’t really matter what I think. I wasn’t there. Hindsight is 20/20. If it were me, I’d be wondering what the heck was going on and there is no way I would pull over for an unmarked car.
Did you get three sources?
Black people are targeted no question of that and it’s escalated while we wait for DA Schubert to charge the cops that murdered Stephon Clark any week now.
I feel for those kids being terrorized by angry military style cops it is the new Jim Crow era.
For all those wondering why someone wouldn’t immediately stop when some sketchy vehicle flashed its lights, think about what YOU would do, even in Davis…Common sense. I’m just reporting on the news conference – but is my mind made up that the stop, and especially the interaction was “wrong” here and that DWB is real? Uh, yes. People much smarter than most of us agree, and so do the statistics. And tossing a 13 year old around? Not good form. Because no one was killed, you don’t hear about these cases. But they happen, more than they should.
On what you said here, CV, I agree. I have no doubt DWB is real. I do understand that many people of color would have a scarier experience both in being pulled over and in an interaction with police due to past experience of themselves and people they know. I also find the use of a solo unmarked car to make a traffic stop a really sketch policing policy, except in an emergency (which this clearly was not).
Precisely because I do give a damn, I am concerned when I read that someone would believe the KKK were pulling them over in California — white supremacist, MAY-be. I know you are trying to convince people and bring them to understand the problem is REAL. The story can be told less hyperbolically and be more believable.
That’s why I focused on ‘dutiful’ — extra adjectives like that reek of trying too hard. You don’t have to go so over the top to show this is responsible person, and doing so may cause a casual reader to doubt. I would also swallow your reports easier (and I believe others you may wish to convince) if you worded them as ‘this is their side of the story’ — ‘the victim said’.
You tend to word your stories as if they are absolute fact. There are always two sides — and if you really believe your source, present it as their story — it actually comes across as more believable to those who are not already convinced.
Amen…
I want to comment but reading that the girl needed restitching makes my wrists hurt.
If flashing lights means highbeam or the headlight, I think it is normal for someone to ignore. That would be standard de-escalation.
Theoretically, the police does not need to arrest anyone or make any stops unless the people want them to do it. So, in that particular neighborhood, if the people don’t want the police to stop without cause (in this case, the expired license was a cause) they should be able to come to an agreement with the police. If the people opt out, the police does not need to be there.
If it is implied that the majority of the people in that neighborhood approves how the police is doing in that neighborhood, then the discussion is not between we (in Davis) against SPD, but the people in that neighborhood disapproving SPD against the people there approving SPD. Until those two parties discuss the issue, I think there is nothing for us (in Davis) as a third party to judge or form an opinion.
“So, in that particular neighborhood, if the people don’t want the police to stop without cause (in this case, the expired license was a cause) they should be able to come to an agreement with the police.”
It really doesn’t work that way.
Wow, it’s that easy . . . maybe all the UCD students who don’t want cops on campus because it scares POC and undocumented students can make an agreement with Mrak Hall?
BTW, what up Vanguard, no blogo on the UCD professor who professes to want all cops killed?
Missed your post, Alan… damn good question for the VG/David… given the Prof’s views, well, Off. Corona’s death …
I know Josh Clover a little bit, he was one of the guys pepper sprayed and also arrested for bank blocking back in the day. I haven’t talked to him so unless I do, I doubt I will personally write something. That doesn’t mean someone else won’t.
Professor Clover @ UCD might have some ‘good insights’ on this topic… might be ‘enlightening’…
See today’s Emptyprize, pg 2…
Or, the Bee, Marcos Breton column… the professor gets ~ $147,000 per year from students/taxpayers, to spew his ‘thesis’… what is defended by UCD is his ‘free speech’ rights… whatever…
The $147 k is total comp… source ‘Transparent California’, based in Nevada…
Moderator… am I “doxing”? If so, I apologize, and you can delete…
State salaries are public information . . .
Free speech is freedom from arrest, not from consequence . . .
Such as donors large and small refusing to give further money to UC Davis.
Alan: in other words, you have freedom of speech, but watch what you say. That doesn’t sound so free to me.
> you have freedom of speech, but watch what you say. That doesn’t sound so free to me.
See: Antifa
Basically ou want an unaccountable de facto mob to decide what people can or cannot say
If you say so . . .
How do you have free speech is you’re job is threatened when you say something that offends the current sensibilities of a vocal group??
That’s just called ‘life’.
Says the guy who complained when I mildly rebuked the community member for using ghetto?
There you go, DG, using your ‘indentation privilege’ again.
One person’s ‘mildly rebuke’ is another’s ‘obliquely implied may be a racist’.
The guy is calling for the assassination of police officers. I’d love to hear your defense of this . . . but you won’t do it.
VG/David…
Some want homeless to disappear…
Clover wants police dead…
Crickets from you/VG… show your ‘values’… please…