A police officer's racial profiling of 'really nice car' driver shows persistent racial tensions in this South Dakota city
The fallout from a police officer who followed a car thinking the man behind the wheel was Native American is testing the fragility of race relations in a South Dakota city.
The police officer in Rapid City resigned after he allegedly reported that "a young Native American male (was) driving a really new Mercedes car." While city officials see the officer's resignation in lieu of termination over alleged racial profiling as swift action and a sign of progress in a town with a long history of racial tensions, Indigenous organizers say the incident was not isolated.
he officer's alleged comments represent a culture of discrimination toward Native Americans in the city's police department, they said.
"You walk up to any Native American here in Rapid City and they can give you hours and hours of testimony on how we are harassed continuously," said Monique "Muffie" Mousseau, an Oglala Lakota who lives in the city. "And don't get me wrong, there are some good cops, but there are more bad cops than there are good cops."
Last November, Jeffrey Otto, the former Rapid City police officer, was taking a girl to her foster home when he saw a car with out-of-state plates making a "prolonged stop at flashing red lights," and started following it, according to a grievance order signed by a South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation judge.
That agency had reviewed a grievance petition filed by the officer earlier this year and Rapid City officials referred CNN to the state's account of the incident.
When Otto reported the car, he told another officer that he wanted "to keep an eye on this car because it's a young Native male driving this really nice car," and followed the car to a hotel parking lot, Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender told CNN, citing a police report and internal investigation of the incident.
"Alright, so I watched it park, and it's actually a middle-aged Asian guy that got out. So yeah, it's going to be nothing," Otto told the officer, according to the state's department of labor order.
Why can't Native Americans drive a Mercedes?
But this isn't part of a systemic pattern. Oh no, systemic racism does not exist. "I'm sick and tired of this race crap!"
You are just sick and tired of being held accountable for your racism. We people of color have been long tired of white racism
So if you're tired, end white racism.
