LA City Council President Alleges Racial Profiling in Police Encounter, Officers Dispute Claim

During a recent Los Angeles City Council meeting, emotions ran high as Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson recounted an experience that he believed to be a racially motivated police traffic stop. His account brought the issue of racial profiling to the forefront, as he suggested that his race played a role in the officers’ decision to pull him over.

At the heart of the meeting was a discussion on pretextual traffic stops. These stops, which involve law enforcement pulling over drivers for minor infractions with the intent to investigate more serious suspected crimes, are legal under federal law. However, they have long been criticized for their potential to facilitate racial profiling.

Harris-Dawson, who is Black, provided a poignant testimony about the impact of such stops, emphasizing their discriminatory nature and the trauma they inflict on those who experience them. “In Los Angeles, every single time data is collected on pretextual traffic stops, they are grossly racially biased,” he asserted, noting that a staggering 85% of these stops involve Black and Brown drivers.

He recounted his own recent encounters with law enforcement, including a traffic stop that occurred in the same week as the council meeting. His personal narrative highlighted the ongoing debate over the fairness and implications of these policing practices.

“In Los Angeles, every single time data is collected on pretextual traffic stops, they are grossly racially biased,” he said, adding that 85% of such stops in LA are of “black and brown” drivers.  

Harris-Dawson then described being pulled over recently, including a traffic stop that same week.

He suggested he was pulled over without reason, and that the officers asked questions about his role as president. 

“The first question was, roll down your windows. The second question was, how do you have this vehicle? The third question was, well, you work for the city. What job do you do for the city?” Harris-Dawson said.

“In fact, I’m the president of the council,” he added. “I had to explain this on the corner of Main and 25th Street, while I was trying to get to the committee just two days ago.”

The council president then took an emotional pause before continuing. “It was traumatic on Wednesday as when I was 16,” he said.

Police, however, revealed that officers had different motives for stopping Harris-Dawson. He was not pulled over by the LAPD, as he told the council, but LA School Police for a traffic violation in a school zone, a spokesperson said.

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“During our morning school drop-off, a Los Angeles School Police Department officer conducted a traffic stop based on an observed moving traffic violation in the vicinity of one of our high schools and issued the driver a citation,” the spokesperson explained.  

That didn’t stop Harris-Dawson from detailing his “traumatic” experience on social media.

“As a Member of the Council, driving in a government-issued vehicle with an E-plate, I have been stopped four times,” he wrote in a post on Facebook linking to video of his testimony.

“So you didn’t commit any infraction? That’s wild,” one commenter on the clip wrote.

“Sure he did: driving while Black,” another responded. responded another.

Harris-Dawson did not reveal that he was issued a ticket during the stop.

Reps for the council president declined to comment.