MUST READ: Normal Police Department: Prejudice or Mistake? by Johnnie Fresh

my name is Johnnie Lovett and I am a young entrepreneur, philanthropist, and motivational speaker from Chicago, IL who currently attends Illinois State University as a junior Public Relations major. It has been brought to my attention that the Normal Illinois Police Department may possess an intentional alert to elevate routine traffic stops of African American students into premiere felony cases without any disregard to the legality and truthfulness of the situation. 

This assumption has been reached due to the outstanding amount of traffic stops I have been involved in within the past six months as a resident of Bloomington-Normal, IL. Either as an individual passenger or driver alone or with a group, I can recognize at least ten occasions where I was pulled over accused of having a "tail light that was out", "not using a turning signal", or "not stopping before the white line for a stop sign" and on each occasion a ticket was not issued for the traffic offense but I was asked to consent to a search of my vehicle or questioned about drugs and potential possession of a firearm.

This is an outrage due to the fact that my character and image as a positive role model, student, and entrepreneur is constantly at stake when I am publicly viewed as a potential criminal due to the "search and seizure based on suspicion of race and not probable cause" conduct of the Normal Police Department. Although citizens must be understanding of the law and the reasons behind law enforcements efforts to protect and serve, the saying "the straw that broke the camels back" occurred to a group of my friends and I on the morning of April 9, 2010.

April 9, 2010, I attended a group dinner at Denny's located on 1615 North Main Street with four of my friends who are also students in Normal, IL, two of which attend Illinois State University, and the other two Heartland Community College. On this night I was a passenger in a white Dodge Magnum owned and operated by driver Alexander Murray, and the passengers were myself, Diana Wills, Ocie Whitten, and Willis Harris who were in route to our off-campus apartments in Heartland Village located on Putnam Avenue at 12:45am. As we approached the four lane crossing where Parkside and Raab Rd. meet, there were no vehicles present and we proceeded to make a right turn from Raab Rd. onto Parkside without proper use of a turning signal, and at this point Normal Police stopped us due to the lack of proper signal use when turning.

Once pulled over, each passenger was required to provide Normal Police officers with valid state identification and we were asked to remain in the vehicle, informed that this was only a routine traffic stop and as long as we did not have any issues with our records we would be let go on a warning. After fifteen minutes or so pass, Normal Police return and asks everyone to exit the vehicle to be searched due to a probable cause that was never stated. As this point, as each passenger is searched and interrogated, a Normal Police officer proceeds to search the vehicle without any consent to the vehicle owner or passengers, and suspects passenger Willis Harris of containing a white powdered substance. Normal Police then proceeded to run an on site drug test kit that showed the white powdered substance found in the vehicle left rear floor paneling where Willis Harris was located in the vehicle to be a positive result for Cocaine. Ironically as this process occurred, it became evident that passenger Willis Harris was the only of the students who had a prior record and was immediately showed great animosity from each of the officers due to that. Of course for any law enforcement drugs and firearms are a huge deal, and because of this Mr. Harris was cuffed and taken into police custody on the charges of possession of cocaine. As it is a legal right for law enforcement to not present information regarding a defendants charges to outside sources, in an outrage Willis Harris began to shout to the other passengers of the vehicle including myself who were still held outside of the vehicle by Normal PD, "They trying to say I had cocaine!, They are trying to take my life away from me!" In an effort to remain calm and solve the problem, driver Alexander Murray informed the searching officer that he recently had a friend detail his vehicle because someone "threw up" in his backseat, and the white powdery substance may have been from the cleaning tools used to detail the car. The individual who detailed the vehicle was Ocie Whitten, a passenger in the vehicle at the time of the traffic stop. In a last effort to prove our friends innocence, we insisted that Normal Police allow us to go and retrieve the tools used in cleaning the vehicle and requested that it be tested with the same drug kit as the substance found in the vehicle to show that Mr. Harris was indeed an innocent man. We were granted permission, and Normal PD escorted Ocie Whitten to his Heartland Village apartment where he collected liquid carpet cleaner, and Glade brand carpet freshener that appears on surface as a white powdery substance. When Normal PD tested the Glade brand carpet freshener, two positive tests returned saying that it was indeed positive to containing the same substances found in the drug cocaine. On this standing, Normal PD proceeded to returning Willis Harris to the scene, and released him without any charges being filed.

As this may appear to be a story of justice on behalf of good friends who knew their fellow friend was innocent, it only justifies the racial suspicion associated with Normal Police and African American males who either live or go to school in the Bloomington-Normal area. We will not stand for the continued defamation of our character and image as positive young black men striving to make a change and do something with ourselves. Majority of us who attend college are from the city of Chicago where life is not guaranteed on the day to day basis, so we look to this town and university as our escape from the madness, our chance to prove that we are not where we come from, but with the constant prejudice and racism of the town of Bloomington-Normal, it almost assures us that society will take all efforts in stopping our progression as students, as men, and as a race.