fyi. randye
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Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 13:19:10 EST
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Subject: More on international racial profiling
Here's more on the incident of international racial profiling.
FEATURE STORY:
January 31, 2002
Black Musician, Beaten by Spanish Police, to Miss Concert
By JESSE McKINLEY
Joe Mahoney for The New York Times
In a case that has raised concerns over racial profiling in Spain,
the principal trumpet player for the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra was
beaten so badly by police in Barcelona two weeks ago that he will be
unable to appear with the ensemble in its performance at Carnegie
Hall tomorrow night.
The musician, Rodney Mack, an African-American who is featured on
posters promoting the orchestra in Barcelona and who is the cousin of
the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, was attacked by four police officers;
they mistook him for a car thief who had been described as a black
man of roughly Mr. Mack's height.
Mr. Mack, 34, had just finished a rehearsal on the evening of Jan. 15
when he was approached in an underground garage in central Barcelona
by the undercover officers, who were wearing jeans and leather
jackets .
"I was walking towards my car when I noticed someone coming towards
me," Mr. Mack said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It seemed
suspicious because they weren't saying anything."
Moments later, he said, the men grabbed his arms and slammed him to
the ground, pressing his face into the concrete. The men began to
beat him on the back and legs, and attempted to force something into
his mouth, he said. Throughout, Mr. Mack, who was dressed in a suit
and a tie and was walking toward his rented Mercedes, said he
believed he was being mugged, and was shouting: "Take my wallet! Take
my wallet!" in Spanish and English.
A Spanish police official in Barcelona, while admitting that there
had been "a misunderstanding," said that one of the officers had
identified himself but had his badge knocked away by Mr. Mack. The
official, who refused to be identified by name, said that the
officers believed Mr. Mack fit the "characteristics" of a car thief
who had been operating in the garage, meaning "the color of his skin
and his height."
As a result of the attack, Mr. Mack was treated at a hospital for
bruises and cuts to his back, buttocks and calves, as well as for a
neck injury and a cut to the inner lip, an injury of special concern
for a trumpet player.
The Spanish police official said those injuries were a result of the
"violent resistance" Mr. Mack put up to arrest. The official also
said one officer had been treated for a broken rib. The Spanish
government has promised an investigation of the police behavior, but
the men involved remain on full duty, although the stakeouts for the
car thief have been suspended.
Disputing the police, Mr. Mack said the men did not identify
themselves as police officers until after they had handcuffed him.
"They weren't saying anything," he said. "I think that that's when I
got really scared, because I thought, `These guys are just trying to
hurt me.' "
After restraining him, he said, they told him that they were looking
for "un hombre de color," or "a black man," who was stealing cars.
"I asked them, `What type of hair, what color of skin - dark, light,
what?' " Mr. Mack said. "They didn't know what I was talking about."
Although he said he showed identification, as well as his trumpets in
his car, the police charged Mr. Mack with resisting arrest and
attacking a police officer.
After a perfunctory visit to a local hospital, he said, he was taken
to police headquarters where, after questioning, he was released some
five hours after the incident occurred and returned to the hospital.
The attack has received widespread coverage in the Spanish media,
with stories in major national newspapers like El Pa=EDs and El Mundo.
There has also been governmental reaction: on Jan. 18, El Pa=EDs
reported, Pio Cabanillas, a spokesman for the Spanish government,
said that the nation's Council of Ministers would open an
investigation into the incident. And last week Carles Campuzano, a
member of the national parliament, said he would bring up the matter
with Spain's interior minister.
Mr. Mack recently returned to the United States to recuperate. Before
leaving Barcelona, however, he consulted with the local United States
Consulate, which he said was preparing to bring its concerns to the
Spanish government.
Since the attack Mr. Mack has had trouble holding his trumpet,
breathing deeply and sleeping, he said. In addition to the symphony's
tour, he also had to cancel a planned tour with his wife, Karen
Walwyn, a pianist.
He plans to sue the police for assault and wrongful arrest, he said.
"The reason I'm going to press charges is that it seemed they wanted
me just to take the beating and then go home," Mr. Mack said. "I just
want to prevent that from happening to someone else."
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