Sheriff: Stops of blacks not racially motivated

Fri, Jul 3, 2009    to del.icio.us

GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP — An Ottawa County Sheriff's deputy acted appropriately when he stopped a black couple who were delivering phone books in Grand Haven Township's Forest Park neighborhood in mid-May, according to Sheriff Gary Rosema.

But Pennie Langston, 31, and her boyfriend, Christopher Bailey, 32 — both of Muskegon — are questioning why they were visited by the same deputy twice over two days. That incident reportedly prompted them to quit the job without pay, saying they were harassed because of their race.

Langston and Bailey each carried Verizon phone books and a GPS device that would track their deliveries as they walked along Forest Park Drive on May 19. They began mid-morning and were about three to four hours into their route when Langston had the first encounter with the sheriff's deputy, the Muskegon woman said.

"He said, 'Hi, and that he had gotten a call about two black people doing door to door, putting stuff on people's doors," Langston said, explaining that Bailey was on the other side of the road.

The deputy asked for Langston's and Bailey's name and dates of birth, and what they were doing, Langston said. Langston then showed the deputy the phone books, GPS device and the paperwork she had been given by Product Development Corp., which described the job details and the streets that the phone books were to be delivered.

"He said, 'Oh, you've got to deliver to all these streets?'" Langston said. "And that was the end of the first conversation."

After the deputy left, he pulled up behind Langston's car — which was parked down the street — and sat there for a while, she said.

"I don't know how long he was there, but it was longer than 15 minutes," Langston said.

Rosema said the deputy was simply following up on a 911 call reporting two individuals in the area looking at houses and carrying bags. There have been break-ins in the area in the past, he said, and the deputy was following procedure when he stopped and questioned the couple.

Rosema said he didn't know for how long the deputy had the couple stopped, but that it is standard to ask for identification and run background checks in those situations.

But the interaction bothered Langston, she said.

"What's suspicious about delivering phone books?" Langston asked. "The police didn't have to be called, period."

While Langston was a bit distraught about what happened in the mostly white neighborhood, she and Bailey finished up their route that day and returned the following morning to finish distributing the more than 1,200 phone books they were being paid to deliver.

"We thought that this day would be different," Langston said.

After the couple parked their car along Meadowwood Drive — still in the Forest Park subdivision — at around 9:30 a.m. on May 20, Bailey grabbed what he needed and began making the deliveries ahead of Langston. Within 10 minutes, the same deputy pulled over and started talking to Bailey, according to Langston.

The deputy said to Bailey: "I see you're back out here again. ... How long are you going to be out here?" Bailey recalled, saying it was a short conversation of 3-4 minutes. The deputy told him that they had received another phone call about suspicious people going door to door.

By noon, the couple decided to stop for the day and not return to the area.

"At that point, it wasn't worth it," said Langston, who said she wanted to quit immediately after the second encounter with the deputy.

"(The deputy) knew what we were doing out there the first day," Bailey said. "Why would he go back out there the second day? I couldn't understand that. It was like he felt ... we were up to something."

But Rosema said the deputy was simply on his regular patrol when he saw Langston and Bailey the second day, and the contact amounted to nothing more than the deputy rolling down his car's window to greet the couple.

"It was what I would consider a cordial contact," Rosema said, noting that officers are encouraged to make contact with the community. "It was what we consider a 'citizen contact.'"

Bailey said he has visited Grand Haven numerous times and never had any problems. Langston said she had never been to Grand Haven before the phone book job.

"If you went out of the house and saw what was on the ground outside the doorstep — there was no need to call the police," Bailey said. "We were just doing our jobs."

Nevertheless, Rosema said he encourages residents to call police when they witness what they believe is suspicious activity. The Ottawa County Sheriff's Department handles a significant amount of calls regarding people selling various products, Rosema said, and it's important that the public be on the lookout for false salespeople before they strike.

"The community is still our eyes and ears out there," he said.

Grand Haven Township Manager Bill Cargo said he understands the sensitivity of the issue because there is a low number of minorities residing in the township.

"This was not soliciting," he said of the phone book deliveries. "It was perfectly valid."

But Cargo doesn't believe the deputy harassed the couple.

"It's hard to see that as harassment," he said. "I know the officer and know that this officer is not racist and is not sexist. ... He is a very good officer."

Langston and Bailey had delivered just over 600 phone books in the Grand Haven Township neighborhood when they decided to quit. She turned in the remaining phone books and said she would not longer deliver in the Grand Haven area.

Langston said a manager at Product Development Corp. told her that she and Bailey would not get paid since not all of the phone books were delivered.

"I drove out there for nothing," Langston said. "I feel like we should've gotten paid for something."