(CN) – Karle Robinson was finishing the move into his new home in the small Kansas town of Tonganoxie last August, carrying a television into his home from a moving van at 2:30 in the morning.
That’s when the police arrived.
The 61-year-old former Marine soon found himself detained at gunpoint, forced to stand in handcuffs in his own driveway where Tonganoxie police officer Brady Adams held and regarded him as a burglary suspect until backup arrived to verify Robinson was the home owner.
Tonganoxie Police Chief Greg Lawson said the officer handcuffed Robinson due to a rash of car burglaries and a fear for safety. Robinson said he was handcuffed because he’s black.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas filed a letter Thursday with state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, asking his office to investigate the incident and what they call a “campaign of surveillance and harassment” of Robinson that followed.
Robinson bought his Tonganoxie home in July, a small town of 5,400 people located about 30 miles west of Kansas City. The town is 97 percent white, according to the census. He said he arrived at his new home just after midnight on Aug. 19 where he made multiple trips moving items out of the moving van and into the house.
The letter says Robinson’s home was passed by a police officer five or six times while he was moving items into his home. Just as he was carrying his final item into the house at around 2:30 a.m., a bulky TV, Adams pulled his squad car into Robinson’s driveway, gun drawn, and ordered Robinson to put the TV down.
Robinson complied with Adams, in an incident that was captured on the officer’s body camera, and tried to explain he owned the house and could provide the officer with proof with paperwork located inside.
Instead, Robinson said was ordered to put his hands on his head and subsequently handcuffed. Adams, who was the only officer on the scene at the time, waited for backup to arrive before going inside to find the proof of ownership documents. After finding them, Robinson was released from the cuffs and was told by police that there were a string of burglaries in the area.
Robinson said he checked crime reports and couldn't find any burglaries in his neighborhood.
The ACLU say Robinson was then subject to ongoing harassment by police following the incident.
“[Tonganoxie police] maintained a regular presence at or near Mr. Robinson’s home in the weeks following his detention,” the letter states. “[Tonganoxie] squad cars parked directly across the street at the water treatment center almost every evening. They also frequently patrolled around his block. On the evening of August 21, 2018, a Tonganoxie officer followed Mr. Robinson from his home to the highway for over 5 minutes.”
Weeks after the incident and subsequent harassment, Robinson said he went to the police station to file a racial bias complaint with Lawson, but was spurned by the police chief.
Rather than allow Robinson to make a written complaint, Lawson asked him to attend an informal meeting instead. The letter claims Lawson “dismissed” Robinson’s concerns at the meeting and approved of the officer detaining him at gunpoint, saying the officer was justified because he “feared for his life.”
“At no point did Chief Lawson permit Mr. Robinson to submit a written complaint for further review by TPD’s internal affairs unit,” the letter states. “Chief Lawson ended the meeting by telling Mr. Robinson that Officer Adams did not act with racial bias or otherwise engage in improper conduct.”
In a news release, the ACLU said this was a case of “moving while black.”
Mr. Robinson believes his detention was motivated by his race rather than a reasonable suspicion that he was committing a burglary,” said Lauren Bonds, interim executive director of ACLU of Kansas in the release. “It also appears that the chief of police prevented Mr. Robinson from filing a credible, legitimate complaint and that is not in compliance with reporting and intake standards. He must not interfere with citizens registering complaints,” Bonds said.
The ACLU is asking Schmidt’s office to investigate the police department for “a pervasive culture of racial bias and systemic process failure.”
In a written statement, Lawson said the letter isn’t accurate.
“We have fully cooperated with Mr. Robinson and the ACLU regarding inquiries into this matter,” the chief said in the statement. “We believe that the ACLU’s correspondence to the attorney general’s office contains multiple accusations that are inaccurate.”
Lawson did not specify what he thought was inaccurate, but did say his department would cooperate in any investigation of its conduct.
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