Pitts: Did Fayetteville police need to handcuff this woman?
I watched the videos released on Tuesday of Fayetteville Police Department officers handcuffing Ja’Lana Dunlap-Banks in a Sept. 6 encounter in a vacant lot in north Fayetteville.
Dunlap-Banks, a 22-year-old Black woman, had told officers she was inspecting a suspected illegal dumping site in the Hillendale subdivision on behalf of her employer, who owns the land.
In the video, an officer was doubtful of her account. He said police were searching for a suspect they had chased to that general area. Dunlap-Banks has said in an interview with The Fayetteville Observer she thinks officers thought she was waiting to pick up the person. (She was not.)
Several officers, all white, arrived on the scene. Dunlap-Banks was eventually sent on her way with no arrest and no charges. The officers have a brief discussion of whether she should be charged with misdemeanor resisting, delaying and obstruction. Lawyers for Dunlap-Banks alleged on Wednesday that one officer adding, “CYA,” slang for “cover your ass,” was a sign they intended to engage in a cover-up.
Last week, Dunlap-Banks’ lawyers filed a federal lawsuit against the department, the city, the officers involved and Fayetteville Police Chief Gina Hawkins. The suit alleges the officers violated her First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights.
Related:Body camera footage released in case of Fayetteville woman who says she was wrongly detained
Read this:Woman says Fayetteville cops wrongly handcuffed her and took her ID; now she plans to sue
What stood out to me in watching the encounter was the deep level of mistrust on both sides. Dunlap-Banks, having done nothing wrong, did not appreciate being approached and questioned. That much is clear from the body cam footage.
After she explains what she is doing there, the first officer who responds asks: “You ain’t waiting on nobody are you?” She says no.
The question did not align with anything Dunlap-Banks had just said. It did, however, align with a theory the cops may have had that she was somehow connected to the person they were chasing.
“It’s all fine and dandy what you’re telling me,” he then says. “But it just kind of looks suspicious that you pulled out here in the middle of a field.”
He asks for ID, which she refuses to produce.
The officer said he hunts fugitives, again describes her behavior as “very suspicious” and notes “your heart is about to beat out of your chest.”
Dunlap-Banks responds: “Sir, I have a lot going on.”
Anxious for a reason
I can say my own heart beats out of my chest during a traffic stop, and that applies to many Black folks. Law enforcement training should teach cops why that might be the case.
We don’t know how a stop will go. There is anxiety even if we have done nothing wrong.
Yes, the stop will probably be OK. All mine have gone OK.
Or we might get shot dead for no clear reason at all. Like Philando Castile in Minnesota; he was shot five times by a panicked officer after Castile, who was legally permitted to carry, informed the officer that he had a weapon — hoping revealing the information would protect them both. Since 2017, police have killed nearly 600 people in traffic stops, with a disproportionate impact on people of color, according to data collected by the nonprofit research group, Mapping Police Violence.
Our skin makes us a suspect to many people — and that includes too many law officers. There is no use in anyone pretending otherwise. We know the truth and wise Black parents prepare their children to navigate this truth of “driving while Black,” because one day their very lives may depend on it.
Proper police training is meant to mitigate this reality. The idea is that if officers recognize their biases, they won’t be so quick to act on them, even under pressure. That’s the idea.
As for producing ID when an officer asks: It is something I do, and something I would advise people to do in general.
I reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina about whether someone has to produce an ID if an officer requests it.
A statement from its legal team said: “State law requires anyone operating a motor vehicle to provide their driver's license when a law enforcement officer requests it. General Statute § 20-29 makes it a misdemeanor to refuse. But when someone isn't driving, law enforcement generally can't demand identification unless they have a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity supported by articulable facts.”
‘Why am I handcuffed?’
In the video, the situation escalates when Detective Amanda Bell starts to pull Dunlap-Banks out of the car to handcuff her.
“Don’t drag me out!” Dunlap-Banks tells Bell and says she will get out of the car if the officer releases her arm.
Bell does not release her arm until the other officer says: “Just let her go. She ain’t going nowhere now.”
Dunlap-Banks is cuffed, hands behind her back. She begins screaming during the process, saying the officers are hurting her.
I believe many if not most officers have in their heads a legal distinction between handcuffing someone only to detain them and handcuffing someone and arresting them.
They should know the public does not make that distinction. When an officer handcuffs someone, it feels like punishment — like the person did something wrong.
“Why am I handcuffed if I am not in any trouble?” Dunlap-Banks asks an officer who later responds to the scene.
If an officer were to cuff me on my front lawn, the neighbors driving by are not likely to think, “That guy is probably just being detained briefly, while officers conduct a brief investigation. I’m sure it’s fine.”
They are much more likely to wonder, “What did he do?”
Most people have never been handcuffed; Dunlap-Banks said she never was. I can easily see how it would be traumatic for some.
Dunlap-Banks threw up; they let her kneel to do it. Even one of the officers noted she was hyperventilating.
Keep in mind she had not been charged with anything at this point and was never charged.
Watching the video, my mind went to the situation with Michael Jennings, a Black pastor in a small Alabama town who was watering his neighbor’s flowers. He also had not done anything wrong, and he also wound up being handcuffed by law officers because he would not provide his ID. The officers in that case also had a discussion of what he could be charged with after he had been cuffed. He also is suing.
In Dunlap-Banks’ case, in the video, she focused the majority of her anger on Bell, who grabbed her as she exited the car and took off her fanny pack. I also did not like how Bell handled the situation. I don’t care if she followed the letter of the law or FPD procedure, she didn’t treat Dunlap-Banks like a person.
Dunlap-Banks was not a violent threat; there was no reason for the robocop routine.
Detective Bell's vest read “gang unit.”
Maybe officers who deal with gangs and fugitives are more callous. I could see that. But they still need to treat people like people.
Previously:Woman's lawyer says body cam video shows Fayetteville cops trying to cover up unlawful stop
Split-second decisions
I try to put myself in the shoes of police officers in situations like this. First, these are split-second decisions — not ones where people like me can wait for videos to come out and carefully evaluate things frame by frame. Big difference.
Second, how would I myself react, if I am an officer, I make a simple request (“Can I see your license?”) and the person doesn’t comply? Such a refusal puts me on high alert because I don’t know the person from Adam (or Eve), and my first dealings with them is that they won’t comply with an officer of the law. I might think: “Well, what else might they do?”
But we can turn that around, too.
Just like police officers have things that put them on high alert, the rest of us do, too.
At one point one of the officers says to Dunlap-Banks: “As of right now. I don’t know whose property this is. I believe that YOU don’t know whose property this is …”
She already told him the land belonged to her employer. So in other words, he thought she was lying.
Personally, I take not being believed by an officer as very serious business. That changes the atmosphere. He thinks I’m a liar, and that by itself expands the range of potential negative consequences.
Officers get lied to a lot (“I only had one beer, officer.”) So I get their skepticism.
But often, people are telling them the truth and maybe the police should consider how making the most negative assumption can change any encounter for the worse.
Different tone
An officer talked with Dunlap-Banks after she was given back her keys. He said he was a supervisor and talked with her about coming to the station the next day if she wanted to file a formal complaint, which she did, especially against Bell, whose badge information Dunlap-Banks obtained. He said he would give Dunlap-Banks water if he had any; she was still in distress and crying.
“I saw you throw up. Are you sure you’re OK?” he said. “Was it just stress that caused that?
She repeated that she had a lot going on and this incident was the last thing she needed. She pointed again to Bell’s actions whom she said: “Treated her like a (expletive) criminal.”
The supervisor knelt down to talk to her as she sat in her open car door and arranged to meet her personally at the station the next day when she came to file her formal statement.
He gave her his phone number and other information. He asked if she was sure she did not need any medical assistance. He asked several times if she was OK.
I know he had a different role than the cops who approached Dunlap-Banks in her vehicle when she was minding her own business. And part of his role at that point was cleanup; let's get real.
But I reflected that things may have gone completely different if the first couple of officers had interacted with Dunlap-Banks the way he did.
Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Did Fayetteville Police need to handcuff this woman?
