Beverly Hills Police Chief Responds To Racial Profiling Suit

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Beverly Hills Police Chief Dominick Rivetti on Wednesday responded to a lawsuit alleging the wrongful arrest of 106 people of color in Beverly Hills, defending his officers against allegations of pervasive racial profiling.

Two Black Beverly Hills visitors, Jasmine Williams and Khalil White, are suing the city and former Beverly Hills Police Department Captain Scott Dowling over their arrests in September 2020. The proposed class-action lawsuit claims the two were wrongfully arrested and detained. The lawsuit is part of an ongoing national conversation about police violence against people of color, led largely by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, famous for his involvement in the Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and City of Flint, Michigan cases. Crump will represent the plaintiffs along with co-counsel Attorney Bradley C. Gage.

Rivetti addressed the lawsuit just after Crump finished up a press conference at city hall.

Rivetti's Statement

Rivetti responded to the press conference Wednesday afternoon, issuing the city's first official statement regarding the lawsuit. He said White and Williams had been warned earlier the day of their arrest that riding a scooter on the sidewalk in Beverly Hills was prohibited. He also claims that Williams and White provided false information to a police officer.

Gage said he was skeptical of those claims given that all charges against Williams and White were quickly dismissed by a judge.

In his statement, Rivetti said officers strove to live up to their oath and keep their community safe with "respect and dignity."

"The women and men of BHPD take an oath to protect human life and enforce the law — regardless of race. Any violation of this pledge is contrary to the values of this department. We take all concerns regarding the conduct of our officers very seriously," the statement reads.

The statement also discusses an increase in crime in Beverly Hills last summer and months of "civil unrest," referring to the mass protests following the police murder of George Floyd. The statement also discusses unemployment fraud uncovered in the patrolling efforts that were a result of the increased crime.

Gage said Rivetti's statement about unrelated crimes in defense against the lawsuit only further proves that the police are stereotyping Black people with criminal activity, given White and Williams were not charged with any of the mentioned crimes.

'Scarring That Will Last For Life'

According to the lawsuit, White and Williams were riding down Rodeo Drive on a scooter when they were approached by four to five officers and arrested on charges of resisting arrest and riding a scooter on the sidewalk, which Rivetti says is prohibited in Beverly Hills. White said he saw no signage or indication that riding the scooter was prohibited. He said he even picked up the scooter on the sidewalk in Beverly Hills.

"If it is an ordinance here in Beverly Hills, it is being arbitrarily enforced because we saw many white citizens just this day riding scooters on the sidewalk," Crump said. He added: "It's almost as if they were trying to incriminate him for something. They had made up in their mind, this Black man was going to go to jail."

The resisting arrest refers to Williams' efforts to retrieve her bag and hotel room key from White while he was being arrested, Crump and the couple explained to the media Wednesday. As she approached to retrieve her bag, she, too, was arrested.

"In my experience, when somebody is being arrested by the police and they're roughed up — unfortunately, here, most of the injuries were emotional, a scarring that will last for life — but any time there's any roughing up at all by the police, that is the go-to charge: resisting arrest because they need to justify the unjustifiable," Gage said.

White spent the night in jail for his arrest and had to address a $25,000 bail, Crump said. White and Williams both said the arrest was terrifying.

"The arrest was traumatizing, and I definitely don't think that we deserve it at all," White said.

Crump and his team are gathering cell phone video of this and other arrests and hope to have videos collected by the end of the week.

All 106 arrests referenced by the suit occurred while Dowling was a captain at BHPD and in charge of "Operation Safe Street," or the "Rodeo Drive Task Force," a program he ran from March 1, 2020 through July 1, 2021, during which the suit claims officers consistently engaged in racial profiling. Of these 106 arrests, 105 people were Black and one was Latinx.

The suit contends the other detainees were also arrested for innocuous behaviors, like roller skating and driving.

This program, Gage believes, was a response to the Black Lives Matter protests last summer

Gage said at Wednesday's press conference that this and other similar suits are already shaking up the police department as three key officers have recently left the department or announced their resignation. Dowling resigned in 2020, former BHPD Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli resigned in April 2020 amid lawsuits claiming she had made racist remarks and harassed other employees, and Assistant Chief Marc Coopwood announced his resignation Tuesday.

"It tells us that we are on the right track, it tells us that the city understands and the people that we are making the allegations against understand — there is something terribly wrong here," Gage said.

The suit references a prolonged history of discrimination at the police department dating back to 1995 and points to multiple cases involving racial profiling lawsuits and and alleged instances of racism in the department.

According to the suit, Dowling has been accused of racist behavior, including calling African American people "lazy" and laughing at and circulating a racist video created by other officers and posted on YouTube in 2015.

Crump said the case is larger than his clients.

"If we let them get away with this and we don’t hold them accountable, will we have a George Floyd in Beverly Hills, California next?" he asked.