Local African-Americans Allege Police Mistreatment: Report

African-American residents of South Ardmore are sick of being treated as lower class citizens by the Lower Merion Township Police Department, they told the Township Commissioners at a recent meeting, according to a Philly Magazine report.

The trigger which brought about 80 African-American residents to the meeting was a local incident in which a 58-year-old black man waiting for a bus in Ardmore was forced to his knees and handcuffed because he matched the description of the robber of a nearby TD Bank, the report states.

It’s not the only case of cops targeting blacks in Lower Merion, according to the report.

“There is no reason for excessive force under these circumstances,” Diane Robertson, president of the Main Line branch of the NAACP, told the commissioners, according to Philly Magazine. “This process that includes that excessive force all the time cannot be the status quo. Had the description been ‘a white male in a business suit’ walking down the street, and that person were stopped, would they have been forced down on their knees? Would they have been handcuffed? Somehow I think not.”

Two South Ardmore black teens were arrested while shoveling snow in February of 2014 in a similar incident, the report states.

Residents recommended community policing, an outside polcie review, use of body cameras, and more training for officers, according to the report.