Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 24, 1990 TAG: 9007240494
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Police Chief M. David Hooper said he was not aware of any excessive force or racial slurs used by officers who arrested the counselor and charged him with impeding police.
Hooper said the department has received no formal complaints about the incident.
Police say that John Ernest Canty, 30, interfered with officers as they tried to arrest two girls during a "disorder" at the Hardee's restaurant on Hershberger Road Northwest early Saturday.
Canty, a dropout-prevention counselor and a wrestling and football coach at William Fleming High School, conceded in an interview that authorities probably had reason to charge him with impeding police.
But, he said, they had no reason to beat him and call him racist names.
"I never touched anybody," Canty said. However, a police report states that Canty bumped an arresting officer several times - leading to a scuffle in which at least four officers were needed to restrain the 6-foot-2, 285-pound man.
With police and Canty giving conflicting versions of what happened, at least part of the dispute will be settled by a judge when the case is heard next month in Roanoke General District Court.
But the incident is a symptom of a larger problem in Roanoke, Canty said - the lack of understanding and communication between the black community and a predominantly white police force.
"This goes on all the time," Canty said. "I'm not the first and I won't be the last."
The incident began at 2:47 a.m. Saturday as Canty was driving home from a Roanoke bar where he had been moonlighting as a bouncer. He noticed that security guards had placed two girls in handcuffs and were standing outside Hardee's. A small crowd had gathered.
Canty said he approached the scene after a friend told him the girls were students. "I was just concerned about the welfare of those two girls," he said.
After talking to the girls, he learned they were being charged with trespassing at the business, which had closed at midnight. One girl told Canty she was waiting for a call at a nearby telephone booth when security guards took them both into custody and called for city police.
One girl told Canty she is a juvenile, and her mother is in a wheelchair. Because the mother could not accompany the girl to the police station, Canty said he hoped to act as the juvenile's guardian.
`'I was there for a reason; I wasn't there to hang out in the street and cause trouble," he said.
A few minutes later, police arrived. Canty said he tried to explain who he was and why he was there.
But before he could say anything, Canty said, a patrol officer ordered him out of the parking lot. Canty obeyed, walking to his car on a nearby street. But he told the girls not to go with police unless he went with them.
The girls refused to move - prompting an officer to approach Canty and tell him he had 30 seconds to leave or be arrested, Canty said.
Canty told the officer he would not leave. But he also said he had no plans to physically resist police.
At that point, Canty said, the officer "walked up, reached for me and said: `You're under arrest.' I said: `Don't touch me.' "
As the men faced off, the officer sprayed Mace in Canty's face, he said. Police confirmed that they used Mace to restrain Canty, but said he apparently was not affected by it.
"It didn't bother me," Canty confirmed. As Canty walked away, "I saw the stick come out and he started swinging at me," he said.
About that time, backup officers arrived. "Six of them jumped on me," Canty said. He said he was kicked, hit with fists and struck with billy clubs.
"I did not go down," Canty said, "but I was not resisting." Police contend that he was.
During the struggle, Canty said, he was called a "nigger" and a "black bastard" by police. He could not identify the officers who he said hit him or those who allegedly made the remarks.
But police said it was the officers who were confronted with racial slurs - by two other men if not by Canty - as they attempted to restore order.
Canty said a gold chain on which he wore his wedding band was deliberately yanked from his neck during the struggle. The chain and ring are still missing, he said.
Finally, Canty was handcuffed and pushed into a paddy wagon. Showing bruised wrists on Monday, he said the injuries were caused by the tight cuffs. He later went to a doctor for cuts and bruises to his forehead, back, shoulder and knee, he said.
Police have charged two other men with impeding arrest in the same incident. One of the men was also charged with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
Canty said the men were not with him, and apparently became involved in the fracas after they saw him being taken into custody. A police account generally supports that explanation.
Hooper said that unless someone makes a formal complaint, there will not be an investigation into Canty's allegations.
"He has made no such complaints to the department," Hooper said. "I won't do it because he can find the newspaper."
Police say using some force is necessary when a man of Canty's size decides to resist. "It's a fact situation for the court to address," Hooper said.
What bothers Canty the most about the incident, he said, is that police seemed to assume that he was at Hardee's to cause trouble.
"Because I'm driving a Maxima, because I'm sitting there with a little bit of gold on my neck, and because maybe I don't look like a schoolteacher . . . They don't want to ask me any questions," he said. " . . . They thought I was just another black nobody out there."
Canty, who has also worked as a counselor for the state Department of Corrections, said the incident is an example of what he describes as poor relations between blacks and a predominantly white Police Department.
Of the 244 sworn police officers working for the city, eight are black. Roanoke has a black population of between 20 percent and 25 percent.
All of the police officers who responded to the incident at Hardee's were white, Canty said. As police approached the largely black crowd, he said, an "us versus them" mentality seemed to exist on both sides.
"I'm not saying that blacks and whites can't communicate, but there needs to be somebody there you can identify with," Canty said.
Canty, who played defensive tackle for the Virginia Storm of the Continental Interstate Football League, said he has never had any problems with police before.
He said he decided to approach the newspaper and tell his story because, "It's time that we do something about this. Not as white people or as black people, but as citizens of Roanoke, Virginia."
by CNB