Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990                   TAG: 9007250314
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B/2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK/staff writer
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUNSELOR TO SEEK PROBE OF INCIDENT

Attorney Onzlee Ware said he will file a complaint with the Police Department today on behalf of John Ernest Canty.

Canty, a dropout-prevention counselor who also coaches football and wrestling at William Fleming High School, said six police officers beat him with billy clubs, sprayed him with Mace and called him "nigger" during a weekend altercation at the Hardee's on Hershberger Road Northwest.

Canty says he was just trying to help two young girls charged with trespassing; police say he refused to leave the area and then resisted as officers charged him with impeding police.

Police Chief M. David Hooper has said that he was not aware of any excessive force or racial slurs used in the arrest, and that his department would not investigate unless a formal complaint was filed.

Once Canty's complaint is filed, Ware said, the matter likely will be referred to the department's internal affairs division. "I think the chief needs to know that these allegations have been made," he said.

Although Ware said he believes that Roanoke police "do a fine job for the most part," he declined to say whether he considers Canty's allegations to be an isolated incident.

Canty, 30, said in an interview Monday that police often use too much force when they respond to incidents involving blacks. He cited the dispute at Hardee's as an example of poor relations between a predominately white police force and the black community.

Officers did not allow Canty to explain that he was a counselor who hoped to assist the students charged with trespassing at Hardee's, Canty said. Instead, he said, they began to beat him and called him racist names after he refused to leave the area.

Perneller Chubb Wilson, president of Concerned Citizens for Justice in Roanoke, said she was "outraged" to hear of Canty's arrest.

Wilson said her organization plans to discuss the incident with city officials. Part of the problem, she said, is that there are only eight black police officers in a department of 244.

But city officials need to address other concerns in attempting to foster more respect and understanding between the police officers and the disadvantaged citizens they often deal with, she said.

"We need to stop worrying about the color of people's skins and start worrying about protection for the people," she said.