THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503180205
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
The U.S. Justice Department is examining whether the city has engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination at Northside Park, the city's most heavily used, which has been the site of tension between young blacks and police since 1991.
In January, Devol L. Patrick, assistant attorney general with the Justice Department's civil rights division, wrote to the city about a ``complaint of discrimination in public accommodations'' at the park.
The letter told City Attorney Philip R. Trapani that a Justice Department inquiry was under way concerning allegations of ``police harassment or ill treatment of users of Northside Park,'' located on Tidewater Drive in Bayview.
It asked Trapani to forward by Feb. 21 several documents, including ``all memoranda, correspondence or other documents related to incidents of racial and/or ethnic harassments or violence occurring in or emanating from Northside Park from Jan. 1991 until the present.''
It is the third time since 1993 that the Justice Department has looked into charges of civil rights violations in Norfolk.
In April 1993, the department notified Norfolk that it was examining the city's minority-hiring record for police and firefighters, which has failed to meet goals set in 1978.
In August 1994, the Justice Department ordered the City Jail to cut the inmate population by half or face a federal lawsuit. Justice investigators said the ``grossly overcrowded'' jail was a serious public-health threat, where living conditions violated prisoners' constitutional rights.
About Northside Park, Patrick's letter said: ``The Department of Justice has received a complaint alleging that the City of Norfolk has engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of race, in violation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. . .
``Specifically, the complaint alleges that the City of Norfolk has engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination through its policies, practices and ordinances regarding the use of the Northside Park.''
Justice officials would not comment Friday on their inquiry.
Patrick requested reams of documents, including:
Minutes of all City Council meetings at which Northside Park was discussed;
All ordinances concerning use of the city's public parks;
A list of all city parks, with a description of their size, facilities, services and admission fees;
A description of the ordinance setting an admission fee at Northside;
All complaints to city officials about access to Northside and other parks;
Records of ``user fees and other methods for controlling access to or use of Northside Park'';
All documents about clashes between blacks and police in the park;
The cost of police protection at the park and all summonses and citations issued there since 1991;
All documents related to traffic congestion and ``cruising'' at Northside.
On Friday, Trapani said his office has given the Justice Department the requested information.
The Justice Department will decide whether to pursue the matter further, Trapani said. If Justice officials decide the matter is racially motivated, the department could ask the city to repeal the law setting the admission fee under the threat of a civil rights lawsuit. In spring and summer, a weekend admission fee of $1 per car is charged.
Problems at Northside Park began in the mid-1980s, when the city closed Lafayette Park near the zoo, to car traffic because of drug problems, police have said. As a result, young blacks who liked to cruise in their cars at Lafayette moved to Northside.
By 1990, large crowds of young African Americans socialized there on weekends.
Nearby residents and merchants complained that the cruisers occasionally clogged the park and nearby streets with more than 500 cars on Sunday afternoons. Tensions rose when officers tried enforcing city ordinances, such as an anti-noise law or prohibitions against open beer containers.
On April 7, 1991, the uneasy peace at Northside was broken during a confrontation between police and hundreds of young blacks. One man was arrested, another assaulted, and 13 police vehicles were called to the scene.
The clash began when dispatchers told police to be on the lookout for a black Mercury. A caller said he had seen the driver throw a bottle at another vehicle on Bayview Boulevard.
Officer Michael J. Mezo spotted a black Mercury in the basketball parking lot. He arrested the driver, 20-year-old Darryl Caines, and tried to put him in the back of the patrol car. Caines began kicking the windows of the car.
Mezo handcuffed Caines and sprayed him with CapStun, a pepper-based spray that temporarily incapacitates a suspect without seriously injuring him. A crowd gathered, yelled about police brutality and started filming with video cameras. Mezo called for backup, and 12 police cars sped across the grass to the parking lot. Police ordered everyone out of the park.
In May 1992, the City Council voted to curtail cruising at Northside by charging $1 for every car that entered on weekends. City officials said the fee was not discriminatory, but designed to lessen traffic pressures.
Many African Americans disagreed. A week after the ordinance passed, several black lawyers criticized the entrance fee.
``I question the intent behind it and who it's to affect,'' Robert Hagans, a Norfolk lawyer, said at the time. ``Is this a police state? I've counted about a dozen police cars.'' MEMO: Staff writer Alex Marshall contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: A PATTERN OF DISCRIMINATION?
[Graphic was not available electronically.]
by CNB