Lower Merion Police Accused Of Racial Profiling After Stopping And Questioning Snow Shovelers
By Walt Hunter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Why were several snow shovelers in Montgomery County stopped?
Officials in Lower Merion are now investigating.
On Wednesday evening, Police Superintendent Mike McGrath stepped before cameras, saying that the stopping of the two snow shovelers yesterday and two others in the same neighborhood had nothing to do with racial profiling.
The two shovelers are African American, and the owner of the home who hired them, Deborah Saldana, had expressed concerns that police detaining them and telling them to sit for at least part of the time in the snow, in fact, was driven by their race.
"The police pulled up, started talking to the boys, and then sat them down in the snow," recalls Saldana.
She says she was surprised to see the two young men she had just hired to shovel her walk sitting in the snow, ordered not to move by police officers, who had pulled up and started questioning them.
"I think this is just a little extreme. They're shoveling snow in broad daylight," Saldana says.
She also says that when the two young men asked to get up from the frozen ground, they were ordered to stay put.
"He had asked if he could stand up because it was cold, and they said, 'No, you have to remain seated,'" Saldana explains.
When Saldana and her father tried to learn more, they were told to go back inside their home.
"They told [my father], 'Sir, go back in, we're conducting an investigation,'" she says.
Eventually, after what Saldana estimates was about 20 minutes, the two young men were released.
"They were shaken up, they were pretty shaken up," Saldana says. "They were nervous."
Saldana says the officers told her the young men had been detained because you need a $50 permit to shovel snow in Lower Merion.
"Why did the kids have to sit in the snow? Why didn't they sit them in the police car, or on our front steps, for that matter?" Saldana wonders. "I thought I was watching profiling. I think it's wrong, I just think it's wrong. They weren't dangerous. They had shovels in their hands."
On Wednesday, the police superintendent denied any racial profiling. There is a soliciting ordinance in Lower Merion for snow shoveling or soliciting anything else. If you are an adult over 18, as these two were, the superintendent explains you need a permit.
The reason they were told to sit in the snow is that, momentarily, a background check indicated they may have had warrants issued for them. They did not, and they were not charged with anything.
McGrath says that in one case -- this is one of two -- the shovelers actually shook hands with the officers before leaving.
