Note: This article first appeared Tuesday morning. We have moved it up the roll because of the high number of comments.
The Rev. C.J. Dale was back before the Henderson City Council with a complaint about the Henderson Police Department on Monday night.
The minister, who has appeared at least half a dozen times in the past 14 months to complain about police treatment of himself or other blacks, had both kinds of complaints Monday night.
Dale spoke during the public comment period, when people are limited to three minutes. But he had not gotten far into his story when his time expired, and on a motion from Mary Emma Evans, the council granted Dale an extra five minutes.
Dale said he was driving through Flint Hill on Flint Street shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday when he saw a police officer he knows, Mario Chavis, and stopped to talk to him.
“I said, ‘Be sure you patrol the whole city, as well as the West End and the country club and other areas,’ ” the pastor of Burning Bush Christian Church said.
As Dale told the story, Chavis responded by warning the minister to wear his seat belt, which Dale acknowledged he had not done. Dale said he put on his seat belt and drove off, only to have Chavis pull him over within moments to charge him with a seat belt violation.
As Dale described things, the incident escalated as Chavis stuck to procedure without leniency and Dale bristled at being treated like a criminal. Chavis gave Dale a ticket; Dale threw it out the window.
Dale said it was harassment for the officer to warn him about the seat belt, then give him a ticket even after he complied. “I have a problem with that.”
He called for changes and for people in the Police Department to lose their jobs. He said, “Something needs to be done.”
The people of Flint Hill are being harassed and racially profiled, Dale said, while police leave the folks in the country club area alone.
As an example, he presented his second complaint of the night. He said a recent drug raid of a house on Institute Street not only found no drugs, but resulted in a police officer accidentally firing his handgun into the floor.
“The family has yet to hear an apology,” Dale said, and he complained that no disciplinary action has taken place.
Unlike that family, Dale said, he won’t put up with harassment and mistreatment. “Y’all ain’t seen a lawsuit,” Dale said. “You ain’t seen no trouble, I’m telling you. That’s not a threat; it’s a fact.”
He added: “I ain’t going to break the law, but you ain’t going to disrespect me either.”
Dale cited racial motives in both his confrontation with the police and the misplaced drug raid, and he said he’s going to deal with the problem “both legally and morally.”
The City Council did not respond to Dale’s complaints.