*Tyler Perry has written an essay/open letter titled “Flying While Black Shouldn’t be a Crime” about his support for two Black men, actors/comedians Eric André and Clayton English. The men (André and English) filed a lawsuit alleging they were racially profiled during a 2021 search at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. It’s a story we covered, here, on EURweb.com.
Earlier this year, I joined 10 other Black actors and directors in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in a major racial discrimination lawsuit against the police department in Clayton County.
The case was filed by comedians Eric André and Clayton English, two Black men who believe they were racially profiled and harassed by local law enforcement while traveling through Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
André and English were targeted and stopped by Clayton County Police Department (CCPD) officers, several months apart, on jet bridges in Atlanta’s airport while they were steps from boarding their flights. Understand that, like every other passenger, both had already passed through the Transportation Security Administration security checkpoint and had their bags X-rayed by TSA officers. Suddenly, as they were about to board, they were approached by plain-clothed Clayton County police officers, who had no reason to suspect whatsoever that André or English were engaged in wrongdoing.
No reason to suspect, that is, other than the color of their skin.
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I am supporting André and English because I know I or my loved ones could be next. Their lawyers, a team from the Policing Project at New York University School of Law, Jones Day, Lawrence & Bundy and Canfield Law found that of the hundreds of passengers stopped by CCPD’s special airport drug unit in the months between when André and English were stopped, a majority (56%) were Black, while only 8% of that airport’s domestic air travelers are Black. That doesn’t happen by chance.
André and English’s legal team also found another disturbing possible motive at play here: cash. During these stops, officers are allowed to seize any property they claim is involved in a crime, including cash, a process known as civil asset forfeiture. It is notoriously difficult and expensive for victims to recover their money, even if they are never charged with a crime. In other words, police can take money straight from the pockets of innocent people and put it into their department’s coffers. In the months between when André and English were stopped, CCPD raked in close to $1 million from travelers who never were charged with any crime.
Read the rest of Tyler Perry’s essay/open letter HERE at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. NOTE: a subscription fee may apply.
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