Micaiah Barber of L7 Auto Group has taken issue with a police officer’s search and seizure of his company’s car. He intends to file a claim for racial profiling, harassment and discrimination against San Bernardino city. If the city declines the claim for damages over $25,000, Barber intends to file a civil rights lawsuit.
Background
Barber owns a used car dealership with his brother, Mike Barber. He says they shuffle their cars around their lot to keep their inventory fresh, and during the reshuffle they occasionally park some cars at Bryce E. Hanes Park and Jon Cole Skate Park, across the street from their business. He said in a Jan. 9 press conference that the car in question was inventory.
Body camera footage released by the San Bernardino Police Department shows the officer seizing the car because it was unregistered and parked in a public space.
Footage
The city referred us to a video statement in response to a request for comment.
The statement includes segments of footage from an officer’s body camera, some of which is voiced-over video.
In the video, an officer tells Barber they searched the car to see if it had a handgun that Barber would use to shoot them.
Press conference
“The nice thing is, I didn’t receive any broken bones. I wasn’t hospitalized, nor did I die,” Barber said in the press conference Feb. 9. “But I was traumatized. I was inconvenienced because I had to pick up the vehicle that was towed. In truth, I was ultimately humiliated. I was harassed, and I was disrespected. I believe I was racially profiled by the San Bernardino Police Department”
Barber said he occasionally parks between three to eight cars at the lot, which has 32 spaces. He said the frequenters of the park are used to seeing him, and wave at him when he comes by.
The incident
On Jan. 31, one of his employees was sent to take the dealer plates off a 2008 Mercedes E-350 valued at $9,000, which the dealership had parked by the skate park, according to Barber’s account of the incident. A police officer saw the car, and told one of Barber’s employees the car would be towed.
The video shows the officer instigates his engagement with Barber by asking if Barber was going to get stuff out of the car. Barber’s response was, “No, I’m going to get my car.”
There was a confrontation over whether the car would be impounded, during which the officer cited the lack of active registration. Barber explained the car was parked temporarily while they move their inventory around.
The body cam footage shows the officer telling Barber the car’s registration was expired.
Because Barber operates a used car dealership, none of the cars for sale have active registration.
Car dealers often park their cars around their dealerships, Barber said at the press conference.
Barber said the officer asked to search the car, and that he denied the request. The officer told Barber he could remove things from the car, Barber said at the press conference.
Barber then went to his shop and returned with a box to remove the items in the car.
The released video resumes after Barber opens the car door. The officer tells Barber he has to search the car before they let him retrieve his possessions. Barber says he is not on parole, and that they could search the car after he retrieved some of the car’s contents. The police say, “No,” and the video cuts to them handcuffing Barber.
The officers searched the car.
In their video statement, police said they found ammunition in the trunk of the car. The body camera video from the search made public by the police showed a yellow bag, which they said contained ammunition.
Owning ammunition is not illegal, according to Joe Richardson of McCune Law Group*, Barber’s attorney.
After the search, the video cuts back to the police saying they had to conduct the search to make sure there was no firearm in the vehicle that he could use to hurt them.
Barber, who was dressed in a suit and tie, was handcuffed outside his business for about 25 minutes, he said.
The police say in their video that Barber’s detainment concluded when the vehicle was towed, and the removal of the handcuffs is shown as the officer gives Barber his name and identification number.
Allegations
Barber spent the rest of the business day retrieving the car. He paid $700 to retrieve it from San Bernardino’s tow yard by 4 p.m. the same day, according to the claim.
“San Bernardino police created problems where there were none, and humiliated an honest, law abiding black man across the street from his place of business, possibly because Mr. Barber did not ‘cooperate’ by consenting to what he believed was a search without probable cause,” his claim says.
Since the Jan. 31 incident, the officer has appeared at the lot and threatened to tow more vehicles every other day, according to Barber.
Barber and Richardson allege the officer treated the employee who removed the dealer plates with more courtesy than he did Barber. Both said they felt that the officer’s conduct indicated racism against Barber.
Police video
Richardson said the video released by the police is only a 3-minute snippet of a 25-minute interaction that leaves out context and statements made by the police officers. The video does not show the conversation between the time that the officers told Barber they would tow his car and the time that he came back with a box to retrieve possessions in the car. Richardson said he looks forward to gaining the whole video.
During the press briefing, Richardson said he wanted the release of the full video, that he filed requests to preserve evidence related to the incident, and wanted to meet with the police chief.
Richardson said that the type of treatment the police gave Barber causes rifts in the relationship between the police and the community, and impairs their ability to protect the city.
Read the claim here. This initial claim erroneously named San Bernardino County. A revision naming the city is imminent, according to Richardson.
*Follow Our Courts is funded by McCune Law Group. The firm does not have editorial control, and was not consulted for this article beyond the typical statements between sources and journalists.
