For black Sanford residents, a history of distrusting police
http://www.thegrio.com/specials/tra...rd-residents-police-a-history-of-mistrust.php
When Sanford's black residents talk about the "good old boy" network, they often mean the Sanford police department, which for many, embodies the worst aspects of the old south.
"You've got the Mississippi Delta, and you've got the 'bottom.' This is the 'bottom,'" says community activist Kenneth Bentley, whose family is among the oldest in the black district known as Goldsboro. .......Bentley's aunt, Altomese Bentley, who was a longtime educator in the community.
His words echo many in this community, who have little faith in Sanford police.
"If you stand outside Sunshine Liquor Store and drink a beer they'll arrest you in a heartbeat," Bentley said of the policing in the Goldsboro neighborhood by Sanford police, "But if you get hit in the head or your house gets broken into, don't even call."
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The rift between Sanford's black residents and police didn't start with Trayvon Martin. Locals tell of former police chief Roy G. Williams, who was chief from the 1920s through the 1960s, and who used to take prisoners from the jail and force them to work on his farm in Georgia. He was eventually jailed for the practice.
The previous chief, Brian Tooley, the third longest serving chief at 14 years on the job in Sanford, was forced to retire a month early last January after officers failed to arrest Justin Collisin, a police lieutenant's son who beat up a homeless black man, Sherman Ware, in an incident captured on cellphone video that went viral.
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But Bentley, who runs a community after school program for local youth, says Lee is only the latest symptom of a long term problem. "This is generational," he said, "This is decades of abuse. It didn't just happen."
To illustrate that, Bentley reels off a list of incidents he says preceded Trayvon Martin's killing on February 26th, each of which has eaten away at this city's black residents.
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"They're talking about Trayvon Martin," Bentley said, "We've got a thousand Trayvon Martins."
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