NAACP, Reno police meet over arrests of minorities

NAACP president Lonnie Feemster said interviews with Hot August Nights visitors and a review of arrest records showed many of those arrested were ethnic minorities. There also had been several complaints of minorities being hassled for minor infractions such as jaywalking.

Feemster and others met with police on Monday to discuss the problems.

"They (organizers) have created a problem bringing all of these people and it's had a negative impact on the arrest rate of blacks and Hispanics," he said. "That doesn't mean the problem didn't already exist, it just becomes more apparent when we dump another 150,000 people into our community. If they can't come up with a better plan, we'll ask them to stop the event."

Along with the NAACP, representatives of the local Hispanic community, American Civil Liberties Union, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and a local pastor attended the meeting with Chief Jerry Hoover, Deputy Chief Jim Johns and other senior commanders.

Feemster said he also wants to meet with the Reno City Council to talk about how to deal with security problems that have become associated with Hot August Nights.

Neither the NAACP nor Reno police have compiled accurate arrest statistics for Hot August Nights, but Feemster said a large number involved ethnic minorities.

In addition, Feemster said there are concerns associated with a fight at Reno Live, a downtown nightclub, early on the morning of Aug. 8. The crowd had overcome the business's private security guards, who were being beaten with chairs when officers arrived, Johns said.

Two officers used pepper spray to subdue the crowd, one inside the building and one outside the building, Johns said.

Johns said he agreed to meet with members of the community concerned about how officers handled the nightclub fight, hoping to give them more information about the situation.

"I want to provide them with as much information as possible," he said. "I hope they can make a personal opinion based on reality, not on rumor and innuendo."

Two people have filed internal affairs complaints after being hit with pepper spray, Johns said. The department also is conducting its own investigation into the officers' use of force.

Mary Wilson, political action chairwoman for the Reno-Sparks chapter of the NAACP, said several complaints about police action were made.

"According to people who contacted us, people were pepper sprayed and knocked to the ground," she said. "And they were targeting black people big time."

Johns disagreed.

"I think our officers did an excellent job and demonstrated extreme control in a dangerous situation," he said. "Two individual officers in an hour and a half used pepper spray in an extremely volatile situation."

Meanwhile, Sparks Police Chief John Dotson labeled "false and outrageous" the allegations that his department singled out three youths - including the son of a slain Sparks officer - because they're black.

Leaders of the local NAACP issued a statement last week accusing police of racially motivated harassment of the youths.

Dotson said he witnessed part of the incident at issue and believes the youths were trying to evade police. One of them, Michael Johnson, 15, is the son of the late Officer Larry Johnson, who was slain by a parolee in 1995 during a shoot-out after a robbery.

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