ACLU claims Manalapan Police harassed Black Youth

• Suit alleges patrolmen treated Black youths differently than whites

The complaint filed by the ACLU, New Jersey, claims discrimination based on race, and improper search and detention by members of the township police department, Patrolman Peter Chalfin and Patrol-man Steve Turner, on the evening of June 21, 2003. The complaint also names the township of Manalapan, the Manalapan Police Department and Police Chief Stuart Brown. Chalfin and Turner are white. They are seeking compensatory damages for pain, suffering and humiliation.  According to the complaint, the three plaintiffs, who are black, were with three white friends  along Park View Way near the Bucks Head playground.  Two police cars stopped across the street from the where the ju­veniles were standing and a pair of white police officers approached the three plaintiffs and their three friends. The complaint states that at the time the officers arrived, the minor plaintiffs and their three friends were not making any excessive noise. According to the complaint, Yorker was asked to take his hands out of his pockets and asked why, since he had done nothing wrong, but complied with the directive. At that point, according to the com­plaint, one of the officers "pushed him against the police car and or­dered him to stand against the po­lice car with his arms and legs spread."...[