Austin County Police Beat and Drag Disabled Black Man 35 Feet - Racial Tension High

Allegations that police used excessive force in arresting a man with disabilities outside a convenience store have stirred racial tension and a call for reform in this small Austin County city. A community activist group is using the incident to press the city to hire minority police officers, invest in revitalizing the deteriorating black neighborhood on the city's east side and foster better community-police relations by calming fears of incidents of racism. Albert Lane Sr., 51, who is black, charges that racial prejudice and profiling provoked four police officers on the night of Jan. 28 to use excessive force and unjustly arrest him for public intoxication. Lane took a friend, Gerald Scranton, to the store at approximately 8:20 p.m. to pick up wages Scranton claimed Clarence Einkauf owed him. Rose Einkauf said she refused to pay Scranton, the son of black Councilman Joe Scranton, and called the police after Scranton took two beers from a case without paying for them. Lane, who said he drank a bottle of beer the night of his arrest and two beers earlier in the day, filed a complaint on Feb. 11 stating that the officers abused their authority when they pulled him from his truck, handcuffed him and dragged him face-down 35 feet from his truck to the patrol car in front of the store.  "They scarred my knees and arms and knocked my front tooth out," said Lane, who has no use of his right shoulder, a limp in his right leg and slurred speech after suffering a stroke in 1988. Sealy City Attorney Bill Olson is reviewing Lane's complaint. [more]