Police abuse alleged by blacks in Marin County (CA)

Marin County elected officials and concerned residents are considering the formation of a citizen review board to examine complaints of police abuse of minorities in Marin City and other parts of the county. A dozen people, many of them African American, complained before a hearing of the county Human Rights Commission last month of being harassed and/or arrested by authorities in some parts of the county. Many believe officers stop, handcuff and manhandle blacks as a way of training young officers. And in a series of Chronicle interviews with 30 randomly selected African American residents in Marin City, 10 said they'd been stopped and harassed by law enforcement officers in the past year. Derrick Morgan, a member of the Marin City Community Service District board who is in charge of safety issues, said there is a need for some sort of process to investigate complaints from the public. Most complaints aired last month before the Human Rights Commission came from Marin City, an unincorporated community between Mill Valley and Sausalito. It is home to many of the county's African American residents, who live in a collection of apartment complexes, public housing units and private homes. Marin County, with one of the state's highest median household incomes at $71,300 in 2000, has a population of 250,000 -- predominantly white. It is made up of 11 incorporated cities with their own police departments. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, African Americans as a percentage of the county population fell from 3.5 percent to 2.9 percent from 1990 to 2000. [more]