Shopping
while black in Fairfax County is not a good idea. On August 25, 1978, a D.C. Superior Court
jury has awarded $245,224 to two black men who sued Woodward & Lothrop's
department store for false arrest after the men were surrounded at the Tysons
Corner store by Fairfax County police officers with shotguns and drawn
revolvers. According to court records,
six county cops confronted the two men as they left the store near closing time
on December 3, 1975.
The
cops were responding to a call from a store security officer who suspected that
the men had stolen items and were armed….so they sent six cops armed with shot
guns to question them. The two men were
arrested and frisked in front of 30 onlookers and then released when the cops
could not prove that the two men had stolen anything.