In
February of 1996, the Fairfax County police union used drawings of what appear
to be a black bellhop, a dark-skinned waiter, and a white couple dancing in an
advertisement promoting a dinner-dance.
A black officers' organization demanded an apology from the union,
saying the advertisement-depicted blacks in stereotypically subservient roles,
and some officers said it reflected a long-standing racial tension within the
department. The president of the Fairfax
County Police Association said the union didn't intend to offend anyone.
In
late May of 1986, the Fairfax County Police arrested Vernon Dean, a Black
Redskins Cornerback for striking his fiancé.
The problem was, the fiancé insisted that the football player never laid
on a hand on her and "never hit me"
"I
am being cited as a victim of an assault” she said “no one ever laid a hand on
me, not once . . . If everything had happened the way they [police] said, I
wouldn't have been able to walk, much less work. It is such a joke.” She added that the only person who was
assaulted was Dean, who was, as she said "attacked by several police
officers" Berry and Dean were arguing in public near Leesburg Pike when a
cop drove by and told Berry to go with him to the McLean station until her and
Dean “Cooled off”.
The
cop did not arrest Dean for assault although the police later claimed that Dean
assaulted Berry on Leesburg Pike. The
cop drove Berry back to the station and Berry called Dean to pick her up, when he
arrived, the cops tried to keep them from leaving together.
"I kept saying (to the cops) we'll be all
right.” Dean said. Then the cops took his arms and he went down
on to the floor "I'm gasping for air”; Dean said I'm saying, is all this
necessary? The four cops who jumped him
from behind chipped his tooth and blacked his eye. "They're claiming he assaulted a police
officer," Berry said. "That's
crazy. If anyone, especially Vernon, had
hit me with a fist, I wouldn't be here telling you right now."
Dean’s
lawyer said , "I'm saying they [police] attacked him because he was not
cooperating with their decision to intervene in what was essentially a domestic
squabble . . . This is something that's been blown out of proportion by police
trying to cover up their conduct. It's
typical of the way they deal with black athletes. A police officer comes on the scene, a black
guy is involved . . . The cops say to him, 'I don't care who you are,' then
they say a guy is resisting arrest . . . They always say they're assaulting the
police. It's a typical excuse police
give for reprehensible conduct . . . They have to justify the arrest. I'm getting tired of it... Vernon probably said some things to the
officers they didn't like. Police have
to justify their conduct”