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Newark, NJ. After being frisked, handcuffed and escorted to police headquarters, for the third time in a month, Dr. David Harris was fed up. A graduate of Rutgers University, Princeton University and most recently, Harvard University where he received his Doctorate degree, Dr. Harris began a campaign against racial profiling and taking the steps to pursue legal action against the city of Newark and the state of NJ for the constant harassment he encountered by the hands of the Newark Police department. In a letter to his legal congressman, Dr. Harris wrote:

After working my way through school, achieving good grades and graduating near the top of my class at some of this country’s top Universities, I am still unable to converse with my friends without the constant, realistic fear that I will be the victim of this cities police officers vendetta against young African-American males. In the past month, I have been hauled down to the dungeons of this cities prisons like a common criminal, guilty of socializing with the very individuals I grew up with, my extended family…

Dr. Harris was actually arrested for suspension of selling narcotics and loitering. According to police records obtained by this newspaper, Dr. Harris and four associates were arrested on the corner of 18th St. and Clinton Ave., after detectives witnessed Dr. Harris’ associates dealing marijuana. In an official statement from the commissioner’s office, Newark police “systemically deny profiling based on race and Dr. Harris was arrested because he was present during the commission of a crime with known drug dealers. This department values the life and freedom of all its citizens, and views everyone equally, but we cannot and will not ignore criminal behavior because someone holds several degrees from some of the most prestige’s institutions in this country.”

After two weeks of investigation it became painfully care what was actually the cause of Dr. David Harris’s constant run in with the authorities of Newark, NJ. It was a Wednesday evening, 11:14 pm to be exact, and I sat in a van outside Melvin’s Liquor store located on Clinton Ave. in between 17th and 18th street. On the corner of 18th St. and Clinton Ave. stood five young African-American males, seemly doing nothing but conversing. Each male wore baggy denim jeans hanging just beneath their buttocks showing off their fruit of the loom boxers, loose fitting t-shirts, baseball hats and Timberland boots. Dr. Harris’ claims of racial profiling as the motivation for his incarceration seemed to be valid, the five men appeared to be guilty of only not letting go of their youth and socializing on a city street corner. The men did not appear to be loud nor did it appear they were interfering with any of the pedestrians that passed in front of them. Dr. Harris seemed to be right, even though he had a poor choice of networking site and his attire was that of someone 15 years his junior, he and his friends were not up to any bad deeds. But then it happened, a man passed through the circle of friends and I could see money and a package being exchanged between the man and one of Dr. Harris’ friends. The other four friends continued on with their conversation as if they had not seen the interaction, but they could not be blind to the exchange that had just taken part. Moments later, another man, then a woman, passed through the circle, different people, different friends but the same exchange took place. Dr. Harris never partook in the exchange of goods and money, but he was among those who had.

With all of his education, Dr. Harris seemed to have forgotten a simple lesson that our very first teachers have taught us, most of our parents constantly drilled into our young minds, “you are judged by the company you keep.”