Black while walking illegal in Beverly Hills

Charles Belk photo

Addicting Info - Apparently, it doesn’t matter where a black person walks in this country. Police will always find a way to arrest them and violate their rights. But this time, officers bit off more than they can chew.Television producer Charles Belk is tall, bald, and black as are many African-American men in America. However, based on that broad description, Beverly Hills Police Department arrested Belk for simply walking down La Cienega Boulevard on Friday night. They were looking for a bank robbery suspect who fit the description, which basically means every tall, bald, and black male in Beverly Hills could have been arrested.

The arrest turned out to be false after police finally reviewed surveillance footage after six hours had passed, and the way they treated Belk has stirred outrage. Police stopped Belk, slapped on the cuffs and made him sit on the sidewalk as more police cars showed up on the scene. As Belk describes in a post on Facebook, police wasted hours processing him as a suspect and denied him his due process rights throughout the ordeal.

The Beverly Hills Police Department has since halfheartedly apologized to Belk in a statement that reads: “The Beverly Hills Police Department regrets the inconvenience to Mr. Belk, but was under obligation to thoroughly verify that he was not the suspect before releasing him.”