ACLU files racial profiling suit in Colorado Springs traffic stop

Two black men who were pulled from a vehicle at gunpoint during a traffic stop last year are suing the city and three Colorado Springs police officers on grounds of racial profiling.

The incident, featured in the Rocky Mountain PBS documentary, “A Sentenced Life,” happened March 25, 2015.

Ryan Brown, 31, and his brother Benjamin Brown, 22, were “targeted” by police during the March 25, 2015, stop “because they are young, African-American men,” the lawsuit alleges. The suit was filed Wednesday in Denver’s U.S. District Court with the support of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, which from the beginning has called the traffic stop nothing more than a case of “driving while black.”

Until the filing of the suit, the incident appeared to have ended when District Attorney Dan May dismissed charges against the Brown brothers and an internal police review cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing

The Gazette has the full story on the new developments.