Kansas Police Department in the town of Winfield is being accused of racial profiling when they pulled a black man over and allegedly calming he failed to signal at a turn. Police pulled Rudy Samuel and proceeded to ask him about “vegetation” on his car. The encounter was recorded by Samuel on Facebook Live and was abruptly ended once he was dragged out of his car.
Huffington Post reports that the police officer implied that the alleged “vegetation” was some sort of drug and would later test it to confirm it’s identity.
“Hey, Mr. Samuel, what caught my attention was this vegetation stuff right here,” the officer said.
After looking at what the officer is referring to ― which isn’t visible in the video but is apparently some sort of vegetation in the window seal ― Samuel can be heard saying, “That’s tree stuff, man … that’s gotta be from a tree.”
He later adds: “I don’t even smoke.”
The officer then tells Samuel he’s going to put the vegetation in an evidence bag, and he’s seen returning to his patrol car. He then returns with another officer.
At this point the police ask Samuel to step out of his car and when he asks why, they explain that it’s due to the “vegetation” on his car. During this exchange between Samuel and the police he continues to record using Facebook live until it appears he has been dragged out of his car due to his hesitancy to step out.
Winfield police ultimately let Samuel free seeing there was no real reason why he was being questioned and detained. According to Huffington Post Winfield police was reached regarding incident but declined to elaborate on the incident but said it was under investigation. Luckily this incident of racial profiling didn’t end in murder as most traffic stops usually do. Flip the page to see video of the incident.