Graham v. University City

The ACLU of Missouri has filed a lawsuit against the University City Police Department for tackling, unlawfully arresting and violating the rights of a 55-year-old Black man as he walked in an affluent neighborhood.

Instead of casually starting a conversation, a University City Police officer waited until Graham had left the porch of his friend and sped toward Graham as he was walking alone in the 6300 block of McPherson Avenue. The officer jumped out of the car, demanding to talk to Graham, asking him, “Do you live here?”

Graham was upset that the officer assumed that he did not belong in the neighborhood since Graham had done odd jobs for many of the residents of the Parkview subdivision over the years and the officer had just seen Graham casually interacting with his friend.

Despite all of this, the officer arrested Graham for failure to immediately comply with the officer’s unconstitutional request to identify himself.

Graham was then taken to the University City Police Department where he was booked and placed in jail for seven hours. The charge against him was dismissed.

Find the Legal Glossary here: https://www.aclu-mo.org/en/node/124