A Black production employee working for Disney is suing the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for at least 20 million dollars (£15.2 million) for alleged racial profiling.
Ernest Simon Jr, 31, who was working on the production of popular US show Grey’s Anatomy, says he was racially profiled by officers in March of last year.
Lawyers said LAPD officers had undertaken an “unwarranted, unjustified, and unlawful” traffic stop at Mr Simon’s place of work with “wanton and reckless disregard” for his rights.
Court documents obtained by the PA news agency state Mr Simon was forced to “lie spread eagle on an asphalt lot, at gunpoint” for over 20 minutes by multiple LAPD officers.
“March 18, 2021 began as a typical work day for Mr Simon, who was working as a driver for the production of the popular television show Grey’s Anatomy as an employee of The Walt Disney Company’s General Entertainment Division (“DGE”),” the documents said.
“His ordinary work day, however, took a drastic turn after Mr Simon — a thirty-one-year-old African American male — was targeted by LAPD police officers who, without any legal justification, initiated a racially motivated “high risk” traffic stop.”
The incident caused Mr Simon to “legitimately (and understandably) fear that he was going to be shot at his workplace in front of his coworkers for simply being a Black man in the wrong neighborhood,” the documents said.
Lawyers claimed it was an instance of racial profiling and noted the LAPD’s “long and notorious history of racial discrimination against African Americans like Mr Simon.”
They added that despite investigating the officers’ misconduct for a year, the LAPD had failed to take any “meaningful action” to hold its officers to account or to provide Mr Simon with “even a semblance of justice.”
Mr Simon is seeking damages of “no less than 20 million dollars” in compensation, and has requested a trial by jury.