15) What happened to Adolph Lyons and how did he respond? How has the Supreme Court allowed the police to racially discriminate, and how have police in Maryland, New Jersey and New York done so? Why was the Sandoval case “the end of an era?”
Adolph Lyons was a black young adult detained by the LAPD while driving his car in Los Angeles one morning. While detained Lyon failed to follow orders properly, causing the officer to chokehold Lyons who eventually collapsed. Lyons sued the City of Los Angeles for violation of his rights, he demanded a ban against the use of the chokeholds. The Supreme Court dismissed his case on the basis that Lyons could not prove if all police officers choke people during a stop. Alexander claims that the Supreme Court has allowed the stop or search based on race as a determinative reason. This is backed by a study conducted in New Jersey, Maryland as well as New York, where minorities comprised less than 20 percent of the population (Maryland and New Jersey) yet they comprised 42 to 77 percent of all possible crimes related stops. Same racial bias can be confirmed in New York, where more than half of the pedestrian stops resulted in African Americans.…show more content… Sandoval case in which Sandoval sued the Alabama Department of Public Safety for administering the state driver’s license only in English. Under Title VI Sandoval was able to prove discrimination towards non-English speakers; nonetheless, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no legal basis to even file a lawsuit, and therefore Title VI did not provide “private right of action” ,which according to Alexander, it meant that ordinary citizens can no longer sue under the law on the basis of discrimination. She explains that this ruling was of high important because it marked the end of racial profiling litigation
