-- Thanks to Christopher King (comment at bottom of series of various stories) for bringing this to my attention. Black College Reunion is Daytona Beach's most controversial special event, and over the years has prompted complaints of discrimination, racial hatred and the like. While the BCR revelers are generally no more disruptive as Spring Breakers, the city has been known to overpopulate the streets with law enforcement officers for this event only, with lawmen coming from all over the state and, in the past, from throughout the Southeast. Daytona Beach-Volusia County NAACP Branch President Cynthia Slater has always been a major presence on the streets during the event to monitor the activities for discriminatory practices that are not seen during the city's other special events. The following story appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal:
April 02, 2006
NAACP president arrested
By SETH ROBBINS
Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- The local NAACP president was arrested Saturday afternoon on misdemeanor charges after an altercation with deputies after she attempted to hand a flier to the driver of a car involved in a Black College Reunion traffic stop.
Cynthia Slater, president of the Volusia County-Daytona Beach Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the past six years, was charged with two counts of resisting an officer without violence, disorderly conduct and obstruction of a street. But Slater and the Volusia County Sheriff's Office have very different views on what occurred on North Atlantic Avenue during the second day of the annual gathering of black young adults.
Deputies acted appropriately under the circumstances, said Gary Davidson, Sheriff's Office spokesman.
"Miss Slater is entitled to her opinions, but she is not entitled to obstruct deputies when they are doing their job," Davidson said.
Slater, who was released without having to post bail, said she never obstructed the deputies from doing their job and plans to fight the charges with the help of the NAACP.
"If they can do it to me," she said by phone Saturday night, "they can do it to any one of these young kids."
Slater walked across the two southbound lanes of traffic on the 500 block of North Atlantic Avenue toward deputies conducting a traffic stop in the center turning lane about 2:30 p.m., according to a police report. The passenger was in custody, and the driver was to be in taken into custody as well when he began to back his vehicle up to move it out of the northbound traffic lane.
That is when Slater reached the center turning lane and handed the driver a flier with information on how to contact the NAACP if someone feels he or she has been the victim of discrimination. It is here that the stories diverge.
According to the police report, Slater yelled and flailed her arms, inciting a crowd that had gathered. Slater said she never said a word to deputies when she went to give the flier to the driver of the vehicle and only became irate after a deputy grabbed her.
According to the report, the deputy repeatedly told Slater to walk away from the traffic stop, but she refused. Fearing for his own safety because he had only one subject in custody, the deputy attempted to grab Slater's left arm. When he did this, she pulled away and walked away back across the two southbound lanes.
Deputies who observed the scene then took Slater into custody across the street. According to the report, Slater continued to yell, scream and resist the application of the handcuffs.
Slater said when she turned to walk back across the street after handing the driver the flier, the deputy pushed her out of the way.
"I told him to keep his hands off of me," she said, "but there was nothing said before he put his hands on me. I didn't open my mouth. I did not say a word."
Davidson said deputies did the right thing.
"The crowd formed on the sidewalk became inflamed by her actions as she was yelling and flailing her arms, and the deputies had to gain control of the situation," he said.
Slater said she at no point impeded traffic and the only time she became angry was when the deputy tried to grab her. She said, after that, she complied with deputies, even walking back to the center turning lane when asked to by one of the deputies.
"Injustice to one," she said, "is an injustice to every visitor at BCR."
seth.robbins@news-jrnl.com
(C) 2006 by The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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