Gonzales v Food First HFDC, Inc.

[*1] Gonzales v Food First HFDC, Inc. 2019 NY Slip Op 51060(U) Decided on June 20, 2019 Civil Court Of The City Of New York, Kings County Roper, J. Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

Decided on June 20, 2019
Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County

Rodney A. Gonzales, Plaintiff,

against

Food First HFDC, Inc., CARMEN SANTANA, Defendants.



CV-003275-17/KI



Christopher Lynn, Esq.

Robert Feldman, Esq.

24-15 Queens Plaza North

Long Island City, New York 11101

(718)-392-2117

Counsel for Plaintiff

Thomas Desimone, Esq.

14 Wall Street, 20th Floor

New York, NY 10005

Counsel for Defendant
Sandra E. Roper, J.

This Honorable Court awards Judgment on the facts and the law after Damages Phase of Bifurcated Trial where Liability has been previously established for False Arrest and False Imprisonment, in favor of Plaintiff for the jurisdictional maximum amount of Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars for mental distress, humiliation, embarrassment, injury to reputation, exacerbation of Alcoholism, Legal Fees in the stipulated amount of Seven Thousand Five Hundred Dollars, costs, disbursements, Punitive Damages and interest accruing from August 15, 2016.

LAW OF DAMAGES

Broughton, a seminal case sets forth the well-established law that damages for false arrest and false imprisonment may only consider and factor in damages up to the arraignment or indictment (Broughton v State of New York, 37 NY2d 451, cert denied sub nom.; Schanbarger v Kellogg, 423 US 929). "Such sum may only include damage up to the time of arraignment, [*2]since subsequent damages are attributable to the cost of malicious prosecution" (Broughton v State of New York, 37 NY2d 451, cert denied sub nom.; Schanbarger v Kellogg, 423 US 929). It has been held that any warrantless arrest and imprisonment by its very import is without probable cause and presumptively unlawful which establishes a claim for false arrest and false imprisonment (Smith v County of Nassau, 34 NY2d 18, 23 [Ct App 1974]). However, an arraignment by a judge or a true-bill indictment by a grand jury establishes probable cause and is the intervening act that cuts off damages for false arrest and imprisonment since the accused is no longer being imprisoned as a result of the arrest but rather as the result of the intervening event (Casler v State of New York, 33 AD2d 305 [4th Dept 1970]; Gearitz v Strasbourger, 133 App Div 701 [1st Dept 1909]). The Court of Appeals held this same position in Worden v Davis (195 NY 391 [Ct App 1909]). Thereafter, damages may be sought for the cause of action for malicious prosecution against governmental actors as defendants and not merely for false arrest nor false imprisonment. Whereas, a wronged victim may seek redress against non-governmental natural or juridical persons for false arrest and false imprisonment cause of actions for the time prior to the intervening event of arraignment or indictment.

A wronged victim may be awarded substantial compensatory damages based upon the time period of unlawful arrest in and of itself (Williams v State, 5 AD2d 936, 938, 172 NYS 2d 206, 208 [3d Dept 1958); Cicurel v Mollet, 1 AD2d 239, 149 NYS 2d 397 [1st Dept 1956], aff'd 1 NY2d 797, 153 NYS 2d 60, 135 NE2d 594 [1st Dept 1956]). Also, one falsely imprisoned is entitled to damages for the false imprisonment itself (Talcott v National Exhibition Co., 144 App Div 337, 338, 128 NYS 1059, 1060 [2d Dept 1911]; Bass v State, 196 Misc 177, 92 NYS 2d 42 [Ct Cl 1949]). Therefore, although many cited cases go back to the 1900s where defendant was falsely accused of stealing butter from a store and awarded one-thousand dollars in 1950; or in 1907 alleged stolen flowers from a cemetery, the Court of Appeals in Shultz considered the humiliation, stigma, shame and indignity of societal embarrassment (Goldberg v Fleischer's Confidence Food Stores, Inc., 102 NYS 2d 176, 1950 NY Misc LEXIS 2387; Schultz v Greenwood Cemetery, 190 NY 276, 83 NE 41, 1907 NY LEXIS 1378). Plaintiff being taken in a marked "patrol wagon" as opposed to an unmarked "street car" was factored into defendant's damages for false arrest and false imprisonment (id at 280).

FINDINGS OF FACT

The previously held Liability Phase of Bifurcated Trial found that defendants falsely accused Mr. Gonzales of stealing Eighty Dollars' worth of food from its stock and consequently liable for false arrest and false imprisonment. Mr. Gonzales, a physically obviously Latino person of color [FN1] brings this action for false arrest and false imprisonment against his former corporate employer and natural person manager of corporation. Mr. Gonzales was a minimum wage custodian for defendants. After defendants falsely accused him, they summoned the police which resulted in Mr. Gonzales' false arrest and false imprisonment. Damages Phase of Bifurcated Trial was held before this Court.

Mr. Gonzales and his friend and sponsor, Mr. Lyons testified. Mr. Gonzales presented as honest truthful and credible. His testimony was not exaggerated nor hyperbolic. Rather he was subdued, even keeled and credibly testified without hint of malingering. As he testified, the [*3]furrows in his brow belied his attempt to portray a steely countenance. Mr. Gonzales remorsefully admitted of his recovering alcoholic past that he had battled back to achieve a feeling of accomplishment by having this job, albeit minimum wage. He had a job that he was proud of that allowed him to pay for a roof over his head, his home, even if he had been late on rent now and again. Mr. Gonzales testified consistent with Alcoholics Anonymous edict [FN2] , that his alcoholism is an ongoing battle that requires constant help from his sponsors to avoid recidivism. However, his life was spun into an abysmal tailspin. He lost his job. He lost his home. He lost all his personal belongings. He lost his photo of his daughter. During the period of his false arrest and false imprisonment, Mr. Gonzales was the victim of an illegal lockout, which ultimately resulted in a significant monetary award from Housing Court. Unfortunately, that judgment awarded to him against his landlord has not yet been realized nor executed upon because said landlord had sold the building. It appears the landlord may be judgment-proof at this time. As a result of his false arrest and false imprisonment, Mr. Gonzales was literally left with the clothes on his back. Mr. Gonzales having lost everything tangible, then experienced the intangible losses, loss of self-esteem, loss of that feeling of achievement, loss of feeling good about himself. Seeing no way out, he was relegated to becoming a homeless beggar for sustenance and unfortunately, but quite expectedly, for recidivism of alcohol consumption [FN3] . Mr. Gonzales as a recovering alcoholic who was trying to do his absolute best to beat the odds, defendants' false allegations threw him back so many steps.[FN4] Even though Mr. Gonzales had support of Mr. Lyons and his dad and sponsors, so broken, distraught, ashamed, embarrassed was he, that he "disappeared"[FN5] .

Mr. Lyons, a tall imposing Black man, retired as a real estate professional to become a consultant in order to take care of his ill father. He testified that he considered Mr. Gonzales one of his best friends and his father considered Mr. Gonzales as a son. Mr. Lyons was also a sponsor and was checking up on him when he found out about the arrest. He went to the precinct to inquire as to Mr. Gonzales' whereabouts. They met at Mr. Gonzales' apartment after his release from custody after one and a half-day, where Mr. Lyons testified: "He couldn't get in. The bottom line is that everything was stolen out of there, clothing, everything."[FN6] Thereafter, Mr. Lyons testified that Mr. Gonzales just "disappeared"[FN7] . Mr. Lyons further testified, "I would say that I looked for him at least six days out of the week,"[FN8] and, it took him "[f]our to [*4]five months"[FN9] to find Mr. Gonzales after he disappeared. Mr. Lyons further testified as to how he came to find him in response to defendants' query as to whether Mr. Lyons worked with homeless people other than Mr. Gonzales:

"Yes, as a matter of fact, my grandfather happens to be a priest, and not only did he take in homeless children, I happened to be an advocate for children, and I actually go to 42nd Street quite often and try and give back like my mother taught me. since my mother died in 1996."[FN10]

When Mr. Lyons finally found Mr. Gonzales in the Bowery Mission for the Homeless, he testified as to the perception and impression of the man that he had encountered:

"My perception of what had happened to Rodney is somebody who was absolute A, an A1 person who went from one to 100 below. I mean there was - - I mean just everything. It was bad. It was worse than seeing somebody on the Bowery. It was like looking like somebody on 42nd Street who had been there for like years, and to see something like that hurts as a person. I'm not kidding."[FN11]

At this point during Mr. Lyons' testimony, his eyes welled up with tears and he was physically shaken as he recounted how Mr. Gonzales looked when he finally found him at the Bowery Mission. Although emotional, he continued with his testimony: "I actually didn't' believe it was him when I first, you know, and I'm serious, I've known him for years and you don't - - you see somebody that you care about and then to see them totally distraught, wrecked, I mean holes in his sneakers. As a matter of fact, I even have the sneakers at the house."[FN12]

Mr. Lyons painted a picture of Mr. Gonzales as a lost broken man that had so fallen to as he described "100 below."[FN13] Obviously, evidencing the fall of this man who had been trying to do the right thing and had been on an upward trajectory was quite emotional for Mr. Lyons. The false arrest and false imprisonment propelled his life into a downward spiral. Mr. Gonzales was so absolutely lost.

Through testimony by them both, it is evident that he had been thriving and stabilized and recovering well from his alcoholism and making his meetings occasionally, keeping in touch with his sponsors and incrementally progressing. Mr. Gonzales credited Alcoholics Anonymous with his societal progression. All that progress was eradicated on August 15, 2016 when he was falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned. Mr. Gonzales had an apartment. Mr. Gonzales had a job, albeit minimum wage. Mr. Gonzales felt dignified holding down that job: He lost that upon termination. He felt dignified holding down an apartment that may not be much but was his home: He lost that. The false allegations of his stealing Eighty Dollars' worth of food from the [*5]defendants absolutely threw his stable life and his progress into an absolute tailspin. He was so ashamed and so embarrassed that as a result of the defendants' false allegations that he lost all that stability and progress that he had so steadily tried to achieve and maintain and progress from. He lost it all. He had achieved so much and lost it all on that day of August 15, 2016 as he sat imprisoned for a falsely alleged crime that he had not committed. Moreover, Mr. Gonzales lost his hope.[FN14]

DISCUSSION

False arrest and false imprisonment are a shock to the system of any innocent person.[FN15] But it strikes sheer terror [FN16] in the hearts and minds of people of color because of the well documented de jure and de facto historical injustices inflicted on innocent people of color. A false arrest and false imprisonment of a person of color is much more likely to result in dire consequences and outcomes in the mere effectuation of the false arrest in and of itself.[FN17] There's a genuine profound significant palpable fear of interaction with law enforcement so engrained within people of color. Perpetually is the knowledge that the encounter no matter how initially innocent that encounter may be, it may so quickly go sideways to a tragic end. This terror of the circumstances as a whole is so well ensconced and omnipresent on the minds of people of color; men of color, women of color, fathers and mothers of children of color [FN18] regardless of socio-[*6]economic strata.[FN19] Indeed, there have been too many historical accounts and even more recent accounts of very horrific tragic outcomes to innocent people of color, particularly men of color in the mere seemingly benign communication with law enforcement. This terror is so engendered that even self-initiated voluntary encounters with law enforcement are matters of great consternation for people of color. These tragic outcomes have been terrifying, life-altering and even life-terminating. Even where unequivocally obvious exculpatory facts may be self-evident during the effectuation of the false arrest of a person of color, a similarly situated non-minority is more likely than not to result in no false arrest nor false imprisonment.[FN20] Unfortunately, under same set of circumstances where the falsely accused is a person of color there is the complete opposite outcome and even more likely to be quite a tragic outcome.[FN21] Where the initial encounter with law enforcement is terrifying in the detainment for the false arrest, ergo, a mere scintilla of a fraction of time of loss of freedom by false imprisonment by law enforcement in and of itself presents an even heightened level of justifiable significant dread and terror to an innocent person of color. This terror may likewise be felt by people of color who may have had justifiable prior legitimate arrest and imprisonment, particularly where alcoholism or narcotic abuse is at issue, who had turned their lives around and had become law [*7]abiding persons, only to be falsely accused, falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned as an innocent, which may likely throw this person's stabilized life into a tailspin.[FN22]

This is the plight of Mr. Gonzales as a person of color in the instant matter. He had indeed suffered with alcoholism and had progressively, incrementally achieved and made progress in his life. Mr. Gonzales had successfully viably overcome those challenges and was at a stable place of progressive achievement in his life. Mr. Gonzales tried so very hard to avoid being just another statistic as a man of color from a minority community adversely disproportionately thrust into the well-established perceived as not quite yet equal criminal justice system.[FN23] Here, Mr. Gonzales experienced that terror of an encounter with law enforcement. He well recounted the false allegations of stealing thrust upon him in a subdued, without hyperbole nor exaggeration cadence and how his ultimate false arrest and false imprisonment so adversely affected him and his life circumstances. As a result, Mr. Gonzales became a broken man who had lost everything upon the effectuation of the false arrest and false imprisonment. He instantly lost his job; lost his home; lost all of his personal possessions including his daughter's photo; lost his self-esteem; lost his feelings of accomplishment; separated himself from those who cared about him because of his shame and embarrassment; lost his sobriety; lost his hope. He was relegated to becoming a homeless beggar on The Bowery Mission. This was all inflicted upon Mr. Gonzales on that notorious Monday, August 15, 2016 by defendants prior to the intervening event of an arraignment in criminal court for petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree.

Defendants' argue that Mr. Gonzales did not suffer too much, being merely falsely arrested without incident and only imprisoned for one and half days. And, further argues that Mr. Gonzales is actually better off currently than he had been prior to his false arrest and false imprisonment. However, the law is clear that this may be a legally articulable argument in a case for malicious prosecution after the intervening event of arraignment, not being the case here. However, it is most vehemently posited that this argument is offensive and highly prejudicial particularly to an innocent person of color. The feeling of dread, fright and terror is felt at the mere encounter of Mr. Gonzales with law enforcement, the detainment, the false arrest and the false imprisonment. Defendants' falsities forcing Mr. Gonzales into an involuntary interaction or encounter with law enforcement to respond to false allegations of a theft which could have very well gone sideways to a tragic outcome. Mr. Gonzales as a man of color to unjustifiably experience these feelings is horrendous. Moreover, Defendants' highly prejudicial injurious argument trivializes the plight of the falsely arrested, falsely imprisoned and falsely convicted. Its import being because Mr. Gonzales is better off because he is now a cement pump operator making twenty dollars per hour as opposed to the minimum wage job that he was wrongfully terminated from as a result of defendants' false allegations of theft. This highly prejudicial, injurious and offensive argument belittles and trivializes the plight of the wrongfully convicted [*8]and those incarcerated upwards of 30 years and in some cases posthumously.[FN24] To argue, because the wrongfully convicted are awarded millions of dollars after the fact is truly of no moment. The wrongfully convicted, the falsely arrested, the falsely imprisoned have lost Life's Most Precious Commodity: Time! Time is indeed the only commodity that can never, with emphasis as to the absoluteness and finality of this postulation, be recompensed. There is no money in the world to literally recompense for a scintilla of time wrongfully lost to the criminal justice system. Once gone, that Time is gone forever for eternity.

Here, Mr. Gonzales as a man of color, being falsely accused, falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned even but for a mere fractional scintilla of time for an alleged crime that he did not commit demands damages more than the maximum jurisdictional amount. For all the foregoing reasons as fully set forth above, however, within the jurisdictional constraints of New York City Civil Court, Damage Award is granted for the maximum jurisdictional amount of Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars, Legal Fees in the stipulated amount of Seven Thousand Five Hundred Dollars, costs, disbursements, Punitive Damages and interest accruing from August 15, 2016.

This constitutes the Opinion, Decision, Order and Judgment of This Honorable Court.

Dated: June 20, 2019

Brooklyn, New York

SO ORDERED:

______________________________

SANDRA E. ROPER

Judge of the Civil Court Footnotes

Footnote 1:Although arresting officer's report describes Mr. Gonzales as of "White" Race (without checking Hispanic) and his skin tone as "light". This court as fact-finder disagrees with this demographic physical description. Rather, Mr. Gonzales is a medium Brown skinned Hispanic, obviously not White.

Footnote 2:"We understand now, that once a person has crossed the invisible line from heavy drinking to compulsive alcoholic drinking, they will always remain alcoholic. So far as we know, there can never be any turning back to "normal" social drinking. "Once an alcoholic - always an alcoholic" is a simple fact we have to live with" (Alcoholics Anonymous, About AA, [https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/About-AA/Newcomers/About-Alcoholism]).

Footnote 3:See n 2, supra.

Footnote 4:Alcoholics Anonymous, 12 Step Program Recovery, [https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/About-AA/The-12-Steps-of-AA].

Footnote 5:Transcript Page 43 Line 4.

Footnote 6:Transcript Page 42 Line 14.

Footnote 7:Transcript Page 43 Line 4.

Footnote 8:Transcript Page 49 Line 16.

Footnote 9:Transcript Page 49 Line 12.

Footnote 10:Transcript Page 49 Line 3.

Footnote 11:Transcript Page 45 Line 14.

Footnote 12:Transcript Page 45 Line 22 - Page 46 Line 2.

Footnote 13:Transcript Page 45 Line 14.

Footnote 14:Loss of Hope is thought of as a progenitor, precursor to suicidal ideations towards the ultimate act of suicide within the first 24 hours of false imprisonment. False Imprisonment is akin to someone being taken as hostage (Robert I. Simon, MD, The Psychological and Legal Aftermath of False Arrest and Imprisonment, Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law, Vol.21, No.4, 1993).

Footnote 15:"False arrest and imprisonment can be an extraordinarily stressful psychological trauma. This is clearly demonstrated in the evaluation of forensic cases alleging false arrest and imprisonment, a review of the recent forensic psychiatric literature and reported legal cases Being unexpectedly wrenched from one's normal, expectable existence and plunged into the sheer terror of imprisonment without apparent reason is a highly traumatic, Kafkaesque experience" (Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 1 December 1993, Vol.21, Issue 4, 523-528).

Footnote 16:"Law-abiding Black and Hispanic drivers are often left frightened and humiliated after being stopped by police, who too often see them as criminals" (Michael A. Fletcher, National Geographic Magazine, For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped, [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/the-stop-race-police-traffic/] [April 2018]; see also Kathy Frankovic, YouGov, African-Americans fear victimization by police than fear violent crime, [https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/03/15/black-americans-police ] [March 15, 2019, 2:30PM] ; see also Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pacific Standard Magazine, TAKING FREEDOM: YES, BLACK AMERICA FEARS THE POLICE. HERE'S WHY. On the historic role of policing in reinforcing racial inequality and how it has les to Black Americans fear of police, [https://psmag.com/social-justice/why-black-america-fears-the-police]; see also Nicole Hannah-Jones, Politico Magazine, Letter From Black America, Yes, we fear the police. Here's why.,[https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/03/letter-from-black-america-police-115545] [[March/April 2015]; see also Rebecca Klein, HUFFPOST, At Antwon Rose's High School, Black Students Learned to Fear Police, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/antwon-rose-high-school_n_5b3404e8e4b0cb56051ed425 ][June 28, 2018, 10:00AM ET]).

Footnote 17:Many of which are well documented in our history books and more recently that have made it into national and international headlines and caused national and local protests and upheaval against the criminal justice system. Oftentimes, said false arrest and false imprisonment begins with a false accusation by a natural or juridical person which may spiral out of control to a tragic end.

Footnote 18:Travis M. Andrews, The Washington Post, Six-year-old handcuffed and several other children under age 11 arrested in Tennessee, sparking outrage, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/20/six-year-old-handcuffed-and-several-other-children-under-age-11-arrested-in-tennessee-sparking-outrage/?noredirect=on & utm_term=.005cb812d691] [April 20, 2016]; Louisiana Center For Children's Rights, When 99% of Children Arrested Are Black: A Case for Police Diversion [July 20, 2015] [ http://www.laccr.org/news/when-99-of-children-arrested-are-black-a-case-for-police-diversion/]; Equal Justice Initiative, Black Children Five Times More Likely Than White Youth to Be Incarcerated, [https://eji.org/news/black-children-five-times-more-likely-than-whites-to-be-incarcerated] [September 14, 2017]; The Sentencing Project: Fact Data Sheet 2015, Black Disparities in Youth Incarceration, African Americans 5X More Likely than Whites to be Held, [https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Black-Disparities-in-Youth-Incarceration.pdf.]; After a 4-year-old took a doll from a store, video shows Phoenix police pulling a gun on her parents (Deanna Paul and Herman Wong, The Washington Post, Black parents violently arrested at expletive laden gunpoint and imprisoned, as pregnant mother held 1 year old at babysitters [June 16, 2019]); In contrast, a group of young Drag Racers "were caught on camera in Bay Ridge on Wednesday, 'Officers visited their parents, and I think they got the message. If not, next time, the cars will be impounded,' However, there were no arrests in connection with the incident" (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, A GROUP OF STATEN ISLAND DRAG RACERS [June 17, 2019]). Drag Racers pursuant to NYS VTL § 1182 face arrest, fines and imprisonment. These young law-breakers likely not of color, were given second chances without the terror of an arrest or imprisonment that is so routinely inflicted upon young people of color. Even the remedy for their re-offense of the misdemeanor of Drag Racing is not arrest nor imprisonment, but merely impounding of their cars — more so like a "grounding" as opposed to being arrested and imprisoned in the criminal justice system as so routinely done for young people of color.

Footnote 19:The Scottsboro Boys, 9 impoverished migrant Black boys 13-20 looking for work were falsely arrested, falsely imprisoned for false allegations of rape by two White women is well-established as a racist stain on our criminal justice system (History, Scottsboro Boys, [https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/scottsboro-boys] [updated June 10, 2019]); Powell v Ala., 287 US 45, 53 S Ct 55, 77 L Ed 158, 1932 US LEXIS 5, 84 ALR 527:In Re Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Black male, well renowned, distinguished prominent Harvard scholar, intellectual, film maker, falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned for falsely being accused of breaking into his own home in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Abby Goodnough, New York Times, Harvard Professor Jailed; Officer Is Accused of Bias, [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/us/21gates.html] [July 20, 2009]); In Re Lawrence Crosby, Black male, Northwestern University Doctoral Candidate, falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned for falsely being accused of stealing his own car, Evanston, Illinois (BBC News, Man 'arrested for stealing his own car' wins settlement, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46970628] [January 23, 2019]);The Central Park Five Exonerees, 5 Harlem, New York City Black and Brown boys 14-16 falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned for false allegations of rape in New York County, in which similarly 58 years earlier, as The Scottsboro Boys, they did not know each other but did have another commonality when corralled for false arrest and false imprisonment, to wit, the color of their skin (Benjamin Weiser, The New York Times, 5 Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Agree to Settle Suit for $40 Million, [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/20/nyregion/5-exonerated-in-central-park-jogger-case-are-to-settle-suit-for-40-million.html] [June 19, 2014]). Unfortunately, still relevant 87 years later penned in Scottsboro Limited, 1932 in protest to the racist miscarriage of justice against The Scottsboro Boys, is Justice poem by renowned Black poet, Langston Hughes, "That Justice is a blind goddess ~ Is a thing to which we black are wise: ~ Her bandage hides two festering sores ~ That once perhaps were eyes".

Footnote 20:EJI: Equal Justice Initiative, Black Children Five Times More Likely Than White Youth to Be Incarcerated, [https://eji.org/news/black-children-five-times-more-likely-than-whites-to-be-incarcerated] [September 14, 2017];

Footnote 21:Gerry Everding, Washington University in St. Louis, Young Hispanic men may face greatest risk from police shootings, study finds, [https://source.wustl.edu/2018/03/young-hispanic-men-may-face-greatest-risk-from-police-shootings-study-finds/] [March 29, 2018].

Footnote 22:Nigel Roberts, NEWSONE, 'I Lost Everything': Innocent Man Cleared By DNA Evidence Is Fighting Back. Cases of police targeting innocent Black men with criminal records come to light from time to time, [https://newsone.com/3839395/false-arrest-grand-rapids-xavier-davis-sues/] [December 15, 2018].

Footnote 23:Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness [January 16, 2012].

Footnote 24:Black man, Timothy B. Cole, posthumous exoneree for rape conviction in 1999 (The National Registry of EXONERATIONS, Timothy B. Cole, [https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3114] [last updated March 10, 2015]; See also Innocence Project, A Posthumous Exoneration? [https://www.innocenceproject.org/a-posthumous-exoneration/]). Black man, Ricky Jackson wrongfully imprisoned for 39 years, 3 months and 9 days exoneree for murder (Mark Berman, The Washington Post, The longest-serving inmate exonerated in U.S. history is getting $1 million from Ohio, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/03/20/the-longest-serving-inmate-exonerated-in-u-s-history-is-getting-1-million-from-ohio/?noredirect=on & utm_term=.b148c9d4e8e6] [March 20, 2015]). Black man, Derrick Hamilton, 23 years exoneree for murder framed by notorious NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella (Innocence Project, 'Home Free': How a Wrongfully Convicted Man Taught Himself Law and Won His Freedom, [https://www.innocenceproject.org/how-derrick-hamilton-won-his-freedom/][June 15, 2016]; see also The National Registry of EXONERATIONS, Derrick Hamilton, [https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4601] [last updated July 24, 2018]); see also Jennifer Gonnerman, The New Yorker, Home Free How a New York State prisoner became a jailhouse lawyer, and changed the system, [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/20/derrick-hamilton-jailhouse-lawyer] [June 13, 2016]. Latino man, William Lopez, 23 ½ years exoneree dies one year after release (Shawn Cohen and Daniel Prendergast, New York Post, Wrongfully jailed man doesn't live long enough to get $4.2M settlement, [https://nypost.com/2016/01/20/wrongfully-jailed-man-doesnt-live-long-enough-to-get-4-2-million-settlement/;https://www.deskovicfoundation.org/cases/2016/10/24/the-wrongful-conviction-and-exoneration-of-william-lopez ] [January 20, 2016]).