FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Attorney Ben Crump and Civil Rights leaders with the NAACP met at the Broward Public Defender’s Office in Fort Lauderdale to demand justice for Delucca Rolle.
The 15-year-old’s name became known nationwide after cellphone video footage showed a Broward Sheriff’s Office slamming his face against the ground during an arrest in Tamarac back in April.
Now, months later, Civil Rights Attorney Crump, who is defending Rolle, claims the treatment of the officers involved is staggering compared to the treatment of the officer who was caught on camera slamming a student of the same age to the ground.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know what this message is,” said Crump. “We don’t value the lives of little black and brown children the way we value the lives of little white children.”
Civil Rights activists in the media conference said there was a clear racial bias at the State Attorney’s Office.
“America needs to know the discrimination and racism that’s happening right here in Broward County,” said Crump.
Rolle was originally arrested and charged with resisting arrest and battery on an officer, but when cellphone video showing the arrest was released, it showed a different scenario. The deputies were seen pepper spraying the teenager and throwing him on the ground before slamming his face against the pavement and punching him.
According to Crump and NAACP members, three white deputies involved were charged with misdemeanors in the case of Rolle, but when video released last week showed a black BSO deputy slamming the 15-year-old girl on the ground, they said, he was fired nearly a week later and charged with a felony.
BSO, however, said the deputy has been suspended without pay.
“The officers which lied about the report and lied about everything, they only charged them with a misdemeanor,” said Clintina Rolle, the mother of the victim. “Whereas they hit him on the ground, and he’s still emotionally going through the pattern. I just want equal justice.”
The civil rights leaders said the two cases are similar and the only difference is the students’ skin color.
“When you brutalize a child, you should be charged with a felony,” said Crump.
“It is in black and white that it took the state attorney 68 days, one rally and two press conferences to file misdemeanor charges in Delucca’s case,” said Attorney Sue Ann Robinson, “and it took eight days, just eight days, for them to review the video in this new case and file a felony charge against the black Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy.”
Crump and the NAACP members are calling for the State Attorney’s Office to review the charges against the deputies involved in Rolle’s case and upgrade them to felonies. They also claimed there is a racial bias inside the State Attorney’s Office.
“She kicked him, but she wasn’t charged with a crime,” said Crump. “Delucca Rolle did nothing, and he was charged with a crime. I’ll tell you what his crime was: the color of his skin.”
“Two different systems of justice,” said Chief Assistant Public Defender Gordon Weekes, “one that exists for black folks in this community and one that exists for white folks in this community.”
The State Attorney’s Office released a statement that said charging decisions are made based on the “law and evidence” with “no regard to the race of the perpetrator or victim.” They further explained that because Miller, the black BSO deputy, was a School Resource Officer, he was acting as a “caregiver,” and that is why he faces felony child abuse and was arrested by BSO.
Prosecutors have not yet filed formal charges against Miller.
The State Attorney’s Office said that although Rolle was initially arrested, once they looked at all of the evidence, the State Attorney’s Office decided not to file any charges. They did, however, file misdemeanor charges against all three deputies involved.
Trial two for the deputies involved in the Rolle case is still pending.
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