A black Princeton professor says she was handcuffed to a police station table on Saturday following an arrest for a three-year-old parking ticket.
Police say they discovered the outstanding ticket after they pulled her over for speeding.
Imani Perry, a professor of African American studies at the New Jersey university, says a male police officer searched her despite the presence of a female officer, adding that she was denied a phone call before her arrest.
Perry was allowed to make phone calls at the station, according to police, though they have not commented on her being handcuffed to a table or searched by a male officer. Officers gave Perry a ticket for speeding and driving on a suspended license.
Princeton Police Chief Nicholas Sutter said prosecutors are investigating the arrest, though after watching the video, he doesn't believe the arresting officers were intrusive or broke with policy.
Perry described her experience as "humiliating and frightening."
Here's Perry describing the incident on Twitter:
Yesterday, on my way to work, I was arrested in Princeton Township for a single parking ticket three years ago...— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) February 7, 2016
The police refused to allow me to make a call before my arrest, so that someone would know where I was...— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) February 7, 2016
There was a male and a female officer, but the male officer did the body search before cuffing me and putting me in the squad car.— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) February 7, 2016
I was handcuffed to a table at the station.— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) February 7, 2016
At any rate, I was afraid. Many women who look like me have a much more frightening end to such arrests.— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) February 7, 2016
But the larger point is that I'm working to move from being shaken to renewing my commitment to the struggle against racism & carcerality.— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) February 7, 2016
Perry wrote on Facebook that she didn't have a problem with the fine. She did, however, question whether the officers would have treated someone with lighter skin the same way.
"I cannot ever say definitively that this specific mistreatment was a result of race," Perry wrote. "But I can say that what I experienced was far more likely because my skin is a deep brown, my nose is round, and my hair is coily. And given the accumulation of police violence against black people in this society, my fear at being stopped and arrested as a black woman was warranted and even reasonable."
Perry, whose Linkedin page says she has been with Princeton since 2009, has also been wary of Sutter's response to the incident.
Last thing for a while. The Princeton Police Chief is not being honest. But I'm not having this conversation on their terms/frame.— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) February 9, 2016
1 more: IF everything they said were true they wd still be wrong. These lies, however, make me fearful of what other lies they will tell.— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) February 9, 2016