A New York policewoman accused two white officers from her department of improperly charging her with resisting arrest, due to racial biases.
"I have been wrongfully charged and falsely arrested, requiring me to defend against allegations that are based on prejudice coming from my own police force," Dolores Sharpe, a 19-year veteran at the Nassau County Police Department said Thursday during a press conference on Long Island, N.Y.
According to the Associated Press, Sharpe's problems began last Friday while she was off-duty doing some shopping at a dollar store. A uniformed officer allegedly confronted her and started haranguing her. Sharpe had apparently parked in a spot that blocked the officer's vision from something he was monitoring for an investigation.
Sharpe’s attorney claimed that officer used "all types of curse words and [made] comments to her that I can’t repeat."
The policewoman went about her business in the store but upon returning to her car, she was again targeted by the officer outside, who continued screaming at her. Sharpe then left, but it wasn’t long before she was pulled over by the same officer and taken into custody. She was later charged with resisting arrest.
Sharpe was also charged with harassment, as she allegedly tried to hit another officer with the chain from her police badge, the Associated Press notes, and was told while being arrested that she was suspended, effective immediately, without pay.
The policewoman, who works in an office that screens potential police applicants, believes that she was targeted because she is black.
"I have been terribly disappointed by the Nassau County Police Department, to whom I have dedicated two decades of my work life," Sharpe told reporters at the press conference.
Read more at the News-Times.