A civil rights group is calling on San Diego police Saturday to provide answers about the Friday arrest of a 66-year-old man the group alleges was based on racial profiling.
Raymond Wiley was walking Friday morning on Imperial Avenue when a San Diego Police Department officer arrested him for having a burglary tool and a “leaded cane,” said Reverend Shane Harris, president of the National Action Network’s San Diego chapter.
But according to Harris, the item police categorized as a burglary tool was a key to his daughter’s vehicle, and the item categorized as a leaded cane was a walking stick.
An SDPD spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Harris planned to speak Saturday at 11:30 a.m. outside the SDPD station in Skyline to “probe questions as to why this African-American male, at 66 years old, was profiled on his early morning walk.”
The National Action Network was contacted by Wiley’s family Friday night and posted his bail, Harris said.
— City News Service