Dion Rabouin, a Black journalist who was handcuffed and detained while reporting outside a bank in November last year, has recounted a large number of times he has been mistreated by the police – starting at the age of four.
Rabouin, who works as a finance reporter for the Wall Street Journal, wrote a Twitter thread on Monday about the chilling encounters he has had with police detailing how he was subjected to harrowing mistreatment at the hands of law enforcement.
“The incident in Phoenix wasn’t the first time I’ve been harassed and/or detained by the police for seemingly no reason. It’s just the first time anyone has taken notice. And I’m thankful,” Rabouin wrote, referring to the November incident where he was stopped from reporting outside a bank by Phoenix police.
“This time, the bank that called the police on me has called to apologise, and the mayor of the city where it happened has emailed me personally to apologise and assure me that a full investigation is happening. But I’ve been dealing with this my entire life,” he continued.
Rabouin opened up about how his first police encounter was at the age of four.
“My dad used to let me sit on his lap while he drove. I would pretend to be driving and it was my favourite thing in the world. The last time it happened we were pulled over by an officer.
“He told my dad he couldn’t do that. My father told the officer he didn’t know that he couldn’t have his son on his lap while driving. The officer lowered his sunglasses and asked him, ‘Are you stupid or something?’
“‘No,’ my dad responded. ‘I just didn’t know.’”
“‘Yeah, maybe you are stupid,’ the officer said. ‘Don’t do it again.’ My dad had this look of sadness, fury and helplessness on his face that I had never seen before,” recounted the WSJ reporter.
He detailed another incident that occurred when he was seven years old. Rabouin had called the police after his father “who had some anger issues” had hit him, after which, thinking the dispatcher would help him, had instead sent two officers who “grabbed and pulled me, screaming and crying, out of the building and put me in the back of a police car”.
“Lying to police was a crime, they said. After talking with my dad for some time they eventually let me out of the car and told me I was free to go,” he continued.
In another incident, Rabouin said police had pulled him and his friend over when he was a teenager and searched both of them twice and unreasonably interrogated them, despite the explanation offered of them being outside their own high school.
“My friend started shaking with fear as he was searched. The officer pushed him against the car. ‘What are you hiding?’ he demanded.
‘He’s just scared,’ I said.
‘If he doesn’t have anything he’s got nothing to be scared of.’
‘He’s never dealt with the police before,’ I replied.”
The journalist recounted two other incidents as well.
Rabouin received many encouraging responses to his Twitter thread.
“Dion, in our conversations, you’ve always been the epitome of professional. I’m sorry you were treated this way for just doing your job,” wrote analyst Kathy Jones.
“I read this and feel anger boiling within me. At no point does there appear to be any probable cause to search your vehicle(s) which is a violation of the 4th Amend,” said another user.
The Wall Street Journal had last week called on the Phoenix Police Department to perform an internal review and ensure the constitutional rights of its journalists are protected.
The newspaper’s editor-in-chief pressed Phoenix police chief Michael Sullivan in a letter after Rabouin was filmed being put in the back of a police vehicle in November last year.
In a letter dated 7 December, editor Matt Murray wrote that he is “appalled and concerned” that the department’s officers “would attempt to interfere with Mr Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and purport to limit anyone’s presence in a public location”.
