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American Morning
Racial Profiling
Aired October 21, 2003 - 08:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: With us now from our Los Angeles bureau is Dr. Angelo Gousse and his attorney, Browne Green.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Thanks for joining us.
DR. ANGELO GOUSSE, SUING LOS ANGELES POLICE: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Dr. Gousse, let's begin with you.
We've heard a little bit of your story. Tell me about that night. Two o'clock in the morning police pull you over. What happened?
GOUSSE: Well, it was a very terrifying experience because I know I was completely an innocent person driving and having noticed that there was a helicopter that was hovering over the entire arrest. It was a very brutal arrest and having never had such experience -- I have never been arrested in my life. I've never had any encounters with the police in such a fashion, so it was a very terrifying experience.
O'BRIEN: You said in the piece that we just heard from Miguel Marquez that you were driving while black. Do you think this whole entire thing was racially motivated?
O'BRIEN: I think to a great degree, yes, because I think that I had all the evidence right at the scene to indicate that it was not a stolen vehicle. I had a document that Budget Rent-A-Car, a rental contract. I had my medical license with me. I had a valid driver's license and several other identifications with me. So I believe that if it were probably someone of a different color, the issue would have been resolved immediately rather than going through handcuffing and all the pain and suffering I had to endure and to be incarcerated in a police cell at the Rampart subdivision in Los Angeles.
O'BRIEN: Here's what police say. They say you were driving 35 miles an hour in a 65 mile an hour zone. That was a red flag, they say. They also say that the car was reported stolen, so that essentially they were just doing their jobs.
Let me get your lawyer to weigh in on this for me.
Mr. Green, to some degree don't the police have a point? If the car is reported stolen, aren't they just doing their job? BROWNE GREEN, DR. GOUSSE'S ATTORNEY: We don't contest whatsoever the fact that the car was reported stolen. That was totally due to the unbelievable negligence of Budget. Budget, for over a year, had had that car reported as stolen and on 43 other occasions they had rented this car out to various consumers, who they themselves were exposed to the police and to what could have occurred to them, as well as Dr. Gousse. And yet this was never corrected. So Budget put a hot plate and made this man a felon, and he didn't know anything about it.
Now, as far as the stop, yes, the police saw that and they pulled him over. They should have looked into it. But after that, they had no right to brutalize him the way they did. They say he cooperated totally at all times with what they wanted. They could have looked at his documents, his rental contract. They could have looked at his wallet. Why wouldn't they do that? They would have done it for me if I was driving a car. And I definitely believe that.
It's another all too familiar story out of the Rampart Division, where these particular cops came from.
O'BRIEN: Well, that's going to be...
GREEN: And this is the kind of thing that has to be stopped.
O'BRIEN: That's going to have to be our final word this morning.
Brown Green, the attorney; and Dr. Angelo Gousse.
Thank you, gentlemen, for talking with us this morning.
We certainly Appreciate it.
GOUSSE: Thank you for having us.
GREEN: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 21, 2003 - 08:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: With us now from our Los Angeles bureau is Dr. Angelo Gousse and his attorney, Browne Green.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Thanks for joining us.
DR. ANGELO GOUSSE, SUING LOS ANGELES POLICE: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Dr. Gousse, let's begin with you.
We've heard a little bit of your story. Tell me about that night. Two o'clock in the morning police pull you over. What happened?
GOUSSE: Well, it was a very terrifying experience because I know I was completely an innocent person driving and having noticed that there was a helicopter that was hovering over the entire arrest. It was a very brutal arrest and having never had such experience -- I have never been arrested in my life. I've never had any encounters with the police in such a fashion, so it was a very terrifying experience.
O'BRIEN: You said in the piece that we just heard from Miguel Marquez that you were driving while black. Do you think this whole entire thing was racially motivated?
O'BRIEN: I think to a great degree, yes, because I think that I had all the evidence right at the scene to indicate that it was not a stolen vehicle. I had a document that Budget Rent-A-Car, a rental contract. I had my medical license with me. I had a valid driver's license and several other identifications with me. So I believe that if it were probably someone of a different color, the issue would have been resolved immediately rather than going through handcuffing and all the pain and suffering I had to endure and to be incarcerated in a police cell at the Rampart subdivision in Los Angeles.
O'BRIEN: Here's what police say. They say you were driving 35 miles an hour in a 65 mile an hour zone. That was a red flag, they say. They also say that the car was reported stolen, so that essentially they were just doing their jobs.
Let me get your lawyer to weigh in on this for me.
Mr. Green, to some degree don't the police have a point? If the car is reported stolen, aren't they just doing their job? BROWNE GREEN, DR. GOUSSE'S ATTORNEY: We don't contest whatsoever the fact that the car was reported stolen. That was totally due to the unbelievable negligence of Budget. Budget, for over a year, had had that car reported as stolen and on 43 other occasions they had rented this car out to various consumers, who they themselves were exposed to the police and to what could have occurred to them, as well as Dr. Gousse. And yet this was never corrected. So Budget put a hot plate and made this man a felon, and he didn't know anything about it.
Now, as far as the stop, yes, the police saw that and they pulled him over. They should have looked into it. But after that, they had no right to brutalize him the way they did. They say he cooperated totally at all times with what they wanted. They could have looked at his documents, his rental contract. They could have looked at his wallet. Why wouldn't they do that? They would have done it for me if I was driving a car. And I definitely believe that.
It's another all too familiar story out of the Rampart Division, where these particular cops came from.
O'BRIEN: Well, that's going to be...
GREEN: And this is the kind of thing that has to be stopped.
O'BRIEN: That's going to have to be our final word this morning.
Brown Green, the attorney; and Dr. Angelo Gousse.
Thank you, gentlemen, for talking with us this morning.
We certainly Appreciate it.
GOUSSE: Thank you for having us.
GREEN: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
