Woman who inspired "Swades" stopped by US cops while on stroll

New York Aravinda Pillalamarri the inspiration for Swades says she was stopped by police during her morning stroll in her hometown and questioned about her immigration status making her feel unequal because of her colour according to media reportsPillalamari was stopped near her home in Bel Air in Maryland by a police officer after a neighbour had reported her as suspicious she told the local Baltimore CBS television station on Friday Pillalamarri said I had just come out for a walk so I didnt have my ID And he said Why dont you have ID Are you here illegallyI didnt expect this to happen in Bel Air Walking while brown she told the officialThe official replied No no no nothing like thatAccording to the Baltimore Sun the incident took place on December 21 and Pillalamarri 47 spoke out about it at a town commissioners board meeting earlier this month in Bel Air where she had lived for 30 years When she asked if it was because of walking while brown a police supervisor told her she was under criminal investigation the Sun quoted her as saying After checking her name on their computer system Pillalamarri was allowed to go Only when the supervisor asked are you here illegally did my sense of colour and of being unequal come forth and interest in my civil rights take a back seat to get out of the situation safely she told the town commissionersBel Air Police chief Charles Moore defended the official According to him asking nationality is insensitive but not racial profiling They were trying to figure out why there was some hesitation in providing identification thats why he asked if she was illegal he saidAlthough the incident in Maryland which is considered a progressive state took place after President Donald Trumps election but before he took office Such police behaviour after a racist neighbour complains about a nonwhite resident had been routine during former President Barack Obamas administration as they have always been in the USIn 2015 58yearold Sureshbhai Patel who was visiting his son in Madison in Alabama state was physically harassed by police Patel was stopped by police near his sons house after a neighbour complained that a black person was prowling around the neighbourhood He suffered serious injuries that left him partially paralysedTwo prosecution attempts to convict the police officer on civil rights violation failed because juries in both cases could not agree on a verdict The attack was captured by a camera mounted on the police car and officials tried to prosecute the officer because there was a public outcry A case that received national attention involved the distinguished African American Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates in 2009A neighbour who saw him trying enter his own house in Cambridge in Massachusetts called police They arrested the professor inside his home and charged him with disorderly conduct The charges were droppedObama who is personal friend of Gates called the police action stupid and said the incident showed how race remains a factor in this society Another case in 2015 involved African American senior corporate executive Fay Wells who has an Ivy League MBAAfter a neighbour called the police 19 of them charged into her own apartment in Santa Monica in California with guns drawn and bringing along a police dog and held saying that she was burglarising her own apartment