False Arrest in 1996
Wrong again. (former boxer Rubin Carter, who served 19 years in prison for murder he did not commit, is falsely arrested in Toronto, Canada) Sports Illustrated v84, n16 (April 22, 1996): page 17.
Last Thursday night in Toronto, police on a narcotics detail were looking for a dealer who had just sold crack cocaine to an undercover cop. At about 9 p.m. officers surrounded and handcuffed a man outside a restaurant. Boy, did they get the wrong guy.
The suspect taken into custody was one-time middleweight contender Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, who spent 19 years in a New Jersey prison for a triple murder he didn't commit. Now 60 and living in Toronto, Carter is executive director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted.
Police termed the arrest another "case of mistaken identity" and offered
to pay for damage caused by a search of his Mercedes. But Carter
is considering legal action against the department, which has lately come
under criticism for stopping blacks more frequently than whites on Toronto's
streets. And, understandably, he remains angry. "The last time
I was told I was under arrest," says Carter, "I didn't see the light of
day for 20 years."
Hurricane Carter Arrested by Mistake. The Toronto Star, April 12, 1996:
A man who has become the subject of book and song for serving time for murders he didn't commit was arrested last night by Metro police--wrongly.
Police said they were looking for a black man wearing a brown and white jacket, and that former boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, who was taken into custody for alleged drug trafficking fit half that description. Carter was wearing a black and white lumberjack coat.
"I am so furious that what happened happened simply because I was wearing a jacket, and I am black," Carter told the Star after being released last night.
"It was a drug buy in a dark area, and he resembled the suspect," said 12 division Staff Sergeant Mike Pinfold. "It was a case of mistaken identity."
Pinfold said events "pretty much went down" as Carter related them. Police said Carter was under arrest about 10 minutes. Carter said he was handcuffed for about a half-hour.
The incident comes in the wake of a provincial commission on systemic racism in Ontario's justice system, which was highly critical of police for stopping blacks more frequently than whites.
Carter, executive director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly
Convicted, said he was arrested just after 9 p.m., after
leaving the Allegro restaurant on Bloor St. W. near Landsdowne, where
he was dining with friends.
Pinfold called it an honest mistake.
