Palo Alto Protests Racial Profiling

While same-sex marriage ban protests dominated the weekend, Palo Alto also had a protest of their own. "Emboldened" -- emboldened!! -- "by the election of the nation's first black president," hundreds of people gathered on the steps of Palo Alto city hall yesterday to protest the police chief's overt comments on racial profiling.

That is to say, Police Chief Lynne Johnson, according to KGO, quipped, "When our officers are out there and they see an African-American, in a congenial way, we want them to find out who they are."

The comments were sparked by a recent batch of street robberies in the city, prompting East Palo Alto and Palo Alto City Council members, as well as San Mateo County Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson, to show up at yesterday's protest, peacefully asking for Johnson's removal. Ever since Johnson's comments, the black community has stepped forward with tales of being unfairly stopped by Palo Alto police. One resident says that cops "stopped her car searching mistakenly for three black men who fled on foot after robbing a Baskin-Robbins store." (To be fair, Gold Medal Ribbon's siren song is most powerful.)

In a special twist to the story, one suspect in said street robberies has been apprehended. And that suspect? Is white.

Oops.

As of today there "is talk among city officials about the possibility that Johnson will resign from her post."