CHALMETTE, La. (1010 WINS) -- A Newark city councilman accused local police of making a traffic stop for "driving while black," then was arrested after refusing to identify himself and yelling at officers, according to authorities.
Oscar Sydney James II, 26, was booked Friday with disturbing the peace, resisting an officer and littering after a traffic stop in St. Bernard Parish.
James, who plans to fight the charges, was the passenger in a minivan that was pulled over near the town of Violet, an area hit hard by Hurricane Katrina and visited by numerous out-of-town volunteers participating in rebuilding efforts.
Authorities said the minivan sped past an unmarked St. Bernard Parish sheriff's cruiser and then switched lanes without using a turn signal.
When the driver of the van, Roman Martin Jr., 25, of Newark, asked the deputies why the vehicle had been pulled over, James interjected: "We were stopped for DWB," according to a narrative provided by the sheriff's department.
Maj. Chad Clark, who was involved in the stop, told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans that the deputies, who were white, asked what that meant and James responded, "Driving while black."
"I had never heard that one before," Clark said later.
Clark said James, Roman Martin Jr. and the other people in the van were black.
James, according to Clark, refused to identify himself. As deputies moved to pat him down, he reached into his pants pocket and threw a handful of nails to the ground.
"He was yelling at the top his lungs, 'Bring me to jail. Bring me to jail,'" Clark said.
While being booked at the sheriff's office, James identified himself and told deputies he was a city councilman in Newark. He was released on $850 bond.
Martin was issued a ticket for improper lane use and given a verbal warning for speeding.
James told The Star-Ledger of Newark that he wasn't loud or confrontational with police, and that the nails went on the ground when police asked him to remove any sharp objects from his pockets.
"I flipped my pockets inside out," he said. "They went flying all over the place."
James, who was in Louisiana with staff and volunteers to build homes for Habitat for Humanity, said the arrest was "definitely racial profiling."
"We've dealt with several incidents of racism since we got here," James said.
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