Spear
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 21, 2008
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[h=1]South African rugby journalist arrested because he looked like drug dealer[/h] [h=2]New Zealand police arrested and strip searched a black South African rugby journalist drinking with white colleagues in a pub because he "fitted the profile of a drug dealer".[/h]
South African journalist Vata Ngobeni
By Aislinn Laing, Johannesburg
6:00PM BST 26 Sep 2011
New Zealand police arrested and strip searched a black South African rugby journalist drinking with white colleagues in a pub because he "fitted the profile of a drug dealer".
Vata Ngobeni, who works for the Pretoria News newspaper and acts as an analyst for South Africa's national broadcaster SABC, was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning and taken to a police station where he was strip searched.
When he tried to explain that he was a journalist on tour covering the Springboks's performance in the Rugby World Cup, which New Zealand is hosting, he was told they were following standard procedure when they spot someone who fits "the profile of a drug dealer".
Colleagues in the bar with him confirmed he was the only black person present.
"I have never been so embarrassed in my life," he told a South African newspaper after being released. "I have never experienced this kind of treatment in all my travels around the world, so to be singled out as a common criminal in front of so many people is something I will never forget."
By Aislinn Laing, Johannesburg
6:00PM BST 26 Sep 2011
New Zealand police arrested and strip searched a black South African rugby journalist drinking with white colleagues in a pub because he "fitted the profile of a drug dealer".
Vata Ngobeni, who works for the Pretoria News newspaper and acts as an analyst for South Africa's national broadcaster SABC, was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning and taken to a police station where he was strip searched.
When he tried to explain that he was a journalist on tour covering the Springboks's performance in the Rugby World Cup, which New Zealand is hosting, he was told they were following standard procedure when they spot someone who fits "the profile of a drug dealer".
Colleagues in the bar with him confirmed he was the only black person present.
"I have never been so embarrassed in my life," he told a South African newspaper after being released. "I have never experienced this kind of treatment in all my travels around the world, so to be singled out as a common criminal in front of so many people is something I will never forget."
