Redskins safety Su’a Cravens accused the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office of racial profiling Monday over a recent traffic stop.
On Nov. 29, according to online records, Cravens was issued a speeding ticket for going 39 in a 25 mph zone and another ticket for having an illegal tint on his car.
In a video posted on Twitter, the 22-year-old safety said police pulled him out of his car, slammed him against it while putting him in handcuffs and searched his vehicle for marijuana.
“Bro just wanted to pull somebody over because, what, I’m black, I have tattoos on my neck and I’m out here in a nice car?” Cravens said. “They said I’m going 39 in a 35. What, bro?”
Cravens’ court date is set for Jan. 26.
In a statement, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said the traffic stop “was not a case of racial profiling.”
“On November 29, deputies from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office were conducting traffic enforcement as part of the School Awareness & Firm Enforcement (S.A.F.E.) Traffic Safety Initiative in the area of the Farmwell Middle School in Ashburn, VA,” the office said. “During this enforcement deputies were using a LIDAR to track vehicles traveling on the roadway in a school zone. A deputy’s LIDAR received a reading on a vehicle that was traveling over the posted speed limit of 25 mph in a school zone.”
Cravens, the Redskins’ second-round pick in 2016, called the incident “ridiculous” and accused the officer of passing up another car in front of him going faster. “Why is that?” Cravens said. “We all know why.”
Cravens said he couldn’t wait to put the video on Twitter and “sue the [expletive] out of this man.”
Cravens said it was the first time he was ever put in handcuffs. The safety said he was on his way to get bread from a grocery store when he was pulled over into an Ashburn shopping center.
He also accused the officer of falsely saying he smelled like marijuana.
In Cravens’ one video, he shows two cop cars in the parking lot behind his car. Cravens posted two videos to Twitter, each about a minute and a half. Cravens captioned the videos with the following:
“This is footage once I was released from squad car and was ALLOWED to reach for my phone,” he wrote. “Please excuse my language. I promise my parents raised an intelligent and respectful young man. But this [expletive] the reason why people dying and athletes taking knees! Stop ignoring it.”
As for Cravens’ second violation of having tinted windows, vehicles in Virginia are not allowed to have their windows tinted no more than 50 percent in the front and 35 percent in the back. A spokeswoman told The Washington Times that officers applied a tint meter on the windows to find Cravens was in violation.
Loudoun County’s office did not address Cravens’ specific complaints about being slammed against his car, or searching his car for marijuana.
“Additionally, the LCSO has not received any formal complaints regarding this matter and it would be inappropriate to comment further regarding any allegations and involving a pending court case,” the statement said.
Cravens has not played for the Redskins this season, walking away from the team a week before the season opener because of personal issues. The Redskins later put Cravens, who was mulling retirement, on the season-ending reserve/left squad list.
Last week, Cravens’ agent put out a statement saying his client dealt with “post concussion syndrome” but had been cleared for all football activities and is looking forward to playing in the NFL for “2018 and many years to come.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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