Man says he was target of racial profiling in Davis housing community
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DAVIS, CA (KCRA) — A Vietnamese man visiting his parents in their Davis housing complex said he was racially profiled by neighbors in the area.
The incident happened Friday in the Moore Mutual Housing Community. The Davis Police Department is investigating the incident, but it is not part of a criminal investigation.
“I was walking around this path here, which is a public sidewalk, and I was Facetiming my wife in Philadelphia,” radiologist Dr. Khoa Lam said Wednesday. “I was absorbed in my conversation, my headphones on when I turned around and I saw this lady who was standing right there.”
Lam said the woman, who appeared to live in the complex, told him he had to leave. Feeling threatened, Lam began filming on his cellphone.
“Do you know someone here?” the woman says in the video.
“Yeah, I do,” Lam responds.
“Well, where are you visiting?” the woman asks.
“My parents,” Lam says.
Another neighbor called Davis police. Lam also filmed that exchange.
“He’s taking photos of people’s houses,” the man in the video tells police dispatch.
“I was not taking anyone’s photos,” Lam responds.
Lam said he feels like he was racially profiled. He also said he felt Davis police could have done a more thorough initial investigation and brought his concerns to the department.
“As any investigation of this type, we’re trying to see all perspectives,” said Deputy Chief Paul Doroshov.
Doroshov said the department is now investigating the case and also looking at the conduct of the responding officers. An independent police auditor will also review the case.
Lam also claimed the incident stemmed from implicit bias.
Therapist La Tisha Lintag, who specializes in PTSD and trauma, explained incidents of implicit stem from past experiences.
“Implicit bias is for example, you get on an elevator and an older white lady clutches her purse. It’s a subconscious thought. She is not aware of how that other person is taking that behavior. It’s instinctual, think flight or flight,” Lintag said. “It makes me really wonder what triggered in the individual’s mind to feel their safety was at risk.”
“The person who is a victim of the implicit bias, has their own implicit biases and that will impact their reaction to the implicit bias,” Lintag said.
An example would be if a person was subjected to a racist attack in a specific area. Lintag explained in the future, the person could become more hypervigilant and distrustful of being in that area, or in similar situations.
The woman in Lam’s video did not want to be interviewed, but said this was not about race, adding she is friendly with people of different ethnicities. She said she did not know why Lam was near her property and that he was filming homes in the area.
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