DETROIT – For the first time, local minority business owners are speaking out about racism, profiling and targeting of American citizen business owners who struggle with the English language.
Federal lawsuits allege local police are abusing their power and stealing cash and property in raids of innocent, hardworking immigrants who do not fully understand their constitutional rights.
Their homes and businesses have been raided, and now they are suing the cops for doing it. The complaint stems from local businesses, saying that they are being targeted by police.
An auto theft SWAT can entail dozens of officers, guns drawn, screaming to get on the ground. It's scary, but even scarier when they hit your home where your family is and tear it apart looking for evidence.
In a video of a raid against against a businessman, all charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence. The owner passed a polygraph saying hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen by police in the raids, insisting innocent business owners are being targeted because of their race. That man's attorney, Steve Haney, said it's happening over and over again in Metro Detroit.
"It's falsified. It's made up and it's armed robbery," Haney said. "I don't know how it could be characterized as anything different than police officers robbing people.
Sam Habib had his business, M and M Cars on 8 Mile Road in Detroit, and his home in Shelby Township raided by an auto theft task force.
"They come in -- we don't know -- with a shotgun," Habib said. "Everybody lay down on the ground. We don't know what's going on. Right away he handcuffed me."
Sam Joumaah had his business, Sams Tire Shop in Hamtramck, and his home in Dearborn, raided by an auto theft task force.
"I went home. I find out they take more money, like $30,000," Joumah said.
Both men said police stole cash, jewelry or other merchandise and had them hauled off to jail.
"They put us in jail for three days," Joumaah said. "They take us out of jail after almost three and a half days. When we left the jail, they don't tell us what the charge is for."
Neither man was ever charged with a crime and they never got their missing money or property back.
"I don't know if you see it. I'm still nervous," Habib said. "I'm scared until this moment that somebody comes to me at this time. And then my business is gone. I was working hard for my business."
The men's attorney is suing two police departments and two police officers in publicly filed court documents. He claims police auto theft units are targeting business owners who deal with a lot of cash and do not speak or understand the English language well.
"Targeting ethnic groups because you believe they A: Have a lot of cash on hand culturally -- whether that's true or not -- and B: Just for the sake of targeting them because of their ethnicity and their race is wrong," Haney said.
Named in the federal court lawsuits is Detective James McMahon of the Highland Park Police Department and Detective Michael Stout of the Hamtramck Police Department, both members of an auto task force unit. Haney said they conduct raids and confiscate money and property, then never bother trying to make a criminal case.
"I've reached out to the Wayne County Prosecutors Office and have asked them about the raids with these two police officers and have been told I don't have anything," Haney said. "I don't even have a warrant request to put forward from me from this auto theft team, so clearly they're getting into these people's homes."
In a sworn affidavit, a confidential police source said both officers used disturbing racial language about business owners they wanted run out of town.
"An informant working with these officers indicated really clearly, 'We want to get rid of "rag heads." We want to get rid of "towel heads." We want to get rid of Arabs in our community,'" Haney said.
Haney alleges the raids are based on bad information from unreliable paid informants, along with federal lawsuits he has gone to the FBI to try and put a stop to what he calls an abuse of power.
"They're getting into their businesses and taking property under some ruse of a criminal investigation that in the circumstances with our plaintiffs never happens," Haney said.
Neither Highland Park or Hamtramack police departments had comment on the accusations. The FBI will neither confirm nor deny an investigation is underway.