If true, the stops and searches, without reasonable cause, are unconstitutional. Some bikes were confiscated and not returned. Eastpointe police say the stops were made for reasons other than race. But a 1996 memo by a former police chief in the suburb that abuts Detroit suggests otherwise. Hard facts on racial profiling should force police departments to acknowledge and remedy any problems.
Many white people fear coming into Detroit because of crime.
But those same people often find it hard to believe that some African Americans fear venturing into the suburbs because of harassment, sometimes by police officers themselves. It's a horrible lesson that these black youths on bikes may already have learned.